Perales, Red Sox Blank Shorebirds

SALEM, Va. – On Saturday night, Luis Perales SHOVED.

The Salem Red Sox (29-32) clinched the series win over the Delmarva Shorebirds (27-35) with a 5-0 shutout victory on Saturday night.

The Sox started the night early on offense in the second inning as Albert Feliz hammered an RBI double off the left field wall, that initially looked gone off the bat. A couple of batters later, with two outs, Claudio Simon reached on a Samuel Basallo fielding error that scored Feliz from third to take an early 3-0 lead.

An inning later in the third, Allan Castro singled up the middle to score Cutter Coffey from second to take a 4-0 lead, which is where the score stayed for the majority of the ballgame.

However, the story wasn’t the offense, but rather the lights-out pitching from the Red Sox.

Luis Perales (W, 2-4) got the starting nod after a five-inning, one-hit performance on the road at Columbia. Perales delivered again going six shutout innings, again only allowing one hit and one walk while striking out seven Shorebird batters.

It was Perales’ first quality start of the season. Behind him was Nathanael Cruz and Reidis Sena who finished the final three innings, each allowing a single base hit. As a staff, the Red Sox struck out 10 batters, only allowing three hits.

On the other side, Delmarva tabbed Juan Nuñez (L, 0-4) with the start who went four innings, allowing six hits and four runs while striking out five. Manager Felipe Alou Jr. only used two pitchers as reliever Edgar Portes finished the final four innings of work striking out five himself, allowing three hits.

Salem tacked on an additional run in the eighth inning when Juan Montero singled with Jhostynxson Garcia on third to push the lead to its eventual final.

Offensively, the Red Sox were led by Feliz and Garcia, as Feliz went 1-for-4 with two RBI and a double, while Garcia went 2-for-3. Delmarva was led by Trendon Craig who collected two of the three Delmarva base hits, including a ninth-inning double.

The Sox and ‘Birds meet one final time in this seven-game series on Sunday afternoon. Salem currently leads the series four games to two and looks to take five of seven in the finale. First pitch is scheduled for 3:05 p.m. from Salem Memorial Ballpark.

Location: Salem Memorial Ballpark

First Pitch: 6:06 p.m.

Time of Game: 2:06