The Salem Red Sox pounded out eight runs on nine hits and cruised by the Winston-Salem Dash 8-2 on Thursday night at BB&T Ballpark. Salem moved to within 2.5 games of first place Myrtle Beach with the win.
Salem did a large portion of the damage in the third and fourth innings. After not managing a hit in the first two frames, the first four batters reached safely in the third. With the bases loaded, Tzu-Wei Lin laced a single in to right field and scored Jordan Betts from third. Sam Travis then bounced in to a double play that was enough to knock in Deiner Lopez and advance Manuel Margot to third. One batter later, Mario Martinez drove Margot home with a two-out single and Salem led 3-0.
The Sox piled on to that lead in the fourth inning with a two-out rally. Lopez clobbered a double off the left-center field wall, scoring Jake Romanski from second base. Margot followed with an RBI double of his own, knocking in Lopez. Lin then smacked a single to right and Margot sprinted home from second to give the Red Sox a 6-0 advantage.
Meanwhile, Ty Buttrey was dominant through seven innings. Buttrey (5-0) struck out four with one run allowed on four hits while tying his career-high with seven innings pitched.
Winston-Salem’s two runs came off of the same bat. With Adam Engel on third base, Jake Peter lofted a fly ball to left field deep enough to score the runner, making it 6-1. In the eighth inning, Peter chopped a ground ball to first that scored Michael Suiter. Peter earned two RBI but finished 0-for-3, snapping his hitting streak at 20 games. The run in the sixth was the first allowed by Salem in 16.2 innings, dating back to Tuesday’s win in Wilmington.
The Red Sox earned more insurance in the seventh inning on a two RBI double from Kevin Heller, pushing the lead to 8-2.
Margot was 2-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored, Lin finished 2-for-5 with a pair of runs batted in and Lopez went 2-for-4 while scoring two runs and knocking one more in. Jordan Guerrero (0-1) took the loss by surrendering eight runs, six earned, on seven hits and five walks through 6.2 innings.
Salem won for the sixth time in its last seven games to improve to a season-best six games over .500 at 36-30. Winston-Salem fell to 28-38. The Sox and the Dash continue their stretch of five games in four days with a 7:00 p.m. start on Friday night at BB&T Ballpark. Trey Ball (5-5, 3.73) is scheduled to oppose Robinson Leyer (2-5, 4.91). Fans can listen to get game on 1240 AM ESPN Roanoke, online at salemsox.com or via the TuneIn Radio app.
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Chris Graham
