Ninth-Inning Rally Falls Short, WooSox Drop Opener in Norfolk

NORFOLK, VA – The Norfolk Tides (37-64/9-17) broke a 1-1 tie with two runs in the bottom of the 7th inning and the Worcester Red Sox (51-47/15-12) 9th inning rally came up just short in a 4-3 loss in the series opener on Tuesday night at Harbor Park. The loss snaps the WooSox season-high six-game winning streak and drops their road record to 23-26.

In his third Triple-A game Franklin Arias got the WooSox on the board before much of the Tuesday night crowd had settled into their seats, launching the first pitch of the game from rehabbing Norfolk starter Chris Bassitt over the wall in left field for a solo homer to give Worcester a 1-0 lead. The leadoff blast was Arias’ first career hit in Triple-A and traveled 386 feet.

The score remained 1-0 until the bottom of the 4th when the Tides tied the game against WooSox starter Raymond Burgos. Reed Trimble reached with a one-out single and advanced to second base on a groundout for Creed Willems who lined a single up the middle to drive in Trimble, tying the game at 1-1.

Norfolk grabbed the lead with two runs in the bottom of the 7th inning. With Willems at third base and one out, Ryan Noda grounded a single through the right side of the WooSox drawn-in infield to give the Tides a 2-1 lead. Payton Eeles followed with a single to put runners on the corners for Luis Vázquez who dropped a safety squeeze up the first base side to score Noda making it 3-1.

Willems tacked on another for the Tides in the bottom of the 8th with a solo home run to right field, giving Norfolk a 4-1 lead.

Down to their final out, the WooSox battled back and got the tying run to third base in the top of the 9th inning. With the bases empty and two outs, Allan Castro doubled to the wall in right field and after a walk to Brett Harris, back-to-back wild pitches brought home Castro from third base to make it 4-2. Kristian Campbell followed with a walk and stole second base, and Vinny Capra reached on an infield single to shortstop to score Harris from third bringing the WooSox within one run at 4-3. With runners at the corners, however, Arias flew out to center field to end the ballgame.

Tides reliever Juaron Watts-Brown (1-0) picked up the win in his Triple-A debut allowing two runs on just two hits with four strikeouts over 4.2 innings. WooSox reliever Tyler Uberstine (1-1) suffered the loss allowing two runs on four hits with three strikeouts over 3.0 innings. Jose Espada notched his third save for Norfolk getting the final out of the 9th.

The WooSox will look to even the series in game two of six on Wednesday night with first pitch scheduled for 6:35 pm. Worcester will send right-hander Blake Wehunt (0-0, 2.45) to the mound to make his second Triple-A start, while Norfolk will turn to lefty Cade Povich (1-3, 5.88. Radio pregame coverage begins at 6:15 pm on the WooSox Radio Network.