Long Ball Dooms Tides in Wednesday Loss
NORFOLK, VA --- The Norfolk Tides (44-20) fell to the Worcester Red Sox (32-33), 13-5, on Wednesday night at Harbor Park. On a blustery evening at the ballpark, Worcester sent five ball to the seats, sinking the Tides to even the series. The Tides cracked the scoreboard first on the
NORFOLK, VA --- The Norfolk Tides (44-20) fell to the Worcester Red Sox (32-33), 13-5, on Wednesday night at Harbor Park. On a blustery evening at the ballpark, Worcester sent five ball to the seats, sinking the Tides to even the series.
The Tides cracked the scoreboard first on the evening as Heston Kjerstad got things rolling with a triple in the second that hit off the base of the wall in right field. Following Kjerstad’s three-bagger was Daz Cameron who checked in with a round-tripper on a ball he lined into the left field seats to give Norfolk the 2-0 lead.
The Norfolk advantage would diminish as Ronaldo Hernandez looped a ball into right field with the bases loaded to bring two runs around, tying the game at two apiece in the third.
After a leadoff double in the fourth, Christian Koss singled home the go-ahead run for Worcester. The Red Sox would do more damage later in the inning with Bobby Dalbec hitting a three-run home run to right-center for the 6-2 lead.
Striking with a solo home run to left-center in the top of the fifth was Narciso Cook who extended the Worcester lead to five with the one-out blast. The Tides attempted to chip away at the Worcester lead in the home half of the inning with a Colton Cowser RBI single, but Worcester widened the gap even further as Hernandez drove a ball to dead-center, giving the Red Sox a 10-3 advantage.
Back-to-back home runs from Ryan Fitzgerald and Dalbec added two more to the Worcester total in the eighth and Norfolk responded with two of their own thanks to an RBI double from Maverick Handley. Fitzgerald went yard again in the ninth, capping the scoring for the evening and the Tides were defeated 12-5.
Norfolk looks to get back in the win column tomorrow with first pitch scheduled for 12:05 p.m. The Tides will send RHP Grayson Rodriguez (2-0, 2.81) to the hill and he will face off against LHP Shane Drohan (2-1, 5.55) who is slated to make the start for Worcester.
POSTGAME NOTES
Kjer-STUD: Checking in with his second multi-hit performance and his first three-hit night as a Tide was Heston Kjerstad who went 3-for-5 with two runs scored, a double and a triple, coming up a home run shy of the cycle...it was his fifth three-hit game overall this year as he collected four this season with Double-A Bowie.