Ryan Pressly was not perfect. He allowed two hits. Another Blue Rock reached on an error. And he threw 12 balls. But even his imperfect performance appeared invincible as the righthander torched Wilmington’s lineup over six scoreless innings in Salem’s 2-1 triumph on getaway night at Frawley Stadium.
Pressly tossed 59 of his 71 pitches for strikes and improved to 2-0, while Pete Ruiz and Mike Olmsted closed out the game, permitting solely an unearned run in the ninth as Salem split its four-game series in Delaware.
Offensively, Jackie Bradley, Jr. could market himself as a one-man show. His solo-homer in the third—his second bomb in the past three games—lifted the Red Sox to a 1-0 lead. Wilmington pitcher Jason Adam retired eight straight after allowing his first homer of the season, but he hit Bradley with a first pitch breaking ball in the sixth. Considering Bradley singled in the first, he had reached in each of his first three chances against Adam. Sean Coyle also got plunked after Bradley, and after both runners advanced to second and third on a passed ball, Travis Shaw’s deep drive to the wall in center acted as a sacrifice fly, scoring Bradley from third to give Salem a 2-0 lead.
The Red Sox finished with just four hits, while the Blue Rocks mustered just three. In the last of the ninth, Angel Franco reached on a Xander Bogaerts error, advancing to second on a ground-out by Geulin Beltre and scoring on a bloop single by Cheslor Cuthbert. But with the tying run at first base, Olmsted struck out both Brian Fletcher and Brett Eibner to clinch the win for the Sox.
Pressly struck out a season-high seven, K-ing the side in the final frame of his six-inning gem. In relief, Ruiz retired six of the seven batters he faced, pitching around a two-out walk in the seventh.
Bradley and Shaw both went 2-for-3 for Salem, each recording one RBI. With the win, the Red Sox improve to 14-11 and inch to within a game and a half of the first-place Winston-Salem Dash, whom the Sox meet for the first time in 2012 on Friday.
Following a bus-ride to North Carolina, the Sox will kick off their three-game weekend series against Winston at 7 PM on Friday night, with Keith Couch on the mound opposite Spencer Arroyo.
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Chris Graham
