Two-out rally leads RailRiders to rout of WooSox
Aug. 10—MOOSIC — It looked like a wasted opportunity for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Ronald Guzmán started the fourth inning by roping a double to the gap, but was thrown out at third trying to advance on a ground ball, leaving the RailRiders with a runner on first and two outs.
Didn't seem to matter.
The RailRiders tagged Worcester starter Victor Santos for five runs the rest of the inning, and knocked the Red Sox for 14 hits and four home runs to start the series with a 10-2 win at PNC Field on Tuesday.
The RailRiders (55-50) moved to five games over .500 for the first time this season and are 3 1/2 games out of first place in the International League East.
Chris Owings, Tyler Wade, Phillip Evans and Michael Beltre had the homers. Owings' solo shot cut Worcester's lead to 2-1 in the third and Wade's two-run blast two batters later gave them their first lead of the night. Evans and Beltre went back to back in the seventh off reliever Durbin Feltman, with Beltre's his second in two games — not counting Sunday's suspended contest against Buffalo that will be resumed in September.
"We hadn't seen that guy (Santos), came up from Double-A, and took an at-bat to get through that," RailRiders manager Doug Davis said. "When they figured out what he was throwing, what everything looked like, the shape of his pitches, they just got on some balls. He left some balls up and guys really got him."
With three runs already home in the fourth, Santos exited after walking Wade to put two on base. Oswaldo Cabrera welcomed reliever Geoff Hartlieb with a line drive single over his head, tacking on two more runs to Santos' ledger. The righty allowed eight runs on eight hits — six of them going for extra bases — walked one and struck out two.
"Chris started with that long home run to left center, and then it just kind of followed suit with the home runs," Davis said. "Just really, a lot of hard-hit balls. I thought when they got pitches to hit, we did a lot of damage tonight. Just a ton of good at-bats."
Owings finished with three hits, coming a triple shy of the cycle. Beltre added a double to his home run. Add in his two walks Sunday, and Beltre has been on base five times in three games since returning to Triple-A.
"I am very, very excited to be a part of it (the offense)," Beltre said through a translator. "It's almost like it's contagious. I feel really good to be apart of it."
RailRiders starter Matt Krook (7-7) picked up his seventh win of the season, tying reliever Zach Greene for the team lead. He allowed two unearned runs over six innings, striking out six. He walked five, but used seven groundouts and three double plays to maneuver out of the traffic.
"When you have Krook on the mound and you know that you're going to get a really good outing out of him, it's going to be tough on the opposing team," Davis said.
Worcester had the bases loaded with one out in the first inning thanks to two walks by Krook and a catcher's interference from Ben Rortvedt. Pedro Castellanos' potential double play ball bounced off Guzmán's glove at first, allowing one run to score, then with two outs, Jeter Downs lined an RBI single to left. Enmanuel Valdez tried to make it a two-run single, but Wade came up throwing and hit Rortvedt on one hop to end the inning and limit Worcester to a 2-0 lead.
Worcester managed to get just one runner past second base the rest of the way against Krook, with double plays ending the third and the sixth inning, and erasing a leadoff walk in the fifth.
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