Fireflies' Taylor earns first win in three seasons

Blake Taylor hadn't notched a victory for nearly three years, but Class A Columbia pitching coach Jonathan Hurst had a feeling the southpaw was due to get back in the win column Monday. 
"He was my pitching coach in [Rookie-level] Kingsport in 2014 and helped me out a lot there," the Mets left-hander said. "He has a lot of confidence in me and he's always like, 'Hey, you've got good stuff man, just trust it.' We have a good relationship, he was always telling me, 'This it, this is your time to get a 'W.'" 
Taylor (1-7) delivered a career-high eight scoreless innings, allowing three hits and three walks while striking out six to lead the Fireflies to a 1-0 win over the Rome Braves at Spirit Communications Park. It marked his first win since July 27, 2014 in the Appalachian League.

Gameday box score
"It is a like a weight lifted off my shoulders," the 21-year-old said. "But every outing I went into it like, 'I'm 0-0 with a 0.00 ERA and zero stats, I'm going to go out there and attack.' That's my mentality every time I go out there and pitch."
During the 2015 season, Taylor underwent Tommy John surgery and did not return to the mound until August 2016, when he threw five relief outings for Kingsport. Through 13 appearances (12 starts) this season, he amassed a 4.09 ERA and a 1.45 WHIP. His confidence never waned, though. 

"It was an amazing feeling, I was really happy," Taylor said after finally getting the win. "I'm very blessed to be able to do that. It was uncharted territory for me, but now I know I can get there. Now I have all the confidence in the world to get back there." 
The 2013 second-round pick used 33 pitches to retire the first nine batters of the game. In all, Taylor tossed 62 of his 96 pitches for strikes. 
The R-Braves recorded their first hit in the fourth on Justin Ellison's two-out double. The Orange, California native then got No. 28 Braves prospectLucas Herbert to ground out to end the frame. 
Taylor faced more traffic in the fifth when Kurt Hoekstra and Anthony Concepcion reached on consecutive two-out walks, leading Hurst to take a quick trip to the mound.
"He was like, 'Hey, go after these guys. You've been really good, your tempo is kind of slacking a little bit. ... Keep your weight on your back foot, throw a curveball and you'll be out of the inning,'" Taylor said. "Hursty comes out and helps me a lot, really appreciate him."
The 6-foot-3, 220-pound hurler took the advice, snapped off a hook and got Kevin Josephina to fly out to end the inning. Taylor breathed a sigh of relief after completing the frame. 
"I've always heard that the fifth inning is the hardest inning to get through," he said. "I can completely agree with that, I've been there where they score a bunch of runs in the fifth. After getting out of the fifth, it was kind of like starting the game over again."
After a 1-2-3 sixth, Taylor worked around another two-out rally in the seventh by inducing a groundout from Concepcion. With the game still scoreless in the eighth, Randy Ventura singled with one out, but Marcus Mooney lined out and Ellison bounced out to third. 
"I knew they were going to be very aggressive on fastballs and kind of sit on off-speed," Taylor said. "They're a very patient team, they can see spin very well. If I can get a curveball over for a strike and then fastball, hopefully they swing at it. Then I'd just try to bury a curveball. It was working, I tried to just keep them guessing up there because I had command with my fastball -- two-seam and four-seam. My changeup was working pretty well. I was just trying to throw it in there and let them hit it."
Taylor, who reduced his ERA to 3.65, hopes he can replicate the success in subsequent outings in the second half. 

"I want to stay healthy for the rest of the season," he said. "I've had injuries almost all of my pro ball years. I just try to stay healthy, stay on top of my shoulder routine, my shoulder workouts. I've been blessed with this." 
In the bottom half of the eighth, Columbia broke the scoreless tie when Colby Woodmansee scored on a throwing error by catcher Alan Crowley.
Adonis Uceta pitched around two hits and a walk in the ninth to earn his ninth save of the year.
Rome starter Alan Rangel scattered three hits over a career-high six innings.