Blue Rocks still searching for right chord
May 5, 2010 • By Ron Ross, Staff Reporter
Filed under Sports, Top Stories
Editor’s Note: As part of his senior project, aspiring sportswriter Ron Ross recently sat in the press box for a Wilmington Blue Rocks game and shadowed a professional reporter. The following is Ron’s game story.
WILMINGTON – On a day when Pencader Charter High School’s choir sang an excellent rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, the Wilmington Blue Rocks followed up with a sour note.
Wilmington blew a three-run sixth-inning lead and fell to the Kinston Indians 7-4 in the first game of a double header played on April 22. The Blue Rocks did rebound in the second game with a 4-3 victory, making them 6-8 on the season.
Because the previous night’s game was postponed due to rain, both games of the double header were scheduled for seven innings.
In the first game, the Blue Rocks, who are a Carolina League affiliate of the Kansas City Royals, kept with their tradition of blowing games that seem wrapped up. Kinston scored three runs in the sixth inning and three more in the ninth to steal the game.
Wilmington built up a 4-1 advantage on solid pitching, timely hitting, and clutch defensive plays from both the infield and the outfield. Chris Dwyer, the Blue Rock’s fourth-round draft choice out of Clemson, was excellent in five strong innings of work, striking out six batters and allowing only two hits.
Dwyer entered the season as the ninth-rated prospect in the Royals farm system and was a star all-around athlete in high school as he lettered five times in baseball, four times in football, and once in basketball at Salisbury Prep School in Connecticut.
Wilmington jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning with runs from Adrian Ortiz, Patrick Norris, and Eric Hosmer.
Hosmer opened the season with an 11-game hitting streak and is considered one of the Blue Rocks best players. He was selected by the Royals out of American Heritage High School in Florida in the first round of the 2008 draft, the third pick overall.
Kinston cut into the lead in the third inning when Roman Pena scored, but the Blue Rocks made it 4-1 in the fourth when struggling first baseman Jason Taylor crushed a home run over the wall in left field.
The tone of the game changed in the sixth when reliever Eric Basurto replaced Dwyer, who up to that point had been pitching with excellent power and control. Basurto started the sixth inning but did not finish it.
Kinston quickly loaded the bases after singles by Nate Recknagle and Abner Abreu, followed by Basurto walking Kyle Bellows. Recknagle would then score on a hotly contested balk call against Basurto to cut the score to 4-2. Kinston tied the game on a clutch two-run double from veteran Adam Davis.
Blue Rock’s manager Brian Rupp replaced Basurto with reliever Buddy Baumann, who got the last out of the inning – with a little help from his defense. Davis was trying to score the go-ahead run but was gunned down at home on an amazing throw from right fielder Adrian Ortiz.
The game remained 4-4 after seven innings and went into extra innings, and in the ninth Kinston rallied. Baumann was replaced by the right-handed Manauris Baez. Kinston loaded the bases after a Donnie Webb single, Lucas Montero walk, and Abreu single.
Richard Martinez then roped a double to left field to bring in all three runners.
Wilmington couldn’t find any offense in the bottom of the ninth and suffered a gut-wrenching loss that took more than three hours to finish.
Fortunately for Wilmington, there was a second game to follow. Trailing 3-2 in the second game, the Blue Rocks scored two runs in the fifth to capture their own come-from-behind victory, and the 4-3 win enabled them to come out of the double header with a split.
“Tonight was just one of those nights,” said first-year manager Rupp. “It didn’t go well for either team. We just kept gutting it out and found a way to win in the end. It wasn’t real pretty, but we’ll definitely take it.”
Still, by letting the first-game lead slip away, Rupp knows that his team let a golden opportunity to move up in the standings slip away after starting the game on a high note.
“We’ve been struggling swinging the bats and scoring any runs,” said Rupp. “We came out in that first game and scored three runs early, but unfortunately that lead didn’t hold up. We had a bunch of chances to win late in that first game. They made some great plays defensively. We couldn’t find a way to get that extra run in.”
With a long minor league season ahead of them, the Blue Rocks must find a way to be more consistent. If they can do that, there is still time to turn this season of discord into one of harmony.
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Wow, Ron! You have the longest article I’ve seen so far, good job!
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There may be some hope for the Royals. With the 2010 draft successful for the Royals, the single-A Blue Rocks may be able to find some consistency with their new players. But there also has to be some change to how the starters are handled in the minors, particularly the innings. Yes, the innings are supposed to increase from year to year, but most starters will only go 5 innings in a usually 7-9 inning game. There also has to be some player development changes if the Royals expect to make it to the playoffs from the players from AAA down. And to top it off, the Royals are considering trading Zach Greinke; even though they demand major-league ready players (particularly in the pitching department), I expect some teams to offer top prospects, and if it doesn’t work out, expect Greinke to be on the free agent market next season and most likely end up somewhere else with KC only getting 2 compensation picks for his signing instead of trading him this winter or before the 2011 trade deadline.
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