The Salem Red Sox are back on the road this week after going 2-4 in last week’s homestand with the Delmarva Shorebirds. The Sox are off to Zebulon, NC this week to take on the Carolina League North Division leading Carolina Mudcats.
The Mudcats, a Milwaukee Brewers farm team, are 29-15 following last week’s results and three and a half games ahead of second place Lynchburg in the North Division standings. Salem finished the homestand at 19-25, exactly 10 games behind the Mudcats.
Last week in Salem the Sox dropped the first two games of the six game series with Delmarva, losing 11-9 and 14-4. They bounced back with a 10-3 win on Thursday, lost 11-5 on Friday then won 4-3 Saturday in front of a big crowd to see the Zooperstars promotion. Yoeilin Cespedes and Natanael Yuten had two hits each and Jay Allmer picked up the win with three one-hit innings of shutout ball in relief for Salem.
On Sunday the Sox had a chance to break even for the week and had a 5-2 lead after five innings. However, the Birds scored two in the sixth, two in the seventh and one in the eighth to pull out a 7-5 “get-away day” win and take the series four games to two.
On Tuesday outfielder Enddy Azocar was assigned to Salem from the FCL Red Sox. Also, the Portland Sea Dogs sent righthand pitcher Noah Song to the Sox on a rehab assignment last weekend. Song, a hard-throwing righthander, pitched a scoreless first inning Saturday, striking out two of the three batters he faced.
After this week’s series in Zebulon the Sox will return home June 3rd to host Lynchburg for six games.