JUPITER, Fla. (June 28, 2019) - Moises Gomez belted a grand slam Friday and Stephen Woods Jr. spun six scoreless innings as the Charlotte Stone Crabs silenced the Palm Beach Cardinals 7-0 at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium. The Stone Crabs' (43-34, 8-3) victory marks their fifth shutout in 11 games
JUPITER, Fla. (June 28, 2019) - Moises Gomez belted a grand slam Friday and Stephen Woods Jr. spun six scoreless innings as the Charlotte Stone Crabs silenced the Palm Beach Cardinals 7-0 at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium.
The Stone Crabs' (43-34, 8-3) victory marks their fifth shutout in 11 games to start the second half. The win extended their winning streak to five games, matching their longest of the year. With St. Lucie's loss Friday, Charlotte is now tied for first place in the FSL South.
After Charlotte took the lead on a Zach Rutherford single in the second, the Stone Crabs strung together three straight singles with one out in the third. That brought up Gomez, who ripped a 111 miler-per-hour line drive over the wall in left to give Charlotte a 5-0 lead.
Still up by that margin in the top of the fifth, Jim Haley singled before stealing second. With one out, Gomez reached on a fielding error, which advanced Haley to third. The next batter was Michael Smith , who lined a base hit to center to score Haley and make it 6-0.
In the top of the seventh, Wander Franco cranked a solo home run to right to cap the scoring at 7-0. The top-ranked prospect in baseball is now 9-for-15 with two home runs and three walks (1.734 OPS) to start his High-A tenure.
Charlotte relievers Justin Marsden and Alex Valverde combined on three scoreless innings, sealing the three-hitter.
The Stone Crabs will look to clinch the series with Palm Beach at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday. Tommy Romero (5-2, 2.01) is set to make the start for Charlotte, opposed by Griffin Roberts (0-2, 8.34) of Palm Beach.
