PAPILLION, NE.: Guided by pesky baserunning and a masterful performance on the mound from Elvin Rodriguez, the Toledo Mud Hens ended a season-high five-game losing streak by beating the Omaha Storm Chasers, 4-1, on Friday evening at Werner Park.
Rodriguez (4-2) held Omaha in check early on the way to
PAPILLION, NE.: Guided by pesky baserunning and a masterful performance on the mound from Elvin Rodriguez, the Toledo Mud Hens ended a season-high five-game losing streak by beating the Omaha Storm Chasers, 4-1, on Friday evening at Werner Park.
Rodriguez (4-2) held Omaha in check early on the way to securing his first victory over his last four starts. He went five frames on the hill, surrendering three hits, one earned run, no walks, and racking up five strikeouts. Rodriguez has now fanned five opposing hitters in five separate starts this season.
Toledo gave Rodriguez some run support by scoring the first two runs of the game in the top of the third. Zack Short coaxed a walk and Ali Sanchez singled against Storm Chasers starter Drew Parrish to lead off the stanza. Akil Baddoo drew a one-out walk to load the bases ahead of Kerry Carpenter, who grounded into a fielder’s choice to plate Short for the first tally. He was later caught stealing to end the threat, but the rundown he got into was the perfect distraction to enable Sanchez to scamper in from third for a 2-0 lead.
Parrish (1-3) was handed the losing end of the decision, yielding three hits, two earned runs, and five walks across 4 and 2/3’s innings.
Consecutive hits from Dairon Blanco and Nick Pratto set up the Storm Chasers to get on the board in the fourth inning. An RBI groundout from Michael Massey brought in Blanco for the only run Omaha could muster on the night.
An inning after they had loaded the sacks but failed to score, the Mud Hens sent eight more hitters to the plate in the sixth and manufactured an insurance tally. Derek Hill beat out a slow chopper hit towards Massey, forcing in Jamie Westbrook, to bump the Toledo advantage to 3-1.
Attentive baserunning from Short in the eighth led to Toledo’s final tally. He coaxed a two-out walk, advanced to second on a free pass given out to Sanchez, and then sprinted all the way home on a strikeout by Hill and a subsequent throwing error from Omaha catcher Freddy Fermin.
Four bullpen arms were lights out for the Mud Hens on Friday. Luis Castillo twirled a scoreless sixth in direct relief of Rodriguez. Miguel Diaz worked around a base hit over four outs. Miguel Del Pozo set down all three Storm Chasers he faced. Derek Law gave up a knock, but also struck out two hitters to close out the contest.
Baddoo reached base three more times, going 1-3 with two walks, to extend his on-base streak to 13 games. This matches the third longest such streak of the season, joining Josh Lester who also climbed aboard over 13 straight assignments from May 24 through June 7. Baddoo is maintaining a .404 average over this stretch and has hit safely in eleven of the contests.
Sanchez reached base all four times on the evening, swatting 1-1 and drawing three walks.
Brendon Davis slashed 2-5 with a double, thus registering his 19th multi-hit effort of the season.
NEXT UP: Toledo and Omaha meet back at Werner Park for the sixth time in their seven-game series on Saturday evening at 8:05 p.m. EST.