Wilmington Blanked in Series Opener Against Woodpeckers

Wilmington DE- In the series opener and start of a six-game homestand, the Wilmington Blue Rocks fell to the Fayetteville Woodpeckers by a final score of 6-0 on Tuesday night at Frawley Stadium. Marcelo Martinez pitched five and two thirds innings but was overshadowed by Fayetteville's Forrest Whitley who tossed five dominant scoreless innings with nine strikeouts.

The Woodpeckers struck first in the top of the fifth inning with a two out RBI single by Jonathan Arauz to score Jacob Meyers who extended the inning with a double. The big hit for the Woodpeckers came in the top of the sixth. After a pair of singles by Miguelangel Sierra and Scott Manea, Martinez walked Scott Schreiber to load the bases. Josh Mitchell entered the game to try and get out of the jam. Enmanuel Valdez promptly unloaded the bases on the first pitch he saw with a line drive to left field driving in three runs to make it a 4-0 deficit for the Rocks.
The Woodpeckers were back to work in the seventh inning tacking on two more runs to take a 6-0 lead. The first came courtesy of a Chandler Taylor RBI triple. He came around to score on Michael Papierski's single on the next pitch of the game.
Whitley, who made his second rehab start of the season with Fayetteville set the tone for the game. The Blue Rocks ended up with just two hits on the evening. They were sat down in order seven times throughout the game. The Rocks did not have a baserunner after Colby Schultz and Kyle Kasser in the bottom of the sixth inning who reached on a single and hit by pitch, respectively.
The Rocks look to bounce back and face Fayetteville in the second game of the series on Wednesday at 6:35 p.m. Fans can catch all of the action with the Voice of the Blue Rocks, Cory Nidoh, on 89.7 WGLS-FM.
Pebbles of Knowledge:
Nick Pratto's seven game hitting streak came to a close on Tuesday night. It ties Kyle Isbel and the Blue Rocks for the longest hitting streak of the 2019 season. Pratto batted .308 with two RBIs, three doubles, and a home run in 26 plate appearances. In July, Pratto is batting .263 with 20 hits in 76 at bats. His July batting average is the highest of any month this season. Wednesday's game represents the last one in the month of July.
The Blue Rocks haven't scored a run since the fourth inning against Down East on Sunday afternoon. They currently sit at fourteen consecutive scoreless innings. If they fail to score in the first inning of Wednesday's game it will set a new season high of fifteen straight innings in which the Rocks have not tallied a run. The current season record sits at fourteen and two thirds innings.