The Salem Red Sox scored twice in the bottom of the eighth inning on Saturday night at LewisGale Field, propelling them to a 4-2 win over the Potomac Nationals.
The decisive bottom of the eighth began with a single from Sam Travis. Aneury Tavarez sacrificed him to second base, setting the table for Jake Romanski. The Sox catcher then reached on an infield single, placing runners on the corners. Cole Sturgeon followed with a double down the right field line putting the Sox ahead 3-2. Wendell Rijo drove home Romanski with a sac fly to add some insurance.
Austin Maddox delivered a shutdown ninth inning, needing just eight pitches to retire the Nationals in order and pick up the save.
Salem never trailed in the game, striking first in the bottom of the fifth inning. Manuel Margot led off with a single and quickly stole second. Tzu-Wei Lin then lined a triple into the left-center field gap to score Margot. Lin didn’t wait at third base for long as Travis knocked him in with a RBI single just one batter later. Travis and Lin both finished with three hits, a run scored and an RBI each in the contest. Forrestt Allday had three hits as well to pace the Red Sox’ 14-hit attack.
Daniel McGrath was stellar for Salem in his fourth start of the season. McGrath dominated the Nationals over six scoreless innings, allowing just three hits and striking out six. He retired the last eight batters he faced and extended his personal streak to 14 innings pitched without allowing an earned run.
McGrath didn’t factor in the decision, however, as Potomac’s Drew Ward tied the game in the top of the seventh with a two-run home run off of Salem reliever Jorge Marban. After that, though, Marban (2-1) retired the final five batters he faced to record the victory.
Potomac’s Nick Pivetta was peppered for two runs on nine hits in six innings, but received a no decision. Justin Thomas (0-2) took the loss by yielding two runs on five hits in two innings.
The Red Sox (11-10) will look to make it three wins in a row over the Nationals (10-13) on Sunday afternoon at 4:05 p.m. Ty Buttrey (0-0, –) will make his Salem debut against Potomac’s John Simms (0-1, 7.36). As part of Family Funday Sunday, the first 500 fans will receive a Manuel Margot poster, which he will sign after the game. Kids are also able to run the bases after the contest. Fans unable to attend can listen to the game on 1240 AM ESPN Roanoke, online at salemsox.com or via the TuneIn Radio app.
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Chris Graham
