One day after prevailing 4-2 in 12 innings, the Salem Red Sox again snuck past the Mudcats 6-5, scoring the winning run in the top of the ninth inning to win their fourth straight game. Blake Swihart went 3-for-5 and raced around from second on Matt Gedman’s high hopper over the mound that trickled into center field when neither middle infielder scooped it up. With the victory, the Sox magic number to make the playoffs shrunk to four with eight games to play. In addition, Myrtle Beach’s loss in Winston improved Salem’s lead in the outright division chase to two and a half games.
The climactic rally commenced with two outs and the bases empty in the top of the ninth. Tied 5-5, Swihart’s hustle enabled him to beat out a slow roller to second base. Mookie Betts smacked a single to center, moving Swihart to second. And Gedman bounced a chopper to no-man’s land shy of second base. It may have been an impossible play for shortstop Erik Gonzalez or second-baseman Joey Wendle, but an infield single would have kept Swihart at third. Inexplicably, neither infielder grabbed the ball and it skidded past the base and into shallow center, allowing Swihart to sprint home and score the decisive run.
Matt Price earned the victory, dealing two scoreless out of the bullpen. Although he walked the leadoff man in both the eighth and the ninth, Price navigated out of trouble and improved to 6-0 on the year. The loss went to Louis Head, who struck out three in two innings but also surrendered three straight two-out singles.
Salem soared to a 4-0 lead in the first three innings against Cole Cook, who delivered his second straight lackluster performance against the Sox. Cook served up leadoff homers in each of the first three innings, with Sean Coyle blasting a bomb in the first, Gedman launching one in the second, and Stefan Welch jacking another solo shot in the third.
With a 4-0 lead and three scoreless innings in his pocket, Sox starter Heri Quevedo stopped throwing strikes in the fourth. The righty walked three while also allowing two hits and two sac flies, as the Mudcats evened the score at four.
Wendle crushed a solo homer in the last of the fifth to put Carolina in front 5-4, but the Sox quickly countered in the sixth. Nick Natoli led off with a double, moved to third on Matty Johnson’s grounder, and scored on Coyle’s RBI single to tie it up. It remained all square into the ninth, when the Mudcats coughed up the game’s final run.
Like Swihart, Coyle also finished with three hits in five at-bats. Betts, Gedman, and Henry Ramos each chipped in with two hits apiece. Salem outhit Carolina 15-6, with Wendle being the only Mudcat registering more than one knock on the afternoon.
The Sox can make it a three-game sweep over the Mudcats in Monday night’s series finale, set for 7:15 at Five County Stadium. Mike Augliera gets the ball for Salem opposite Carolina’s Shawn Morimondo.
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Chris Graham
