Remember Kenta Maeda? Five-time NPB All-Star, former Dodger and Cy Young runner-up, that Kenta Maeda? Well, he’s in the Yankees’ minor league system at the age of 37 and he just carried a no-hitter against the WooSox into the eighth inning. Nathan Hickey ended up breaking it up with four outs remaining in the game by going deep. The WooSox would finish the rest of the game without another hit. The late-30’s MLB veteran Worcester had on the mound… did not do quite as well, though he did strike seven RailRiders out. 4 2/3 innings later, the score was 4-0, and it didn’t get any better for Worcester.
The Sea Dogs lineup was a near polar opposite from the WooSox, with their top three hitters taking the Sea Wolves (Tigers AA) for two hits a piece, but the rest of the lineup faltered and Eduardo Rivera and Jonathan Brand got taken for seven runs in five innings. The Sea Dogs couldn’t come back after falling to a 7-1 deficit. On a more positive note, though, Allan Castro has heated up to end this season.
Devin Futrell has looked as advertised since his promotion. Though he only went five innings, he allowed just two hits, didn’t walk anyone and didn’t allow any runs to cross the plate. Adam Smith and Isaac Stebens steered the plane smoothly throughout the rest of the game. Offensively, Greenville had no issues pulling ahead of Winston-Salem (White Sox High-A). Maximus Martin had the only extra-base knock on a night where Greenville had ten total hits, but his infield counterpart and fourth round pick from this July, Mason White, went 4-for-4 with an RBI.
Salem was the victim of two defensive errors and six stolen bases allowed in a lopsided contest that saw the team fail to get a runner in scoring position home in five attempts against the Woodpeckers (Astros A). Salem had as high as a 76% win percentage expected in the third inning, but with a lot of game left to play, Alex Bouchard couldn’t make it past the fourth inning and Adam Bates became a victim of the three walks he allowed, getting tagged for five runs even with going 4 2/3 in relief.
