(June 4, 2018) – The York Revolution fell behind in a wild first inning and were unable to come back, dropping their series opener to the New Britain Bees, 6-4 on Monday evening at New Britain Stadium. The loss is the third straight for York (16-15) after winning each of the previous three games and six of the previous seven.
The first inning proved problematic for both starting pitchers.
Jared Mitchell greeted Bees starter Mark Hamburger with a nine-pitch walk to start the night and took second on a ground out. Welington Dotel reached on an infield single to extend his league-best hitting streak to 16 consecutive games, and Michael Burgess gave the Revs a quick lead with an RBI single to left. An error loaded the bases for Jose Cuevas, who picked up an RBI on a fielder's choice. Luis Cruz capped the rally with a run-scoring broken bat infield single for a 3-0 lead.
After the York offense forced Hamburger to throw 39 pitches in the top of the first, the Bees did the exact same to Revs starter Zac Grotz, sending ten men to the plate and scoring five times to take the early lead.
James Skelton got things going for New Britain with a leadoff double down the left field line and scored on a single to right from Deibinson Romero. Matt Tuiasosopo added an RBI single with one out, and Jamar Walton put the Bees ahead with a two-run single to right. Ozney Guillen drove in the fifth run on a fielder's choice lined off Cuevas' hand at third as New Britain grabbed an early 5-3 advantage.
Grotz allowed nothing further and was outstanding the rest of the night, retiring 17 of his final 19 batters including ten straight at one point.
Hamburger silenced the Revs over the following five innings as well, allowing just a bunt single by Alexi Casilla in the second and a Zach Wilson double in the third. The Revs were denied as several hard hit balls were hit directly at New Britain fielders for outs.
Mitchell tagged a double down the left field line with one out in the seventh, extending his hitting streak to 10 consecutive games. The Revs' leadoff man scored as Casilla followed with an RBI double chopped down the first base line, bringing York within 5-4. Hamburger bounced back to record a ground out before giving way to lefty Jim Fuller, who struck out Burgess to end the inning with the tying run at second.
New Britain recovered its two-run lead in the bottom of the seventh on a solo homer down the left field line by Romero. The Revs contested that the ball was foul, but the home run made it a 6-4 game.
Sam Gervacio tossed a perfect eighth and Evan Scribner allowed just a one-out single to Travis Witherspoon in a scoreless ninth to pick up the save.
Hamburger (3-3) earned the win, allowing four runs (two earned) on seven hits over 6.2 innings, walking two and striking out seven.
Grotz (2-1) suffered the loss, charged with five runs on five hits and four walks while striking out seven in his six innings of work. After the first eight batters of the game, Grotz limited the Bees to just one infield hit and one walk as his final 5.2 innings were scoreless.
Notes: York drops to 1-3 on its current road trip with two games remaining. Revs relievers Zac Treece and Robert Carson were ejected for arguing the fair call from the bullpen area on Romero's home run in the seventh. Jailen Peguero worked a 1-2-3 eighth out of the Revs bullpen, and has begun his Revs career with three scoreless outings. The five-run first inning is the fourth inning of four runs or more allowed by the Revs on their current three-game slide. York lefty Pat McCoy (0-0, 0.00) makes his first start in Tuesday's game, opposite New Britain right hander Zach Stewart (2-3, 3.12) at 6:35 p.m. Revs fans can catch the action live on SportsRadio 1350, woyk1350.com, The New WOYK app, and WOYK 1350 on YouTube beginning at 6:15 p.m. with Darrell Henry on the call.
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