The Salem Red Sox offense erupted for ten runs and 13 hits on Sunday at LewisGale Field en route to a 10-6 drubbing of the Potomac Nationals. The victory was the Sox third straight win, sixth in the last eight games and eighth in the last 11 contests.
Salem’s bats were dominant throughout, recording hits in every inning but the fourth and eighth. After stranding the bases loaded in the first, the Sox bounced back in the second frame. Batting with the bases loaded, Tzu-Wei Lin drove a line drive over the head of Narciso Mesa in centerfield and cleared the bases with a three-run double. Two batters later, Lin scored on an RBI triple from Aneury Tavarez, who was then knocked in by a Jake Romanski single to make it 5-0 Red Sox.
Lin finished 2-for-5 with 4 RBI in the contest. The four runs driven in are the most by a Salem batter so far this season.
Ty Buttrey made his High-A debut for Salem and worked around some control issues through his five innings. Buttrey (1-0) walked six batters in his first appearance with the Red Sox, striking out three and allowing three runs on six hits. All three runs against him came in the top of the third when the P-Nats sent nine batters to the plate, scoring three times on three hits, three walks and an error.
The Red Sox wasted no time in responding with a pair of tallies in the bottom of the third. With two outs, Sam Travis smoked a single to left, scoring Allday and Jose Vinicio to push the lead to 7-3.
Allday was 1-for-2 with two walks and a hit by pitch, scoring three runs and reaching base in his first four plate appearances.
Travis and Lin were active again in the fifth inning. Lin drove in his fourth run in the frame, scoring Allday with a two-out single. Travis followed with a double to left-center that scored Lin and made the score 9-3 Salem.
Travis went 3-for-5 with a double and three RBI, pushing his team-leading total to 13. He’s now hit safely in seven straight, going 14-for-27 (.519) during the streak.
German Taveras relieved Buttrey to begin the sixth and was touched for a pair of runs in the frame on a single from Isaac Ballou, scoring Mesa and Perez. Taveras would settle down and finish the game with three runs allowed in four innings of work, earning the save.
Salem added another tally in the last of the sixth when Franklin Guzman scored Jordan Betts with an RBI double. Potomac got a ninth-inning run to account for the final margin.
The Red Sox had seven batters record a hit, five score and five drive in a run. Salem has had at least seven hitters with a knock in its last four games and moved to two games over .500 for the first time in 2015 at 12-10. Potomac fell to 10-14.
Salem will look to finish off the four-game sweep on Monday night at 7:05 p.m. Trey Ball (1-2, 5.57) starts for the Sox against the Nats’ Wander Suero (3-1, 3.60). Fans unable to attend can listen to the game on 1240 AM ESPN Roanoke, online at salemsox.com or via the TuneIn Radio app.
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