Messinger Mutes Cats in Shutout Win, Magic Number Shrinks to Two

The Somerset Patriots defeated the New Hampshire Fisher Cats by a final score of 3-0 at TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater, NJ on Friday night.

The win maintains the Patriots’ half-game lead atop the Eastern League second half standings and shrinks their magic number to two with two games left in the regular season.

The result also marks Somerset’s 10^th shutout win of the season and its second started by Zach Messinger. The shutout was finished with a scoreless inning each by Ryan Anderson, Luis Pacheco and Jesus Liranzo.

Somerset scored all of three runs of the game in the first inning, improving to 56-19 on the season when the Patriots score before their opponent.

RHP Zach Messinger (6.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K) earned his fifth win over the last seven outings. Messinger ends the regular season with a record of 7-8 and a 3.06 ERA, which currently ranks second in the Eastern League with two games remaining. He also ends the night as the Eastern League leader with 150.0 IP, 1.11 WHIP and .207 BAA. In nine starts since the All-Star break, Messinger is 5-1 with a 1.50 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and .182 BAA over 54.0 IP.

MESSAGE SENT📨@Yankees No. 17 prospect Zach Messinger pitched 6 scoreless frames with 2 H and 4 K. pic.twitter.com/Y49KG9cgO6

— Somerset Patriots (@SOMPatriots) September 14, 2024

RF Elijah Dunham (1-for-4, RBI, R, K) opened the scoring in the first inning with the first of three straight run-scoring plays for Somerset. Dunham has now hit safely in all three games he’s played this series, combining to go 4-for-11 with 7 RBI, 4 R, 2 HR and 1 BB.

1B Rafael Flores (2-for-4, R, K) was the only Patriot with multiple hits, piecing together his 16^th multi-hit game at Double-A.

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Box Score

Postgame Notes