Yankees use long ball to beat Blue Jays, 5-3
The Pulaski Yankees overcame a 30 minutes pregame rain delay and an early 3-0 hole to defeat the Bluefield Blue Jays, 5-3 on Thursday night at Motor Mile Field in Calfee Park. Ezequiel Duran launched his second homer of the season to give the Yankees a 5-3 lead in the fifth inning en route to the victory. Pulaski’s win snapped a season-high seven game winning streak for Bluefield.
The Blue Jays surpassed the previous night’s complete run total with three in the opening inning against Yankees’ Alexander Vizcaino. With one out, Bluefield had runners on the corners with Alejandro Kirk at the dish. A double steal attempt scored the lead runner, Cal Stevenson, and the back runner D.J. Neal stole second base and advanced to third on a throwing error.
Neal scored in the same at bat with a RBI single by Kirk to right field. Later in the half inning and still with one out, Kirk raced home on a sacrifice fly by Patrick Morris after a leaping grab by Everson Pereira in deep center field.
Pulaski began chipping away at the deficit in the bottom half of the first inning. Oswald Peraza raced to third base on a one out triple after a deep fly hit the right field wall. Peraza scored on a RBI groundout in the next at bat by Pereira to make it 3-1.
Next inning, Nelson Gomez bombed his team leading fourth homer over the left field fence to lead off the inning, bringing Pulaski within one run. Into the third inning, the Yankees drew even on a hustle play by Carlos Tatis to beat out a grounder, scoring Peraza with two outs.
In the fifth, Pereira singled into center field on a full count and advanced to second base on a wild pitch. It set the stage for Ezequiel Duran to blast his third homer of the season well beyond the left field wall to give the Yankees a 5-3 lead. Duran entered the at bat 1-for-18 on the season with runners in scoring position, but the one prior hit was a grand slam home run on June 24 against the Greeneville Reds.
Daniel Bies replaced Vizcaino on the mound after 4.2 innings despite the rough opening inning. Vizcaino allowed three runs on four hits, four walks and a strikeout. Bies pitched 2.1 innings, allowed only one hit, one walk and received his first win of the season. Carlos Espinal pitched the eighth and ninth innings and recorded the six out save to put the finishing touches on a 5-3 win.
The Pulaski Yankees conclude their three game set with the Blue Jays on the road Friday at 7:05 p.m. Luis Rijo will take the mound for the Yanks.