Monster seventh inning gives New Hampshire third straight win

Manchester, New Hampshire – The Fisher Cats scored five runs on five hits without a homer in the seventh inning of Saturday night’s game at Delta Dental Stadium, and New Hampshire got their third straight win over Richmond. New Hampshire (16-16, 47-54) defeated the Richmond Flying Squirrels (San Francisco Giants, 10-21, 50-50), 6-1, to move to .500 in the second half of the season for the first time.

Four Fisher Cats—Luis De Los Santos, John Aiello, Cam Eden and Sebastian Espino—had two hits, and all four now have more than one multi-hit game this week.

De Los Santos crushed a solo home run in the first inning to give New Hampshire the early lead, his eighth homer of the season. He has hits in nine of his last 11 games, batting .375 with two big flies in that stretch. He was 2-for-4 on Saturday.

After a Richmond homer tied the game in the top of the seventh, New Hampshire rattled off five runs in the bottom half of the inning. Eden started the frame with a walk and stole two bases, coming home on an Espino double.

Eden was 2-for-2 with two walks, and he’s second in the Eastern League in steals since July 1 with 14. Espino was 2-for-4 in his second straight multi-hit game.

After Ryan Gold walked in the seventh, New Hampshire’s one through four hitters each notched a hit. Addison Barger brought two runs home with a single, Orelvis Martinez doubled and Aiello smacked a two-RBI single into right field. He finished 2-for-3 in his 16th multi-hit game of the year.

Former big leaguer Andrew Moore was stellar in his second bullpen start with New Hampshire. He went 5.1 scoreless innings with no walks and six strikeouts, his most since June 2019 with the Arkansas Travelers. Richmond tagged him with just six singles. Moore made 12 outings with the Seattle Mariners across 2017 and 2019. He made one start with Richmond in 2019, too.

Parker Caracci retired two straight batters with two runners on in the sixth after taking over for Moore. John Aiello made a stellar barehanded play on a broken-bat slow roller at third base for the second out, and Caracci struck out Armani Smith to end the inning.

Former White Sox farmhand Jake Elliott (W, 4-0) took over for Caracci in the seventh inning and retired five of the six batters he faced. Richmond scored two in the top of the ninth, but Sean Rackoski turned a double-play to prevent any further comeback.

New Hampshire now has the edge in the series, three games to two. They can win the series with a victory tomorrow.

The Fisher Cats conclude their series versus Richmond on Sunday, August 6 at 1:35 p.m. Next week, New Hampshire welcomes the Erie SeaWolves (Detroit Tigers) for six games starting on Tuesday, August 9. Tickets can be found at NHFisherCats.com, via email at [email protected], over the phone at (603) 641-2005, or in-person at the Fisher Cats box office at 1 Line Drive in Manchester.