(July 14, 2023 – Central Islip, NY): The York Revolution piled up a season-high 19 hits in a 9-6 victory over the Long Island Ducks on Friday night at Fairfield Properties Ballpark. The Revs jump into first place with the win, improving to 4-1 in the second half, while having won nine of their last 11 overall. Troy Stokes Jr. blasted a three-run homer and drove in a season-high-tying five runs to lead the offense. Carlos Espinal (5-2) stifled the Ducks offense in 5.1 innings to pick up the win.
The Revs jumped to an early lead as Richard Urena drilled a solo homer to right in the top of the second, his fourth in his last five games played.
Stokes Jr. crushed his three-run shot to deep left center an inning later, and Urena added a sac fly to build an early 5-0 lead.
Espinal faced one over the minimum through the first four innings, allowing just an infield hit until Alex Dickerson led off the home fifth with a triple off the right field fence and scored on a Wilson Ramos ground out to make it 5-1.
York answered right back as Trent Giambrone ripped an RBI single to left in the top of the sixth, growing the lead to 6-1.
Espinal induced a ground out to start the bottom of the sixth before giving way due to an apparent blister. The righty allowed just one run on two hits in 5.1 innings, needing only 57 pitches to record 16 outs before his potential deep outing was cut short.
The Ducks greeted reliever J.T. Hintzen with a pair of singles and a sac fly to left by Alejandro De Aza, cutting the lead to 6-2.
Hintzen settled in with a scoreless seventh, and the offense made moves to finish the job with a three-run eighth against reliever Al Albuquerque who had previously allowed just two runs in 24.0 innings all season. Jhon Nunez sparked the outburst with a double to right and with one out, Tomo Otosaka singled into right and stole second. With the infield in, Stokes Jr. (3-for-4) served a two-run single into center, accounting for the Revs’ fifth five-RBI performance of the season and his second. Drew Mendoza ripped a single into right to keep the rally moving and Trey Martin smacked a grounder past third baseman Jonathan Guzman as Stokes Jr. crossed home on the error to go up 9-2.
Guzman dumped a bloop RBI double into right field and Ruben Tejada connected on a two-run homer to left in the bottom of the eighth, knifing the lead to 9-5.
Tzu-Wei Lin drove an opposite field homer to left center with two outs in the ninth, but closer Will Carter retired Guzman on a bloop fly to center for the final out.
Notes: The Revs improve to 41-27 overall, tied with the 2011 championship squad for the best 68-game record in team history. The Revs are a season-best 14 games over .500. York’s 19-hit performance comes one day after racking up 17 hits and 13 hits the day before. Urena (2-for-4, homer, two RBI) is now 10-for-20 with four home runs and 11 RBI over his last five games. Giambrone went 3-for-6 one day after enjoying a four-hit performance. Carter saw his six-appearance scoreless streak snapped but has closed all four wins of the second half. York righty Tom Sutera (5-3) faces Long Island left-hander Kyle Lobstein (1-1) on Saturday night at 6:35 p.m. Revs fans can catch the action live on SportsRadio 98.9 FM & 1350 WOYK, 989woyk.com, The New WOYK app, and FloBaseball.TV beginning at 6:15 p.m. with Darrell Henry on the call.
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