Blue Rocks Strike Early, Fall Short in Loss

Wilmington, DE - For the second straight game, the Wilmington Blue Rocks' (8-11) offense struck in the first inning, but were unable to produce any more runs in a 6-2 loss to the Potomac Nationals (11-9) Wednesday night at Frawley Stadium. Outfielder Khalil Lee drove in both runs for the Rocks and reached base three times in the loss. Wilmington has lost three straight games both overall and to Potomac.
 

In the first inning, the first three batters produced the pair of runs for Wilmington. Rudy Martin singled to centerfield, D.J. Burt reached on an infield single before Lee smacked an infield single to first base which kicked off the glove of a diving first baseman Ian Sagdal to allow both Martin and Burt to score. Potomac tied the game up in the third inning with a pair of RBI singles from Juan Soto and Jakson Reetz. In the fifth inning, the P-Nats tacked on two more runs on a two-run single from Rhett Wiseman to make it a 4-2 deficit for the Blue Crew.
The Nationals added single tallies in the seventh on Soto's solo homer and Blake Perkins RBI sacrifice fly in the eighth to widen the gap, 6-2. Wilmington attempted a two-out rally in the bottom of the eighth inning. Burt, Lee and Emmanuel Rivera all drew two-out walks to load the bases before Meibrys Viloria grounded out sharply back to the pitcher to end the threat and inning.
Wilmington starter Gerson Garabito worked three innings and allowed two earned runs on two hits, walked five and struck out four in a no-decision.
The Blue Rocks and Nationals wrap up their three-game series on Thursday, April 26 the three game series at. RHP Arnaldo Hernandez (1-0, 1.80 ERA) makes the start for the Blue Rocks while LHP Matthew Crownover (1-1, 3.09 ERA) starts for the P-Nats. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. and fans can listen to the game as Matt Janus and Cory Nidoh have the call on 89.7 WGLS-FM.
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With the pair of runs batted in Wednesday night, Lee has now driven in 10 runs this season and is one of four Blue Rocks with double digit RBI totals. Emmanuel Rivera leads the way with 12, followed by Chase Vallot who has 11. Kort Peterson and Lee each have 10 RBI this season. Lee reached the double digit RBI total in two fewer games than he did a season ago, when he drove in 13 runs through the first 20 games of the 2017 season. The outfield prospect finished the season second on Low-A Lexington with 61 RBI.
D.J. Burt made his first-career start in the outfield Wednesday and almost threw a runner out at home plate in the third inning. This season, Burt has played at second base, shortstop and now left field for the Blue Rocks after spending last season primarily as the team's second baseman. The second-year Blue Rock continued his scorching pace at the plate and picked up two hits, a walk and scored a run. Burt is now hitting .341 on the season in 13 games played.
Wilmington will look to salvage the three-game series on Thursday and avoid being swept for the second time this season. The Rocks were swept for the first time in 2018 when they visited Salem from April 9-11 and were swept in the three-game set.
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