Sox Battered 6-2 by Blue Rocks Wednesday

SALEM, VA (Wednesday, August 8) - The Salem Red Sox squandered a quality start from Kutter Crawford in his High-A debut as their bats fell silent down the stretch in a 6-2 loss Wednesday night to the Wilmington Blue Rocks at Haley Toyota Field.
The Sox (21-23, 53-59) fell short of a fourth straight win, missing out on a chance to make up even more ground in the Northern Division race. Wilmington (27-17, 58-56) made their way back to .500 against Salem on the season, as the teams are 11-11 against one another. 

Salem opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning against Blue Rocks righty Gerson Garabito (W, 6-6),who walked Brett Netzer with one away before C.J. Chatham singled Netzer to second. A groundout to first by Jerry Downs moved the runners to second and third, and Josh Tobias singled home Netzer to give Salem a 1-0 lead.
The Blue Rocks responded in the top of the second against Crawford (L, 0-1), making his Carolina League debut. With one out, Meibrys Viloria singled his way aboard, and moved up to second on a swinging bunt by Travis Jones. Rudy Martin lined an RBI double over the head of Tyler Hill in right, earning an RBI double that scored Viloria and tied the game at 1-1.
The Blue Rocks piled on in the top of the third. Blake Perkins singled with one away and moved up to second on a single by D.J. BurtGabriel Cancel cracked a single to right to score Perkins, and Emmanuel Rivera bashed a double to left that scored Burt, putting the Blue Rocks out front 3-1.
Salem edged closer in the bottom of the fifth inning. With two outs, Jerry Downs pasted a first-pitch fastball over the left field wall for a solo homer. The blast was his 12th of 2018, and it trimmed the margin to 3-2. That was as close as Salem would get, though; reliever Daniel Gonzalez surrendered a two-run homer to Travis Jones in the top of the eighth, and Angelo Castellano added a solo shot in the top of the ninth inning for the final 6-2 margin.
Crawford turned in a fine debut outing, allowing three runs on eight hits over six innings and walking none while recording seven strikeouts. Gonzalez surrendered three runs (one earned) on four hits in three innings and whiffed six.
The Sox will try to take the rubber match Thursday night, with Salem righty Tanner Houck answering the bell against Wilmington southpaw Daniel Tillo. 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.