The Norfolk Tides (81-50) fell to the Worcester Red Sox (71-60), 5-4, on Sunday afternoon at Polar Park.
Two extra-base hits opened play this afternoon, beginning with a Connor Norby double. Shortly after, Heston Kjerstad stepped up to the plate a crushed a 2-1 pitch to right-center field for a two-run jack that gave the Tides, the Triple-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles, the early lead in the opening frame.
It wouldn’t take long for Worcester to respond, scratching the equalizing run in the home half of the first with an RBI double off the bat of Ronaldo Hernandez, tying the game at two apiece.
Both starting pitchers would settle in with each tossing three straight scoreless frames. After Brian Van Belle posted another zero in the fifth, the Red Sox took their first lead of the game in the bottom half of the inning with a David Hamilton RBI single to go up 3-2.
The Red Sox tacked on two more in the bottom of the seventh when Hamilton struck again, this time with a two-run blast the extended the Worcester lead to three.
Norfolk earned on back in the eighth as Josh Lester got an 0-1 pitch he could handle and sent it over the wall in right-center field to pull the Tides within two of the Worcester 5-3 lead.
In their final turn at bat, the Tides scratched a run with Norby scoring on a Lewin Díaz groundout. The tying run moved up to second on the play, but Norfolk was unable to bring him around and fell by a 5-4 score to the Red Sox.
Norfolk has a scheduled off day tomorrow but resumes action on Tuesday night with first pitch scheduled for 6:35 p.m. at Harbor Park to kick off a two-week homestand, beginning with a six-game set against the visiting Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp.
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Chris Graham
