The Wilmington Blue Rocks wasted a dominating outing from their starting pitcher Foster Griffin in the 3-2 extra innings loss vs the Carolina Mudcats.
Griffin was unhittable for the six innings he pitched and just left the Mudcats hitters dazed and confused.
Griffin went 6 innings, 3 hits, 0 runs, 0 ERs, 6 Ks and 0.82 ERA in the game.
Rocks Manager Jamie Quirk talked about the groove that Griffin has been in recently:
“Throwing strikes and the command of his fastball is the biggest thing to me. He’s getting ahead of hitters and it’s two starts in a row with no walks. That’s outstanding. He has a lot of confidence right now and he’s pounding the strike zone.”
When Griffin left the game the Rocks were leading 1-0, heading into the 7th inning. Then things got ugly for the Rocks as relief pitcher Colin Rodgers came in for Griffin and gave up two runs in the 7th inning.
Rodgers went 3 innings, 3 hits, 2 runs, 2 ERs, 2 walks and 2 Ks in the game.
Then when the game went into extras, pitcher Franco Terrero came in and gave up the winning run with Mudcats Troy Stokes Jr. hitting a sacrifice fly to win the game 3-2 in the 10th inning.
The bullpen cannot take all the blame for this game, the Wilmington offense should take some heat for the loss as well as they did not show up at all.
Rocks Left Fielder Anderson Miller got the Blue Rocks on the board in the 4th inning with a fielder’s choice that scored Second Baseman D. J. Burt.
Then in the 8th inning, First Baseman Travis Maezes homered to tie the game at 2-2 and that would be the last time the Rocks scored in the game.
Rocks continue to struggle with runners in scoring position going 0 for 5 and leaving 6 men on base.
Rocks manager Quirk acknowledged the team’s offensive struggles after Wednesday’s loss:
“Foster (Griffin) was outstanding and two times in a row he hasn’t allowed a walk. Rodgers was good as well he had the one ball to right field over Collin’s that should have been caught. That setup the whole inning. We have to get those big hits. We were 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position and we just can’t get that big hit. The winning run at second base with two outs and couldn’t get a big hit. Other than that, the pitching has been keeping us in the ballgame we just need to find that clutch hit.”
“They’ve all been one-run games. We are on hit away from winning and possibly winning four games in a row. I have total confidence in the lineup. They’ll settle in. We have a couple of young guys struggling right now. That’s part of the game, trying to learn to relax and slow the game down. The good ones will find a way to do it and they will.”
Blue Rocks head on their first road trip of the season to face the Potomac Nationals at G. Richard Pfitzner Stadium on Thursday. Game start at 7:05pm ET.