Rocks Drop Heartbreaker in Series Finale

Wilmington, DE -  Another pitching duel between the Wilmington Blue Rocks (43-39/4-8) and Salem Red Sox (47-37/7-5) ended in a 3-2 extra-inning loss for the Blue Crew Monday night at Frawley Stadium. The Rocks tried to rally in the bottom of the 12^th inning, but ultimately left the bases loaded and fell short in completing the comeback. Both offenses went back and forth throughout the affair, scoring four of the total five runs with two outs. Wilmington was unable to capitalize throughout the contest, leaving a total of 15 men on base while going 1-for-11 with runners in scoring positon. Roman Collins and Chris DeVito drove in the runs for Wilmington while starting pitcher Jared Ruxer tossed a career-high seven innings in a no-decision.

In the top of the 12^th inning, Salem was able to strike for the go-ahead run with two outs. With runners at the corners, Jeremy Rivera singled up the middle for his first hit of the game to put the Red Sox out in front 3-2. The Blue Rocks did their best to rally in their final at-bats. After Brandon Downes walked and Chris DeVito singled to put runners at the corners with no outs, the Rocks were set up nicely. However, back-to-back strikeouts ensued before Travis Maezes drew a pinch-hit walk to load the bases. Roman Collins came up to bat and lost a hard fought battle with Salem reliever Stephen Nogosek and went down on strikes to end the game.

Salem struck first in the opening inning with a solo home run from Josh Ockimey to make it an early 1-0 deficit for the Rocks. In the bottom of the second inning, Collins cashed in with a clutch, two-out RBI single to plate Wander Franco to tie the game at one run apiece. 
The Blue Rocks again capitalized in their half of the sixth inning when DeVito blooped a run-scoring double down the left field line to score Downes all the way from first to take a 2-1 advantage. However, Ockimey struck again for Salem, tying the game with an RBI double to tie the game, 2-2.
Wilmington celebrates Independence Day with a series opening game against the Lynchburg Hillcats on Tuesday, July 4. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. with LHP Cristian Castillo (5-3, 2.80 ERA) getting the start for the Blue Rocks while RHP Triston McKenzie (6-4, 3.16 ERA) Fans can listen to the game as Matt Janus will have the call on 89.7 WGLS-FM.
PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:
Jared Ruxer was solid on the mound Monday evening for Wilmington in his sixth start of the year. The right hander let up just one run on four hits and struck out four batters while lasting a career-high seven innings. It was the third straight night a Blue Rock starter pitched seven frames. Andres Machado went seven innings and struck out a career-high 14 batters on Saturday night, while Scott Blewett threw his first career complete-game shutout in Sunday's contest. In three starts against Salem, Ruxer has given up just 11 hits and four runs while striking out 13 batters in 15 innings of work.
Nathan Esposito flashed his leather behind the plate for Wilmington on Monday night. The catcher caught three runners attempting to swipe a base in Monday's game, improving his caught stealing rate to 36% (19-for-53). After the extra inning affair, the pitching staff's ERA while Esposito catches dropped to an impressive 2.97 over 324.0 innings behind the plate.
Monday's loss marks the eighth time the Blue Rocks have gone into extra innings on the year. Wilmington owns a 3-5 record in those games, with all five losses coming at Frawley Stadium. It was the second time the Rocks and Red Sox headed into extra innings together, in which they have lost both games. Wilmington continues to pace the Carolina League in one-run games played, with Monday's contest making it 32 games with Wilmington owning a 17-15 record.
The Rocks wrapped up their abbreviated four-game homestand with a series split with Salem. The Rocks begin a seven-game road trip starting on Tuesday, July 4 as they visit the first place Lynhcburg Hillcats for three games before heading north to take on the Potomac Nationals for the first time since the end of May after the two teams played each other 19 times during the first two months of the season.
"Jared Ruxer was great. He did a very nice job (on Monday). Got seven innings out of him, first time he has done that in his career. He had very good control of his fastball and secondary pitches tonight, mixed them well, did a very nice job.
"(Scoring runs with two-outs) was big but we left a lot of runs out there which was disappointing. We had (Dedgar) Jimenez on the ropes multiple times and we couldn't get that big hit, 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position. That was the tone for (Monday); the situational hitting, making contact, not getting that run in from third hurt us. We had opportunities. We pushed one across in the fifth inning there but we just couldn't hold on.
"I don't know if (facing Salem a lot) is an advantage for a pitcher or hitter. Probably neither. We have beat (Jimenez) a couple times but we never beat him up. We have gotten a lot of hits off of him but we don't score off of him. That was the case again (Monday). We kept getting runners out there and could not cash in. I don't know if there is really an advantage. If a pitcher is on in a particular day, then you aren't going to hit him. We see each other a lot. Some of these guys are going to end up with 20-30 at bats against certain (Salem) pitcher. All that matters is if that pitcher locates that night.
"(Nate Esposito) did a very nice job. We actually threw early (Monday). It's funny how that works, you come out and concentrate and do some drills and things. He threw the ball well (Monday) which is really nice when you can control the running game like that. It kind of stopped them from runner. The pitchers did a good job with their times to the plate as well.
"Esposito has done outstanding (as the backup catcher). We love what he does, he is engaged in the game and takes pride in what he does. If you look at the games played, he hasn't caught many less than Chase Vallot because Vallot DHs a lot. They are almost both starting catchers to tell you the truth.
"(The relievers) were solid (Monday night). That base hit to give (Salem) the lead was two balls higher than Matt Tenuta wanted it and the hitter was able to get it up the middle. He pitched well though. Jacob Bodner did a nice job. We had a plan to get (Luis) Rico to pitch to Josh Ockimey, it didn't work out and then we had to battle from there. It was very important (that relievers didn't pitch on Sunday due to Scott Blewett's complete game). That doesn't happen very often. Everybody was well rested, that's why I was able to go to different guys in situations. The complete-game shutout yesterday allowed that to happen."
Nathan Esposito, Catcher
"Both teams didn't come out swinging the bats right away (on Monday). We threw the ball pretty well. We didn't make pitches in big times we needed to and I take a lot of blame for that calling pitches (Monday). That's just how baseball goes sometimes; you don't get the key hit, you don't get the key pitch you need, someone makes a bad call. There were a couple times tonight where I thought I could have made different pitch calls and it might have changed the outcome of the game but that's how it goes.
"(Jared) Ruxer looked really good today. He came out pounding the zone, slider was down, everything was down in the zone. Good tempo, he had a lot of confidence and you could see it (Monday). We have been doing a really good job out of the bullpen. It's good to see someone run out of the bullpen and you have confidence on the mound waiting for the guy to come out there. You are confident in him just as much as he is confident in himself. It's been big for us.
"There were maybe a couple off speed pitches I could have called in certain counts, it might have changed (the outcome) a little bit. Like I said, I take blame in that, can't put that on the pitcher. They all did a great job tonight. They battled their butts off and we all did our best tonight."