The Salem Red Sox kept their playoff hopes alive, using a seven-hit attack to best the Winston-Salem Dash 5-3 on Friday night at BB&T Ballpark. Salem won for the fourth straight game for the seventh time in its last eight games.
Manuel Margot jump-started the Salem offense by attacking the first pitch of the game and sending a double to left field. He scored three batters later on a sacrifice fly from Kevin Heller, giving the Red Sox a 1-0 lead.
Winston-Salem answered with a pair in the home half of the first. With two outs, Keon Barnum and Omar Narvaez each singled. Nolan Early then clobbered a double to left, scoring both men and vaulting the Dash to a 2-1 advantage.
Salem took the lead for good in the third inning, as Sam Travis sent a ground rule double over the wall in the right field corner, bringing Tzu-Wei Lin home from second. Two batters later, Yoilan Cerse cranked a two-run homer to left, putting the Sox up 4-2. Dash starter Robinson Leyer then plunked Forrestt Allday on the first pitch of the ensuing at bat and was immediately ejected from the game.
The Dash pulled to within one in the fourth as Toby Thomas launched a solo home run to lead off the frame against Trey Ball, who would not allow another run in his outing. Ball (6-5) finished with three runs against him in six innings with six hits allowed while striking out two. The southpaw retired the final five he faced and nine of the last 10 hitters he encountered.
Salem earned an insurance run in the sixth when Margot lined an RBI single to left-center, scoring Jordan Betts from third for a 5-3 Red Sox advantage. Margot was 2-for-5 with a run scored and an RBI while Travis finished 2-for-4 with an RBI, a stolen base and a run.
Leyer (2-6) took the loss for Winston-Salem by allowing four runs on three hits over 2.2 innings. German Taveras worked three shutout innings and struck out a career-high five for his second save of the season.
The Red Sox improved to 37-30 while the Dash dropped to 28-39. On Saturday at 4:30 p.m. Salem and Winston-Salem will complete a game that was suspended due to rain on June 2 with the Dash leading the Red Sox 3-0 with two outs in the bottom of the second inning. Taylor Grover (2-1, 3.29) will pitch for Salem while Brian Clark (2-2) goes for the Dash.
After completing the suspended contest, the Sox and Dash will play their originally scheduled contest with Teddy Stankiewicz (1-8, 3.97) opposing Brandon Brennan (0-0, 2.25). Fans can listen to both games on 1240 AM ESPN Roanoke, online at salemsox.com or via the TuneIn Radio app.
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