For the second straight night, the York Revolution received an outstanding start on the mound but were unable to take advantage, falling to the Long Island Ducks, 14-0 on Saturday night at PeoplesBank Park. The Revs have started a season with back-to-back defeats for the first time since 2008 and will look to salvage the Opening Weekend series finale on Sunday at 1 p.m.
The Ducks offense did its initial damage in the second inning. David Washington led off the inning with a walk and stole second. Matt den Dekker followed with a walk and both runners executed a double steal to get into scoring position with no outs. Grimes retired Ivan DeJesus Jr. on a sharp line drive to center, but a David Fields RBI groundout gave the Ducks the 1-0 lead.
The Ducks tacked on two more in the top of the 3rd. With runners on first and second, Steve Lombardozzi dropped down a sacrifice bunt to third base. An errant throw allowed both runners to score, pushing the lead to 3-0.
Long Island broke the game wide open with an eight-run top of the sixth that included an RBI single from Hector Sanchez, a Rey Fuentes RBI single, a Kirk Nieuwenhuis three-run home run, and a DeJesus Jr. two-run double.
The Ducks scored two in the eighth on a bases loaded walk to den Dekker and a Rando Moreno sacrifice fly. They added one more in the ninth courtesy of a Lombardozzi RBI single to reach the 14-0 final score. It matched the largest shut out defeat suffered by the Revs in franchise history (July 16, 2009 vs. Southern Maryland).
The lone star for the Revolution was starting pitcher Matt Grimes (0-1) who went six strong innings allowing just three runs (one earned), two hits, four strikeouts and four walks. He retired his final seven batters and worked a seven-pitch frame in his final inning of the night in the sixth.
Ducks starter Tim Melville (1-0) allowed just three hits over six shutout innings and fanned six to earn the win. The Revs were limited to five hits with no more than one occurring in any inning.
Notes: Revs starting pitchers have allowed just one earned run on five hits over 11.0 innings. The Ducks scored 14 runs on eight hits and have plated 26 runs on just 22 hits in the series. The Revs will look to salvage the finale on Sunday at 1 p.m. as lefty Dustin Richardson makes his first start with York. Long Island will counter with southpaw Darin Downs. It is a Sunday Family Funday presented by Weis Markets featuring pre-game autographs & catch on the field sessions and post-game kids run the bases. It is also Bark in the Park presented by East York Veterinary Center and there will be Central PA Heroes Appearances. Tickets are on sale at YorkRevolution.com, (717) 801-HITS, and in-person at the Revs Ticket Office.
Recap by Brett Pietrzak
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