Sammy Siani's homer lifts Hoppers in series finale

GREENSBORO ― Sammy Siani and Yoyner Fajardo hit back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the eighth inning, lifting the Greensboro Grasshoppers to a 4-2 victory over the Wilmington Blue Rocks in their series finale at First National Bank Field on Sunday afternoon.

Siani’s home run was the key hit the Hoppers have been looking for most of the week. Greensboro (22-28) had lost seven of nine games, and trailed 2-0 Sunday before Siani stepped into the left-hand batters box with one out in the eighth.

“It’s a good moment for Siani,” Greensboro manager Callix Crabbe said. “He’s been struggling a little bit and working through some mechanical stuff. He had a chance (Saturday) night with runners in scoring position and couldn’t get the job done. So this hit today was big for him.”

Wilmington reliever Curtis Taylor (0-1) walked Jack Herman and hit Eli Wilson with an inside pitch to start the eighth. Maikol Escotto’s sacrifice bunt advanced the runners, and brought up Siani.

Siani hit a 3-2 pitch high in the air to the opposite field, a ball that looked like a sure sacrifice fly off the bat. But it carried … and carried … and carried before hitting the top of the left-field wall near the 315 feet marker and bouncing over.

“I wasn’t sure when it left the bat, but once I saw it kept going, I thought it had a chance to go out,” Crabbe said. “From our angle in the dugout, you lose vision down there in the corner. I didn’t see it hit the top of the wall. All I heard was the crowd started cheering.”

Farjardo followed with a shot over the right-field fence to finish the scoring.

The Hoppers managed just six hits in the game, despite hitting the ball hard often. At least four line drives or deep fly balls found fielders’ gloves for outs.

“The park plays different in day games than it does at night,” Crabbe said. “At night, there’s almost always a breeze blowing out. But a lot of times during the day, the wind blows in and the ball doesn’t carry as well. For example, the ball Jack Herman hit today had an exit velocity of 97 mph off the bat. At night, that’s a home run 100 percent of the time. But today it was a flyout.”

So this one came down to timely hits to back up solid pitching, as six Greensboro pitchers combined to strike out 15 batters.

Starter Sean Sullivan set the tone, allowing one run in five innings. He walked none and struck out seven.

“Sullivan’s been throwing the ball really good,” Crabbe said. “In the last homestand, he had a rough outing, but ever since then he’s really responded well. We liked the matchup today.”

Relievers Ricky DeVito and Nick Dombkowski both pitched out of bases-loaded jams, and winning pitcher Cameron Junker (3-1) struck out two in the scoreless eighth inning.

Oliver Mateo worked a scoreless ninth to earn his first save, striking out two.

“Mateo went on the injured list back in April, and then we took that opportunity to put him on the developmental list,” Crabbe said. “We had noticed that the typical shape he has on his slider wasn’t spinning right. We dug into video and used some TrackMan data to help him make a few tweaks, and it’s paid huge dividends. Last year, his swing-and-miss rate on sliders was 84 percent. That’s a Nintento or PlayStation number. … We needed to get that sweeping action back, and it’s nice to see him come back and look a little more like himself.”

NOTES

• The Hoppers’ next series is six games at Winston-Salem this week.
• Leadoff hitter Yoyner Fajardo went 1-for-4. He has hit safely in 19 of 24 games played, with 10 multi-hit games. Fajardo is 30-for-91 and his .330 batting average would lead the Sally League if he had enough plate appearances to qualify.
• First baseman Jacob Gonzalez went 1-for-3 with a double. Gonzalez has been one of the South Atlantic League's best players since his promotion from Class-A Bradenton on May 10. He has hit safely in 17 of 21 games since then, with eight multi-hit games. Gonzalez is 28-for-79 (.354) with four home runs, three doubles and 11 RBIs.
• Infielder Maikol Escotto, a shortstop ranked by MLB Pipeline as Pittsburgh’s No. 17 prospect, turned 20 years old Saturday night. He was 1-for-2 with an infield hit and a sacrifice bunt on Sunday.
• Center fielder Hudson Head, a 21-year-old rated by MLB Pipeline as the No. 20 prospect in Pittsburgh's farm system, sat out for the second straight game. Head was hit by a pitch in the leg Friday and lifted from that game. Head has hits in 16 of his last 19 games. He has reached base in 26 of his last 29 games.