In their most lopsided loss of the season, the Fredericksburg Nationals fell 20-3 to the Salem Red Sox in the opener of their 12-game homestand on Tuesday night.
Starting pitcher Carlos Romero (L, 0-1) recorded only four outs, allowing eight runs on nine hits, as the FredNats dropped their fifth in a row. Salem bookended the onslaught with a five-run first and a six-run ninth, scoring in six separate innings.
The Red Sox jumped ahead 5-0 before the first out of the game was even recorded, as Joe Davis hit a two-run single and Nicholas Northcut hit a three-run homer. They added three more in the second on a Stephen Scott single and a two-run homer from Davis.
Fredericksburg scored the next three runs of the game, as Kevin Strohschein doubled and scored on a wild pitch from starter Aaron Perry in the second. Jeremy De La Rosa followed with a solo homer, his third of the year. In the third, Junior Martina cleared the wall with his first home run of the season to draw the score to 8-3.
Martina’s homer was a rude greeting for Jorge Rodriguez (W, 3-3), but the lefty worked effectively over 4.0 innings of long relief to keep the FredNats from drawing any closer. Alex Erro’s two-run double in the fourth was followed by a Dean Miller homer in the fifth, and the Red Sox scored three runs in the sixth without a base hit to extend their lead to 14-3.
The Red Sox scored six runs in the ninth on only three hits, as Davis doubled, Eduardo Lopez doubled, and the FredNats committed a pair of errors. The 20 runs surrendered marked a season-high for Fredericksburg, as was their 17-run margin of defeat.
The FredNats continue their series against the Red Sox on Wednesday night. First pitch from FredNats Ballpark is scheduled for 7:05, with FredNats On Deck beginning at 6:50 on the FredNats Baseball Network.
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Chris Graham
