Salem Red Sox tame Lynchburg bats, win 5-1

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 13^th-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 38^th 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.