July 4th Victory Seals WooSox Series Win Against RailRiders

WORCESTER, M.A. — Spurred by a July 4th crowd and the bangs of fireworks, the Worcester Red Sox (32-21) held the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (34-16) to six hits in a 5-4 win at Polar Park.

Down 1-0 through three, the WooSox came to the plate in the fourth with the top of the lineup due up. Jarren Duran began the rally with a fly ball deep towards right center—outfielder Estevan Florial got to the ball, but it bounced off his glove, allowing Duran to reach third on his first triple of the season. He came home one pitch later on a Yairo Muñoz double to left, and after a single, Muñoz scored on a sac-fly from Johan Mieses.

Worcester extended its 2-1 lead in the sixth, once again led by Muñoz. The 26-year-old led off with a single, stole second and then sprinted home on a line drive double down the right field line by Cordero. The stolen base gave Muñoz his fifth swiped bag in three games, and the double brought him home for the second time in two nights.

On the mound, Tanner Houck and Daniel Gossett did the bulk of the work to seal the win. Houck started and went four, allowing one run and striking out three. He slipped out of a bases loaded jam in the first and gave up his lone run on an Andrew Velazquez RBI single in the second. Gossett followed him, tossing 4.1 innings of three-run ball on the way to his fifth win.

After Gossett finished his fourth scoreless frame in the eighth, Muñoz sparked another rally with a single. Cordero followed him with a line drive single to left, and two batters later, Chris Herrmann brought them both home with a double off the left field wall. Herrmann now has eight RBI in his last seven games, and his two-bagger made it a 5-1 game.

Gossett got one out in the ninth before the RailRiders loaded the bases. Billy McMillon brought Kaleb Ort in to the game—the right-hander allowed an RBI single to Ryan LaMarre and two run-scoring walks, but got a pair of strikeouts to close the game. The win hands SWB its first series defeat of the season and brings Worcester to within 3.5 games of first place.

The WooSox are off Monday and begin a six-game series versus the Lehigh Valley IronPigs at 7:05 p.m. Radio coverage starts live at 6:45 p.m. on 100 FM The Pike and the WooSox Radio Network. Worcester’s Stephen Gonsalves (3-2, 3.89) is the scheduled starter.