The Salem Red Sox finished in fifth place in the Carolina League’s North Division when the first half of the season came to a close last Thursday. The Sox were 34-32 and seven and a half games behind division winning Carolina in the division. Carolina, a farm team of the Milwaukee Brewers, clinched a spot in the Mills Cup playoffs with a 41-24 record. Lynchburg finished second at 37-29, four and a half games behind the Mudcats, followed by Down East at 35-30, Fredricksburg at 35-31 and the Red Sox were next a game and a half behind third. In the South Division Kannapolis won the first half with a 41-25 record.
The Cannon Ballers are a Chicago White Sox farm team and they finished five and a half games ahead of Columbia, a Kansas City Royals affiliate. Salem got off to a good start in the second half by winning two of three games against Augusta over the weekend. Salem won 10-4 Friday and 6-5 Saturday before dropping the getaway game Sunday, 2-1. The Green Jackets broke a 1-1 tie with a run in the top of the eighth off CJ Weins, who took the loss. Weins walked three batters in an inning and a third.
Through Sunday catcher Brooks Brannon has the best average on the active roster at .333. Brannon has played in just 12 games and has two home runs and eight runs batted in over 48 at bats. Albert Feliz leads the team with six homers while Nelly Taylor has a team high 31 runs batted in. On the mound Royman Blanco and Michael Sansone have four wins each and Sansone has a team best earned run average at 1.54 over 35 innings. JoJo Ingrassia is 3-1 with a 2.21 ERA and he’s struck out a team high 66 batters in 40.2 innings, an average of over a strike out and half per inning.
The Sox will continue their longest homestand of the season this week with six games against Fredricksburg, a Washington Nationals farm team. Tonight is Diversity Night and Friday features the popular “Tyler’s Amazing Balancing Act.” Saturday is “Friends Night” with a t-shirt giveaway. After Sunday’s 3:05 pm start the Sox won’t have a home game for the first 18 days of July, mostly because the Salem Fair is coming to town. They’re at Lynchburg from July 1-6 and at Down East from July 9-14 followed by another four days off for the Major League All-Star game.
