April 7, 2022 at 7:00 AM
Cup of Coffee: Casas and Cordero homer as WooSox remain perfect
4/7 Cup of Coffee: For a second straight night, the
WooSox were the only show in town among Boston's minor-league affiliates on
Wednesday. Triston Casas, Franchy Cordero (pictured), and Yolmer
Sanchez all hit their first home runs of the season. Ryan Fitzgerald
collected three hits in four trips to the plate. The WooSox bullpen combined to
allow just one run on one hit in 4 1/3 innings of relief.
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Worcester improved to 2-0 on the young season with a win
over Jacksonville on Wednesday night. Facing off against former first-round pick
Braxton Garrett, Yolmer Sanchez got the scoring started for his side
with a game-tying solo home run in the third inning. Ryan Fitzgerald
built off of his strong Opening Day with an RBI single in the fourth that
pulled Worcester back to within one run of Jacksonville at 3-2. Triston
Casas led off the sixth inning and crushed his first home run of the year to the opposite field. After Rob Refsnyder drew a walk, Franchy
Cordero tied things up at 5-5 with a two-run blast to left-center. Jeter
Downs went 1 for 4 on the night with a seventh-inning single and scored on
an RBI base hit from Refsnyder. Refsnyder later scored on a Cordero single to give Worcester a 7-6 lead.
Thomas Pannone, a Rhode Island native, made his first
start of the season for Worcester. The 27-year-old left-hander allowed five
runs (four earned) on eight hits and zero walks to go along with four
strikeouts over 4 2/3 innings of work. Pannone’s night came to an end after
serving up a two-run home run. He made way for Taylor Cole,
who retired the only batter he faced in the fifth. From there, John Schreiber
yielded one run on two hits across two innings of relief, Geoff Hartlieb
retired the side in order in the eighth, and Durbin Feltman tossed a
scoreless ninth to earn his first save of the season.
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Player of the Day: Franchy Cordero is coming
off an impressive spring in which he slashed .478/.500/.652 with four doubles
over 13 Grapefruit League games. One of the key players acquired in the Andrew
Benintendi trade, Cordero had a rough go of things at the major-league level
last year. But the 27-year-old managed to post a .931 OPS with Worcester in
2021 and could very well garner big-league consideration once again at some
point in 2022.
Photo credit: Franchy Cordero by Kelly O'Connor