PAPILLION, NE.: Josh Lester drove in four runs, Jamie Westbrook went deep, and starting pitcher Joey Wentz held Omaha off the scoreboard as the Toledo Mud Hens defeated the Storm Chasers, 7-2, for their fifth straight win on Thursday evening at Werner Park.
The five-game winning streak is the longest
PAPILLION, NE.: Josh Lester drove in four runs, Jamie Westbrook went deep, and starting pitcher Joey Wentz held Omaha off the scoreboard as the Toledo Mud Hens defeated the Storm Chasers, 7-2, for their fifth straight win on Thursday evening at Werner Park.
The five-game winning streak is the longest for the franchise since the Mud Hens won eight consecutive games from August 21-29 last season.
Lester set the tone offensively with a key home run in the first inning. After a Daz Cameron two-out knock, he swatted an opposite field long ball, his fourth of the year, off Marcelo Martinez to open the scoring and give Toledo a 2-0 advantage.
Lester again came through in the clutch in the top of the third, plating Brady Policelli and Zack Short with a double to bump the lead to 4-0.
Westbrook drove in Lester as part of a two-run blast in the top of the fifth, exiting the yard for the third time this season to make it 6-0 Toledo.
Lester reached base four times on the evening, going 2-3 at the dish with one home run, 4 RBIs, two walks, and two runs scored. He is 4-10 with two homers, seven runs driven in, and four runs scored over his last two assignments, raising his average by 32 points in the process.
Martinez (1-2) was saddled with the loss for Omaha, surrendering six earned runs, three walks, and six hits with five strikeouts mixed in over 4 and 1/3’s innings.
Meanwhile, Wentz held Omaha in check through 4 and 2/3’s frames, limiting the Chasers to two walks and two hits while racking up four punchouts. It was the first time that Wentz has held the opposition off the board this season.
After 18 consecutive scoreless innings, Angelo Castellano drove in MJ Melendez in the bottom of the sixth to cut the deficit to 6-1. This was Omaha’s first run scored since the bottom of the fifth inning on Tuesday afternoon.
Ricardo Pinto yielded just the one run on four hits and a walk over three outs for the Hens out of the bullpen. Miguel Del Pozo (1-2) wiggled Toledo out of that sixth inning jam and threw a scoreless seventh inning to earn the win. Nolan Blackwood fanned two of the batters he faced as part of a scoreless eighth.
The clubs traded single tallies in the ninth inning. Short doubled to start off the stanza, went to third on a single by Kody Clemens, and touched up on an RBI groundout by Cameron. Vinnie Pasquantino’s sacrifice fly with the bases loaded against Drew Carlton brought in Omaha’s final run of the contest.
Short moved his hitting streak to a season-best six games by going 2-4 with a double, a walk, and two runs scored. The Mud Hens shortstop is slashing .545 (6-11) this series and is 10-21 (.476) at the plate during this six-game stretch.
Speaking of hitting streaks, Clemens advanced his own knock streak to ten consecutive games, which is a team-high through the first 20 games of the campaign.
NEXT UP: The Mud Hens push for an outright series victory on Friday evening at Werner Park. The contest commences with a 7:35 p.m. EDT first pitch.