The Red Wings (Nationals AAA) and WooSox postponed the final game of this series until the week of June 9-14 after yesterday’s storm that made the Red Sox game such a mess. Rochester and Worcester, unlike Boston and Minnesota, face each other another time this season, so it was an easy decision to pull the plug.
Further up the Atlantic coast in Maine, the forecast was clear enough to get a ballgame in. And, it’s a Portland game, so you know Franklin Arias had a clutch hit. In extra innings, after a bit of a pitchers’ duel featuring Patrick Halligan going 3 1/3 in long relief with just one hit allowed, Arias hit a triple. In running to third rather than staying at second, he gave the team a 83.3% chance of winning, a .409 WPA, and even though he was subsequently thrown out, Johanfran Garcia would later drive the winning run in in a walk-off. Garcia and Brooks Brannon being two catching prospects who have a propensity for finding big moments and getting hits in those big moments feels awesome, since that’s such an anomaly in recent years through most systems.
This game was helped by strong pitching, where Salem arms allowed just four hits. Truth be told, the offense was so automatic Sunday afternoon in Lynchburg that they would have been fine. Stanley Tucker had his third home run of the season in the third inning, a frame in which Salem scored seven runs, Angus King stole two bases despite striking out three times and Avinson Pinto had another multi-hit game.
