2-hit wonder
The Rome Braves only record two hits in Friday’s loss to Greenville at State Mutual Stadium.
On Thursday, the Braves couldn’t stop getting hits, recording 15 on the way to an easy win against Greenville.
Friday night was different.
Rome was no-hit through the first six innings of the game and could only produce two all night as it fell 3-1 to the Greenville Drive. The Braves seemed out of sorts at the plate almost all night, with Greenville starter Jose Almonte conducting the confusion.
“We ran into a buzzsaw tonight, that’s for sure,” Rome manager Randy Ingle said. “Only got two hits, both came in the seventh. We hit a couple balls hard, but you typically gotta get more hits than that to win a ballgame.”
Each pitching staff performed well, but it was Greenville that avoided more mistakes. Other than a Carlos Castro double and Alejandro Salazar RBI single in the seventh, the Braves were nearly silent, never finding the rallies that were so frequent Thursday.
Despite a rocky first inning, Almonte managed to not allow a hit in his six innings of service. The Dominican’s steady delivery of fastballs and a breaking ball maintained control all night.
The result was Brave after Brave going down, typically through groundouts.
Rome finally showed life once Almonte left, with Castro and Salazar’s hits producing a run. But the hitting switched back off after that as the Drive’s bullpen of Anyelo Leclerc and Bobby Poyner got eight of the next nine batters out.
“We go up to try to get a quality at bat,” Ingle said. “Gotta be ready to hit the fastball and swing at strikes, and we made some contact. Just never really found the holes that led to hits.”
Braves starter Mike Soroka took his fifth loss of the season, but few could fault most of his performance. He allowed only three runs and two extra-base hits, staying in control of all but one inning.
But Greenville produced what it needed to complement Almonte’s performance. Leadoff hitter Alejandro Basabe started the scoring with a double to start the third inning, eventually scoring on a sacrifice fly.
The only inning of the game with multiple runs came in the top of the fifth, when a walk, a single and finally a double from Josh Ockimey scored two to put the Drive up 3-0.
Soroka’s night would end in the following inning.
The one similarity to Thursday night’s game was the work of Rome’s bullpen. Dalton Geekie replaced Soroka in the sixth and went 1 1-3 innings with no hits or runs, while Josh Graham struck out five straight batters en route to two scoreless innings of work.
“Our bullpen last night was phenomenal, and tonight it was great again,” Ingle said. “They just managed to get a few extra-base hits in that fifth inning, and that’s your difference in the game. Just have to take your hats off to their pitchers.”
The Braves get a chance to take the lead in the series again today when they play the Drive at State Mutual Stadium at 6 p.m.