The Norfolk Tides won their second-straight game, defeating the Scranton Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, 5-1, Wednesday night.
The Tides pitching staff was dominant through seven innings as they carried a combined no-hit bid into the eighth before it was broken up with a lead-off home run by Ronald Guzmán.
Chris Ellis was stellar in his Tides debut, tossing 4.0 no-hit innings, walking one and striking out five, facing just one batter over the minimum. Dating back to last season, Ellis has allowed just three earned runs in 21.1 innings of work over his last five starts across all levels.
Ellis was backed by some stellar defensive play from the Tides, with Johnny Rizer making a leaping catch out in center field in the first inning, while Robert Neustrom took a home run away from Oswald Peraza with a spectacular grab in the fourth.
Marcos Diplán was first out of the bullpen and worked a perfect fifth inning, firing one strikeout, before he was relieved by Cody Sedlock. Sedlock was untouchable in his first two innings, whiffing five of the first six batters he faced, before allowing the home run to Guzman. He ended his night with 3.0 innings pitched, allowing one run on three hits to go along with six strikeouts and no walks.
Jahmai Jones opened the scoring in the fourth for the Tides on a throwing error and scored for a second time in the contest on Tyler Nevin’s RBI single in the sixth.
Jones scored three runs tonight has scored two runs or more in five of eight games this season. Nevin recorded two more RBI tonight and now has an RBI in three of his first four games.
Kyle Stowers went 1-for-3 with a double, RBI and a walk in his first game since April 5. Terrin Vavra posted his first three-hit game at the Triple-A level, going 3-for-4 with a double, two runs scored and a walk. He has multi-hit games in three of his last four.
Tomorrow, RHP Grayson Rodriguez (0-0, 0.00), MLB.com’s highest ranked pitching prospect, will make his second start of the season and his first on the road. He will face off against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre starter RHP Deivi García (0-0, 3.00). First pitch at 6:35 p.m..