It was a rainy day in Wilmington, Delaware on Wednesday, July 24, when the Wilmington Blue Rocks faced off against the Hudson Valley Renegades. Despite the weather, the Blue Rocks were able to take home a 4-1 win.
The game was a pitching duel through the first four innings between Trent Sellers of Hudson Valley and Seth Shuman of Wilmington.
For Sellers, this was nothing new. So far this season, he has a 7-2 record, a 2.98 ERA, and 69 strikeouts. His dominance continued on Wednesday afternoon, as the 24-year-old was perfect in his 3.2 innings of work, which dropped his ERA to 2.75. This is the third game in a row where he has been perfect, recording 29 straight outs.
Shuman was able to match Sellers throughout the game, as he also didn’t allow a baserunner and struck out three in his four innings on the hill.
This was a significant outing for Shuman, as it marked his tenth start since returning from a year-long hiatus due to a torn UCL, which resulted in the 26-year-old needing Tommy John surgery.
“Today felt really good,” Shuman said. “Over the last couple of starts, I’ve been building confidence.”
“He’s doing a very good job mixing pitches,” Lisson said. “He was throwing a lot of strikes. He just did a great job of staying in the zone.”
The game changed when Hudson Valley made a call to the bullpen in the bottom of the fifth. Sebastian Keane was the first to come out of the pen for the Renegades and struggled, as T.J. White walked to lead off the inning, and then the struggling Marcus Brown whacked a base hit into left field. This was followed by Johnathon Thomas successfully recording a sacrifice bunt to advance both runners, and Elijah Nunez hitting a sacrifice fly to score White which allowed Wilmington to take a 1-0 lead. Glasser then added on with a single to score Brown and extend the lead to two.
Catcher Maxwell Romero Jr. put an exclamation point on the game when he hit a long home run over the right-center field wall. Romero Jr. has been on fire in the month of July, as the third-year pro has delivered a .325/.426/.500 slash line.
“I felt like everything was simple on that pitch,” Romero Jr. said. “I was not looking for anything too crazy and just trying to stay with my timing.”
Romero Jr. also recorded the final RBI of the game with a sacrifice fly into center field in the bottom of the eighth. His recent success can be attributed to not trying to do too much at the plate.
“We had to make some adjustments,” Lisson said. “He is just staying with the pitches. It puts him in a much better position to stay consistent. He is showing what potential he has.”
Other than the top of the sixth inning, where Wander Arias gave up three hits, a walk, and a run, Wilmington’s pitching staff was perfect. The trio of Arias, Miguel Gomez, and Matt Cronin were consistently in lockdown mode.
“Perfect is the best word to use,” Romero Jr. said. “You see it on the scoreboard. Not just him either; besides the sixth inning, we were perfect throughout the game. I was really impressed with my pitchers.”
The Blue Rocks’ pitching has been one of their biggest strengths during their July hot streak. Whether it is Shuman, Jose Atencio, or even Bryan Caceres taking the mound on any given night, both the starting staff and bullpen are on fire.
This was Matt Cronin’s second game in a row closing out the game. After the call-ups of Todd Peterson and Marquis Grissom Jr. earlier in the season, the team has not settled on a consistent closer, but Cronin has been getting a majority of the opportunities in that role as of late.
With this win, the Rocks are over the .500 mark for the first time in the second half of the season. Mario Lisson’s squad is looking to make a playoff push, which has become a real possibility thanks to the hot streak they’ve been riding as of late.
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