Three Homers Send Bowie Baysox Past the Reading Phillies, 8-2
Thursday, August 21, 2008 at 10:29AM MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com – (Bowie, MD) – The Baysox got two homeruns from Steve
Torrealba and one from Matt Wieters to back up another excellent start
by Chris Tillman, taking Wednesday night's matchup with the Phillies,
8-2. With the victory and Harrisburg's loss to Trenton Wednesday, the
Baysox magic number is down to three.
Matt Wieters
jump-started the Baysox offense with a solo homerun to lead off the top
of the second inning and Bowie opened a 1-0 lead. They struck for two
more runs in the top of the third when Blake Davis got things going
with a one-out double. Sebastien Boucher slapped a base hit into left
field moving Davis to third and Carlos Rojas drew a walk to load the
bases. Nolan Reimold singled on a line drive to center field, plating
Davis and keeping the bases loaded. Wieters grounded out to first base
for the second out but Boucher came in to score and make it 3-0 Baysox.
Steve Torrealba led off the top of the fourth inning with a solo
homerun, his seventh on the year and his first of two in the contest.
Blake Davis picked up another double with two outs in the inning, but
the Baysox could not drive him in and the lead held at 4-0.
The Baysox added another two runs in the top of the sixth when Ryan
Finan was hit by pitch to lead off ahead of Torrealba. The big catcher
delivered with another bomb to left field, a two-run shot that gave
Bowie a 6-0 lead. Torrealba has played in thirty games for the Baysox
this year and has collected eight homeruns, including two multi-homer
games.
Bowie tacked on another run in the top of the seventh
on a throwing error by second baseman Luke Appert. Carlos Rojas came
around to score from second base on an attempted double play when
Appert threw wide of first.
Tillman finished the night
allowing just three hits and two walks while striking out eight batters
through 6.0 shutout innings. Tillman has returned to his early-season
form lately, with four consecutive starts of 6.0 innings. He has
allowed just five runs in that span (24.0 IP) and has struck out 35
batters.
Wilfredo Perez came on for Tillman in the bottom of
the seventh and ran into some trouble. Joey Hammond led off the inning
and greeted him with a solo homerun to left. Perez got Neil Sellers to
ground out but catcher John Suomi smashed a triple to center field.
Perez struck out the next batter, Michael Spidale, but then gave up a
base hit to Luke Appert, scoring Suomi and cutting the Bowie lead to
7-2.
The Baysox made it 8-2 in the eighth. Torrealba hit a
leadoff double, his third knock of the contest, and moved to third on a
wild pitch with two away. Blake Davis capitalized and brought Torrealba
in to score with a base hit up the middle.
Perez settled down
after his shaky start and finished allowing those two runs on three
hits over 2.0 innings. Chad Thall came on to work the bottom of the
ninth and allowed two hits but no runs to close out the Phillies.
With the victory, the Baysox improve to 77-54 on the year, still 3.0
games ahead of Akron for first place in the Southern Division. With
their victory and a Harrisburg loss Wednesday, the Baysox magic number
is down to just three. The Baysox will look to whittle it down even
further Thursday with RHP Zach Clark (2-1, 2.93 ERA) going up against
Reading LHP Antonio Bastardo (2-4, 3.57).
If you like the daily news of the Raw Feed, SUBSCRIBE TODAY to the nation's only alternative professional sports magazine, SZ, with original features and great action photography in baseball, hockey, basketball, and football. Just $11.99 per year for an e-zine like you’ve never seen!
View Printer Friendly Version
Email Article to Friend