Wilmington cleanup and designated hitter Cliff Robinson doubled to lead off the bottom of the fourth inning and scored the game’s only run on consecutive ground outs by Eric Hosmer and Nick Van Stratten as the host Blue Rocks opened their Carolina League series against the Lynchburg Hillcats with a 1-0 victory, Monday night before a crowd of close to 5,000 at Frawley Stadium.
Blue Rocks center fielder and leadoff hitter Derrick Robinson (no relation) had the only other extra-base hit in a game that featured just 11 hits between the two teams.
Eduardo Paulino improved to 4-6 with the victory for Wilmington, yielding just three hits and fanning four in seven innings.
Matt McSwain fell to 8-6 with the loss despite allowing just one run on six hits through seven frames, striking out two.
Both teams’ pitchers worked fast and threw strikes in a game that lasted only 2 hours and 5 minutes.
Wilmington reliever Brandon Sisk issued the game’s only walk, to Jared Keel with two outs in the ninth, before striking out the only other batter he faced — Jordy Mercer, who was caught looking — to nail down his 11th save.
With Keel facing Sisk in the ninth, Jose De Los Santos stole his 41st base of the season. (Derrick Robinson leads the Carolina League with 50 steals.)
The first-half Northern Division champion Hillcats (11-19 in the second half) slipped to nine and a half games behind Potomac (21-10) and five behind the Blue Rocks (16-14) in the second-half standings. Lynchburg (56-43) trails the Nationals (57-40) and leads Wilmington (54-45) by two games in the overall standings.
Game 2 is scheduled for 7:05 tonight before the series wraps up at noon on Wednesday and the Hillcats return to Lynchburg to start a four-game series with Frederick on Thursday.
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