Errors Bite Rome in Minter Rehab Start

ROME, Ga – Major League rehabber A.J. Minter struck out the side and allowed one unearned run in his only inning of work Saturday afternoon in the Emperors’ 5-3 loss to Greenville.

After Miguel Bleis’ one-out single off Minter in the first, a throwing error from Rome’s E.J. Exposito brought Bleis home and put Greenville up 1-0. Minter faced five batters and finished with 21 pitches (14 strikes). Riley Frey piggybacked A.J. and went six full innings, his first time going six in a relief role this year. Frey scattered seven hits and allowed two earned runs and two unearned runs. Errors on Ceballos and Borden contributed to the unearned runs that crossed home during Frey’s tenure.

A two-out infield single from Kilpatrick in the third inning put one on for Sabin Ceballos who sent a 375-foot shot over the left field wall for his second homerun of the season. All three of Ceballos’ professional homeruns have come against the Boston Red Sox organization. Rome’s only other run would come in the fourth following E.J. Exposito’s fourth double of the series and 16^th of the summer put a runner on second for Jace Grady who would single but wouldn’t pick up the RBI. Instead, it was Justin Janas manufacturing the run on a groundball to second base.

Samuel Strickland used just 17 pitches to retire the last six batters in order. His six earned runs in 34.1 innings have lowered his ERA to 1.57 in 2024.

The sixth and final game of the series with Greenville is set for Sunday at 1:00pm EDT.