Drive fall 6-3 to Aberdeen in series finale; take overall series

The Greenville Drive (28-20, 54-60) faltered 6-3 to the Aberdeen IronBirds (24-24, 58-56) Sunday at Leidos Field at Ripken Stadium and their streak of four low-scoring wins was snapped at four as the IronBirds offense came to life.

The week in Aberdeen was bookended by IronBirds’ victories, though the Drive rattled off four wins in a row in the middle games to take the series overall, 4-2. Despite the wins, the Drive sit 3.5 games back of a playoff spot as the first-place Bowling Green Hot Rods picked up four wins in their homestand with the Greensboro Grasshoppers on the week. The Hot Rods did have a postponed game on a Saturday, August 17 which will be made up as part the final series of the season in Greensboro. The Hot Rods played three less games than the Drive to this point in the second half with two games that were outright canceled with the Rome Emperors. Those games will not be made up.

Greenville’s contest on Sunday concluded a 12-game road trip for the Drive in which they finished 6-6.

After four games of dominating pitching, the Drive’s pitching stable finally cracked as starter Dalton Rogers allowed four runs on four hits and tossed three wild pitches in the same inning while reliever Jeremy Wu-Yelland allowed two runs on three hits.

The IronBirds opened up a 4-0 lead in the second, battering Rogers while taking advantage of Drive defensive miscues. Back-to-back singles set up a double steal by Carter Young and Leandro Arias in which catcher Hudson White sailed his throw to third into left field allowing Young to score.

A wild pitch from Rogers moved Arias to third and Aneudis Mordan brought him home on a groundout to Juan Montero at third to boost the lead to 2-0. Douglas Hodo III walked and a wild pitch moved him to second before Aron Estrada tripled to make it 3-0. Another wild pitch from Rogers sent Estrada home to put the Drive down 4-0.

Will Turner picked up a sac-fly to left fielder Thomas Sosa to score Juan Chacon as Sosa’s throw to the plate was well offline.

Rogers recovered from the second inning, quieting the IronBirds bats in the next two frames. But the IronBirds would not be contained as Wu-Yelland allowed a Creed Willems RBI-double which scored Sosa who reached earlier on a Fraymi De Leon throwing error. Young delivered an RBI single four pitches later to boost the IronBirds lead to 6-1.

The Drive threatened to make it a ballgame in the sixth as a walk to Turner, a single from Zach Ehrhard, and a double steal by the two base runners set up Bryan Gonzalez’s infield RBI-single to make it 6-2. Hudson White knocked a sac-fly to center fielder Elio Prado to cut the lead to 6-3.

Gonzalez swiped second before being nabbed at third on a steal attempt and Eduardo Lopez grounded out to quell the Drive’s momentum.

Turner had a chance in the seventh to draw the Drive closer as De Leon and Andy Lugo stood on third and second respectively with two away. Turner barreled up a deep fly ball to dead center that would be run down on the warning track by Prado as he made an over-the-shoulder catch to end the inning.

Chacon doubled in the ninth with one away but a fly out and strike out preserved the IronBirds victory.

The Drive return to action on Tuesday, August 20th for the start of a six-game series with the Rome Emperors, affiliate of the Atlanta Braves, at Fluor Field. First pitch is slated for 7:05 p.m.