Drive fall in wacky affair to Blue Rocks, 14-9

Wacky.

That about sums up the affair at Fluor Field on Friday night as the Wilmington Blue Rocks (17-16, 48-51) downed the Greenville Drive (20-14,46-54) 14-9 in a game that featured nine combined errors, 10 unearned runs, three hit batters, nine pitchers, and a nearly hour-long seventh inning caused in part by home plate umpire Conor McKenna needing attention from the training staff before exiting the game; causing base path umpire Cas Cousins to become the home plate umpire and finish the game solo. The contest took three hours and thirty-two minutes to complete.

The Drive picked up 9 hits on the night along with four errors, while the Blue Rocks picked up 13 hits and five errors. The Drive pitching staff allowed seven walks, while ironically, the Blue Rocks did not allow a single free pass.

Yet, despite a game filled with errors and miscues and extended innings because of these, and six runs scored by the Drive across the seventh and eighth, the Drive went down in order in the ninth. This all coming on the heels of the Drive holding the Blue Rocks hitless the previous night in a game that lasted just two hours and 11 minutes.

After shutting out the Blue Rocks for 18-straight innings, the Drive pitching staff finally relinquished a run as Phillip Glasser took the third pitch of the game over the right field wall for his fifth homer of the season, giving the Blue Rocks the 1-0 lead.

The Drive faced Blue Rocks starter Jarlin Susana, the No. 12 overall prospect in the Washington Nationals system, seeing a steady diet of 100+ mph heat from the 6-foot-6-inch righty out of Villa Isabela, DR. He finished the night tossing five innings, allowing two runs on three hits with eight strikeouts.

Jhostynxon Garcia picked up the Drive’s only hit through four innings, sending a 101-mph pitch into the right field gap for a double. He’d come around to score on a softly tapped ball back to Susana off the bat of Allan Castro which Susana rushed to first base, sending the ball into foul territory behind the first base bag.

The 1-1 deadlock lasted until the third inning as Paez gave up his second homer of the night to Glasser, a two run blast into the Drive bullpen for a 3-1 lead. Paez exited after the third inning, finishing the night with five strikeouts and a walk while allowing five hits.

Nathan Landry did not fare much better in relief, in his lone bridge inning between Paez and piggybacker Noah Dean, largely due to unforced errors from the Drive defense. After picking up two outs, he’d give up a double to Joe Naranjo before Naranjo scored on a fielding error by first baseman Bryan Gonzalez on a Marcus Brown grounder to Mikey Romero.

Juan Chacon dropped a line drive to him in left field allowing Brown to score from second and Glasser to get to first. Ronald Rosario allowed a passed ball, moving Glasser to second and Gavin Dugas reached on a walk. Back-to-back wild pitches from Landry allowed Glasser to score from third, but the Drive escaped the inning without further damage as Dugas was caught at third base on a well timed recovery throw from Rosario. Yet, the Drive faced a 6-1 deficit.

The lead grew to 7-1 with Dean on the mound, as he hit Jared McKenzie with a pitch. McKenzie later stole second before scoring on a throwing error from Dean as Dean threw away a softly grounded ball back to the mound on the throw to first.

Andy Lugo finally broke the Drive’s three-inning hitless streak, sending a line drive into center field before making it to second on a wild pitch. Mikey Romero rewarded Lugo’s efforts with a two out RBI-single to cut the lead to 7-2.

Dean loaded the bases in the third via back-to-back singles and a walk before McKenzie knocked a sac-fly to center field allowing Brown to score from third for an 8-2 lead.

Allan Castro roped a double off the center field wall, his 20th of the season before making it to third on a groundout and eventually scoring on a balk to cut the lead to 8-3.

The game would go into a lengthy delay in the seventh as home plate umpire, Conor McKenna, stepped out from behind the plate hunched over, appearing sick. After a trainer's evaluation, he was able to walk off the field, though wobbly, and exited the game. Cas Cousins, the base path umpire took over behind the plate and finished the game solo.

Dean again loaded the bases in the seventh on three singles before an RBI-single with one away from Brown bumped the lead to 9-3. Dean walked in Glasser and hit Dugas with a pitch before a fielding error from Gonzalez and another walk boosted the lead to 13-3 with only one away. Dean would be pulled after the last walk, bringing in Bryce Bonnin out of the bullpen.

Greenville, however, did not go quietly. In the bottom of the frame, Gonzalez reached on an errant throw to first and made it to second. Fraymi De Leon singled and Gonzalez later scored on a dropped pop behind the third base bag. Miguel Bleis rapped a double off the Greenville Monster and Garcia grounded out to cut the deficit to 13-6.

But Murphy Stehly extended the lead to 14-6 with a solo blast in the 8th. Bryan Gonzalez knocked a sac-fly, Romero ripped a single and Bleis reached on a throwing error to cut the lead to 14-9.

In the ninth, after all the fanfare, the Drive went down in order.

The Drive return to action on Saturday, August 3rd at 7:05 p.m. for game five of the six-game series against the Wilmington Blue Rocks. The series is tied, 2-2.