SALEM, VA (Tuesday, August 7) - Jake Thompson turned in his finest outing of the 2018 campaign and C.J. Chatham homered and drove in four runs to power the Salem Red Sox to a 7-0 victory Tuesday night over the Wilmington Blue Rocks at Haley Toyota Field.The Sox (21-22, 53-58)
SALEM, VA (Tuesday, August 7) - Jake Thompson turned in his finest outing of the 2018 campaign and C.J. Chatham homered and drove in four runs to power the Salem Red Sox to a 7-0 victory Tuesday night over the Wilmington Blue Rocks at Haley Toyota Field.
The Sox (21-22, 53-58) notched their third straight win, and made up a critical game in the race for the second-half crown in the Northern Division. Wilmington (26-17, 57-56) had only one extra-base hit, and hit into four double plays to match a season-high turned by Red Sox fielders. Thompson snapped a personal three-game losing streak, earning just his second win since the All-Star break in June.
Salem got their offense cooking in the bottom of the first against Wilmington starting pitcher Ofreidy Gomez, who surrendered a one-out double to Brett Netzer. Chatham laced a liner to left for an RBI single that scored Netzer, and Chatham stole second before Jerry Downs drew a walk to put runners at first and second. Josh Tobias hit a bouncer to first that Travis Jones whiffed on, with the miscue allowing Chatham to score while Downs sped to third. Michael Osinski earned a walk of his own to load the bases, and Jake Romanski plated Downs on a sacrifice fly to left field. Victor Acosta cracked an RBI single to right to score Tobias and run the lead to 4-0 after one inning.
The Sox tacked on a pair in the bottom of the second inning. With one out, Tyler Hill worked a walk and stole second base. Netzer fanned, but Chatham thumped a two-run tater over the wall in left to give Salem a 6-0 edge. The Sox tacked on one more in the sixth, as Chatham brought in Netzer with a double into the gap in right-center field to provide the final 7-0 margin.
Thompson baffled the Blue Rocks for his best start of the year, allowing just four hits and a walk in six innings while fanning four. Yankory Pimentel whiffed two while working around a hit and two walks in two innings of relief. Durbin Feltman pitched a scoreless ninth, surrendering one hit.
The Sox will shoot for their fourth straight win Wednesday night, with Salem righty Kutter Crawford making his High-A debut against Wilmington right-hander Gerson Garabito. First pitch from Haley Toyota Field on Tuesday night is scheduled for 7:05 p.m., and the pregame show with Ben Gellman and Suzie Cool begins at 6:45 p.m. on the Red Sox broadcast network.
