Bermúdez Brilliant as Blue Wahoos Start Extended Homestand in Memorable Style

Pensacola, Fla. – The Blue Wahoos began their longest homestand of the season in a special way.

Jonathan Bermúdez helped make sure of it.

With one of the best starts of his professional career, Bermúdez dazzled with five no-hit innings, pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth, then watched three scoreless innings by three relievers as the Blue Wahoos beat the Rocket City Trash Pandas 1-0 before a crowd of 3,008 at Blue Wahoos Stadium.

“It was fun to be on the mound (Tuesday), I’ll tell you that,” said Bermúdez, a left-hander who joined the Blue Wahoos in May last season after being released from the San Francisco Giants’ Triple-A affiliate in Sacramento.

After losing five of six road games last week at Montgomery, the Blue Wahoos continued their amazing success against Rocket City, the Los Angeles Angels affiliate. The Blue Wahoos are now 17-2 against the Trash Pandas in Pensacola, 27-6 overall against them.

This game was played in just two hours, 15 minutes. It began a stretch of 12 games in 13 days at Blue Wahoos Stadium.

“It’s good to be home,” said Bermúdez, a Puerto Rico native who can speak English and Spanish fluently. “After a tough week, it’s good to start like this. “I think this team is really good. We showed it (Tuesday). The bats are going to get going. I trust our bats.

“Our bullpen is our forte. This week is going to be fun. We started it the right way.”

The game’s only run was produced with one blast. Designated hitter Zach Zubia led off the fourth inning with a no-doubter home run over the left field wall off a fastball that exited his bat at 112 mph.

But from that point, Rocket City starter Caden Dana, a 20-year-old from Warwick, New York, who is the No. 2 rated prospect in the LA Angels minor league system, stayed in command. He retired the next nine batters he faced. He worked 6.2 innings allowing just three hits.

Rocket City (5-5) has all four of the Angels’ top quartet of prospects on this team.

Bermúdez wowed through five innings, facing only the minimum 15 batters with seven strikeouts and only one ball hit to the outfield on a flyout to centerfield.

Amazingly, the only baserunner he allowed in that span was the game’s first batter.

He plunked centerfielder Nelson Rada on his second pitch. Rada, an 18-year-old Venezuela native, is the Los Angeles Angels’ No. 1 prospect. Bermúdez then erased him on a pickoff. And from that point, it was perfection through the fifth inning.

With one out in the sixth inning, the Trash Pandas’ first hit was produced by a former Blue Wahoos player. Catcher Caleb Hamilton, 29, who played in Pensacola during the 2019 season as a Minnesota Twins prospect, laced a no-doubt single through into center field to break up the no-hitter.

And then it got dicey.

The next batter, Arol Vera, doubled down the third base line to put runners on second and third. Bermúdez then walked Rada on a 3-2 pitch to load the bases.

Bermúdez dug in and stuck out shortstop Kyren Paris, the LA Angels’ No. 3 rated prospect, on a swing-and-miss fastball. He threw a slider to get Sam Brown to fly out to center and end the inning.

From that point, the Blue Wahoos bullpen shined. Josan Méndez, newcomer Raffi Vizcaíno, who joined the team Tuesday and was hitting near 100-mph with his fastball, along with closer Austin Roberts combined for three shutout innings. They combined for six strikeouts, no hits, no walks.

Vizcaíno and Roberts struck out all six batters they faced in a dominating end to the game.

The Blue Wahoos missed a chance to get a run in the eighth inning when Jacob Berry broke an 0-for-22 hitting slump with a lining single to right field, but the Trash Pandas' Tucker Flint threw out Harrison Spahn at the plate with a perfect throw.

Spahn had reached on a double.

Roberts, however, slammed the door by whiffing three batters on 17 pitches.

GAME NOTABLES

The National Anthem was brilliantly performed Tuesday by Jessica Voigt, a Blue Wahoos group sales intern and UWF senior, who filled in when the scheduled singer could not make it.

This game was the first “Doggone Tuesday” with fans able to bring in their beloved dogs of all sizes, which Tuesday included a Great Dane, into the ballpark. It was also the first One Price Tuesday with fans purchasing a ticket for $19 and getting the best available seat, a hot dog, chips and a drink in a promotion.

WANT TO GO?

WHO: Rocket City Trash Pandas vs. Blue Wahoos.

WHEN: Wednesday, 6:05 p.m.

WHERE: Blue Wahoos Stadium.

PROMOTION: Winning Wednesday. Fans can play baseball bingo during the game for prizes, along with other contests.

TICKETS: www.bluewahoos.com. Or at stadium box office, which opens at 9 a.m.

LIVE AUDIO BROADCAST: Available on www.bluewahoos.com or the MiLB app, plus Bally Live and MLB.tv.