(June 9, 2021 – Waldorf, Md.): Alex Sanabia tossed a three-hitter as the York Revolution trounced the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, 12-1 on Wednesday night at Regency Furniture Stadium for the 400th road victory in franchise history. The win is the second straight for the Revs who claim their first series victory of the season and pull within 1.5 games of first place in the North Division, going for the series sweep on Thursday night before returning home to kick off a 12-game homestand on Friday evening.
The Revs jumped ahead with two runs in the first as the league’s top team in doubles used three two-base hits to produce a pair of runs. Edwin Figuera cracked a one-out double down the left field line and came home as Rashad Crawford followed with an RBI double to the alley in right-center. With two outs, league RBI leader Carlos Franco blasted an RBI double off the center field fence for his 16th RBI of the season and 13th in the last six games.
More extra-base hits increased the lead in the fourth, this time in the form of back-to-back round trippers as Welington Dotel crushed his first homer of the year on a drive to left, and Carlos Castro followed with his second in as many nights on a missile to left to go on top 4-0.
Blue Crabs starter Daryl Thompson retired eight straight after the homers, but was knocked from the game with a big seventh inning as the Revs batted around for the 10th time in their first 12 games, scoring five times to balloon the lead to 9-0. Castro led it off with a triple down the left field line and scored on a one-out single to left center by Yan Sanchez. Edwin Figuera added an RBI single of his own to left-center, chasing Thompson (2-1) who would eventually be charged with eight runs in his 6.1 innings. Crawford kept the rally going with an RBI single to right-center and Nellie Rodriguez picked up an RBI on a ground ball error.
The Revs added three more against the Blue Crabs bullpen in the eighth on a two-run single up the middle from Rodriguez who extended his season-opening hitting streak to 12 consecutive games in the process, and an RBI knock up the gut from Franco.
While the offense produced double digits in runs for a sixth consecutive game, the leading role in the milestone victory belonged to Sanabia (3-0) who earned his fourth career complete game and went at least eight innings for the first time since 2012 while at Triple-A with the Miami Marlins. It was the first nine-inning and complete game performance in the league this season, while Sanabia becomes the league’s first to three victories.
The Blue Crabs managed only a third inning bunt single from Joe DeLuca through the first five frames until Michael Baca led off the home sixth with a soft liner to left-center for their first outfield hit of the night. Leading 4-0 at the time, Sanabia walked Zach Collier to put the first two aboard and fell behind Kent Blackstone 2-0 before coming back for a big strike out, a ground out of Dario Pizzano on a diving play by Sanchez at second, and an inning-ending ground out off the bat of Josh McAdams.
That kickstarted a stretch of nine straight retired until Blackstone fought his way on with a walk to begin the ninth. Pizzano singled to right putting runners at the corners on the Blue Crabs’ third hit all night. Sanabia came back strong in his bid for the 11th complete game shutout in Revs history and the seventh in a nine-inning game, striking out both McAdams and David Harris, but pinch-hitter Kevin Whatley reached on a fielder’s choice allowing Blackstone to score, breaking up the shutout with two outs in the ninth. Sanabia came back to retire Jake Luce on a fly ball to center, putting the complete game masterpiece in the books and capping a 125-pitch effort.
Notes: The win is the 499th as Revolution manager for Mark Mason. The Revs boast the league’s top three in RBI (Franco 17, Rodriguez 16, Castro 15) and runs (Crawford 16, Darian Sandford 14, Figuera 13). Castro finished a double short of the cycle and has homered on back-to-back nights; he is now 14-for-26 on a six-game hitting streak. The Revs have now hit 11 of their 12 home runs in the last six games. York righty Duke von Schamann (1-1, 6.30) will face Southern Maryland right-hander Mike Devine (0-2, 8.76) on Thursday at 6:35 p.m. Revs fans can catch the action live on SportsRadio 98.9 FM, 1350 WOYK, 989woyk.com, and The New WOYK app beginning at 6:15 p.m. with Darrell Henry on the call.
