The Salem Red Sox scored an important victory over the Lynchburg Hillcats Tuesday night at LewisGale Field, 5-1. The win reduced Salem’s magic number to clinch the Southern Division first-half championship to six.
Yoan Moncada led off the bottom of the first with a single off Lynchburg (37-21) starter Justus Sheffield, and advanced to second on a Mauricio Dubon groundout. He stole third base and then scored on a groundout by Mike Meyers to put the Red Sox (38-21) up 1-0.
Salem plated two more against Sheffield (4-2) in the fourth. Nick Longhi singled and advanced to third on a Rafael Devers single. Danny Mars doubled to bring home Longhi, and a Joseph Monge groundout scored Devers to put the Red Sox ahead 3-0.
Red Sox starter Matt Kent continued his season-long streak of stellar pitching against Lynchburg, striking out five batters in the first two innings. The southpaw Kent (5-3) tossed 5.2 innings, scattering eight hits and allowing just one run, striking out a career-high seven and not issuing a walk.
Kent, the 13th-round pick of the Boston Red Sox in the 2015 draft out of Texas A&M, failed to walk a batter for the third time this season and came one out shy of his fifth quality start, but improved to 3-0 on the season against the Hillcats with 23 strikeouts in 24.2 innings.
Mario Alcantara relieved Kent after 95 pitches, and allowed an inherited runner to score on a wild pitch to bring the score to 3-1, but settled down. He lasted 1.2 innings, allowing just one walk and not yielding a run of his own.
Bobby Poyner took over with one out and a man on first in the top of the eighth, and struck out Bobby Bradley and Paul Hendrix – each representing the tying run – to end the threat.
Salem tallied two insurance runs against reliever Mitch Brown in the eighth when Dubon led off with a single, stole second and advanced to third on a Meyers flyout. Longhi followed with an infield single off the glove of Hendrix to score Dubon. Mars drew a walk and Monge singled to plate Longhi to extend the advantage to 5-1.
Longhi’s 2-for-4 performance was one of three two-hit days with Moncada (2-for-4, 2B, SB, R) and Mars (2-for-4, 2B, RBI) also joining the party. Longhi’s run batted in was his team-leading 38th of the season.
Poyner closed out the game in the ninth inning, earning his second save of the season with Salem in his second appearance. He recorded 11 saves with Low-A Greenville before being promoted on June 1.
The Red Sox are off Wednesday before hitting the road to start a four-game weekend series with the Wilmington Blue RocksThursday evening. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 pm. Salem will pitch Travis Lakins (5-2, 5.55) in the opener, while Wilmington counters with Foster Griffin (1-2, 6.62). Follow along with all the action on the Salem Red Sox Baseball Network, with pre-game coverage beginning at 6:45 pm.
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Chris Graham
