Minor League Game Summaries 5/29

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Matt Wilson

In his Baysox and Eastern League debut, starter Brandon Barker threw five innings and allowed three runs as Bowie beat Altoona 8-3 in a rain-shortened, seven-inning contest. Garabez Rosa hit his second home run in as many nights as the Baysox jumped out to a 4-0 lead after three innings and never looked back

For the second game in a row the Baysox struck first. The bottom of the second saw the game’s first run scored courtesy of a Quincy Latimore home run to left-center field off of Altoona starter Brandon Waddell to give the Baysox the early 1-0 lead.

Two walks, a single, a double and a home run bomb provided the scoring in the bottom of the third inning. Henry Urrutia drew the lead-off walk and scored when Rosa hit a home run bomb to left-center field. Latimore then singled to left field and Chris O’Brien followed with a walk. That set the stage for Joey Terdoslavich as he broke out of his 0-for-23 slump with a double down the right field line to score Latimore and give the Baysox the 4-0 advantage.

Altoona showed a lot of grit as they fought back into the game in the next half inning. Erich Weiss hit a lead-off single to left field and scored after an Austin Meadows double and throwing error by Baysox right fielder Terdoslavich. Edwin Espinal then homered to left field to cut the Baysox lead to 4-3.

Bowie’s offense exploded again in the bottom of the fourth inning. Consecutive singles by Glynn Davis and Henry Urrutia put runners on second and first. With Jeff Kemp batting, Waddell threw a wild pitch that advanced Davis to third. Kemp delivered on a RBI single to center field to score Davis. Brett McKinney replaced Waddell and on his first offering he surrendered an RBI double off of the bat of Rosa. With no outs still Chris O’Brien hit into a double play that scored Kemp. Rosa came home on a single off the fence in right field by Terdoslavich for the final score of 8-3.

Sunday afternoon’s contest was called after seven innings on account of a rain storm that bared down on Prince George’s Stadium. Waddell garnered his first loss of the season after throwing three innings and allowing seven runs on seven hits and four walks. Pitcher Donnie Hart continued his superb season as he came on in relief and threw two scoreless innings and surrendered a sole hit while walking two and striking out three.

Doug Raftery

Keys starter Matthew Grimes tossed a career-high eight scoreless innings and surrendered just two hits to lead the visitors to a 2-0 win over Carolina Sunday night at Five County Stadium. Frederick scored two runs in the second inning and gathered its fifth shutout win of the year.

Grimes (7-2) dominated from start to finish, as only three Mudcats reached, two via singles and another on an error. In the first, Ryan Gebhardt singled to start things, but Grimes struck out Jordan Edgerton with Gebhardt on second base.

The Keys scored in the second inning against Carolina starter Enderson Franco. Conor Bierfeldt began the inning with a double to left-center. Franco retired Jomar Reyes on a groundout and Jonah Heim flied out to put two outs on the board. Josh Hart followed with a chopper in front of home that catcher Joseph Odom threw wildly down the first base line to score Bierfeldt. Hart was credited with a single and got to second on the error. One batter later, Erick Salcedo followed with an RBI single to make it 2-0. The base hit by Salcedo extended his hitting streak to a career-high 14 games.

Joseph Daris reached on an error by Reyes in the third, but Grimes gave up just one more hit the rest of the way. Odom singled with one away in the fourth but was left on base. Entering the eighth, Grimes had just 80 pitches logged, but a 12-pitch at-bat to Daris in the frame ended up extending the right-hander to 99 pitches. Grimes set down 13 straight batters from the fourth to eighth innings.

The Keys couldn?t add anything against Franco (3-3), Zack Bird, or Evan Phillips the rest of the way. Michael Zouzalik got two groundouts in the ninth to earn his sixth save of the season.

Grimes has not allowed a run since a first inning marker on May 17 at Wilmington, a stretch of 21 innings. He has also surrendered just one run over his last 28.2 innings (0.31 ERA). His seventh win leads the Carolina League. The Keys also jumped over a .500 record for the first time since April 13 when they were 4-3.

Brendan Gulick

Sometimes, baseball is a cruel game. Brian Gonzalez deserved better on Sunday afternoon, as the Shorebirds fell by a final score of 4-2 at Arthur W. Perdue Stadium.

The ‘Birds had two runners on base with nobody out in the ninth inning and trailed 4-1, but only managed to get one run across and left the tying run at first base.

Brian Gonzalez (5-2) took a tough-luck loss. He allowed four runs, of which three were earned, on eight hits over five innings. Only two of the eight hits that Gonzalez gave up were well struck balls on a day were bloopers and broken bat flares dropped in safely. On the other side of the docket, Jose Taveras (2-3) was outstanding. He gave up one run on one hit in seven innings with seven strikeouts.

That lone run came in the fifth inning, when Alex Murphy blasted his team-leading seventh home run of the year. Murphy took his fourth trip on the bases this week, but it was only a dent in the otherwise clean slate for Taveras.

Lakewood scored three of their four runs thanks to three wild pitches from Gonzalez. A sacrifice fly in the first inning scored Emmanuel Marrero, who went to third base on a wild offering. The BlueClaws got another run in the third innings when Deivi Grullon singled home Josh Tobias from second base. Tobias went from first to second on a wild pitch two pitches earlier. Lakewood’s final run came home in the fifth, when Tobias scored from third on Gonzalez’s third wild one of the day.

Delmarva’s ninth inning rally fell short after Ademar Rifaela walked and Ryan Mountcastle singled to open the frame. DJ Stewart, Murphy and Gerrion Grim all struck out, while only Yermin Mercedes was able to drive home a run with his single to right field.