April 17, 2023 at 7:00 AM
Cup of Coffee: Yorke, Paulino homer for first time this season
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For the fifth time in six days, Worcester fell to the Clippers in Sunday's series finale at Polar Park. Norwith Gudino, making his second start and fourth overall appearance of the season for Worcester, allowed three runs on three hits, one walk, and two strikeouts over two innings of work. Taylor Broadway and Oddanier Mosqueda each got tagged for three runs as well. Cam Booser and Jake Thompson then combined for two scoreless frames of relief before Ryan Sherriff gave up one run on three straight hits in the ninth. Worcester's lone run came on an RBI single off the bat of Nick Sogard in the bottom of the second. Jorge Alfaro was the only member of the WooSox lineup to record multiple hits, as the three-hole hitter went 2-for-4 with a pair of singles.
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The Sea Dogs saw their three-game winning streak come to a close against the Fisher Cats on Sunday. Wyatt Olds, making his second start of the year for Portland, yielded two earned runs on one hit, four walks, and two hit batsmen to go along with three strikeouts over 1 2/3 innings. Only 24 of the 53 pitches the right-hander threw went for strikes. Skylar Arias, Brendan Cellucci, Brendan Nail, and Dylan Spacke then combined for 6 1/3 innings out of the bullpen with just one run, which was scored off Cellucci in the bottom of the fifth.
Nick Yorke got the scoring started for Portland by crushing his first career Double-A homer with two outs and the bases empty in the top of the third inning. The Sea Dogs' only other run came on an RBI single from Niko Kavadas in the eighth. Yorke went 1 for 2 with the home run, two walks, and one stolen base, while Kavadas had a 1-for-3 day with the run-scoring single and one walk. Leadoff man Phillip Sikes accounted for one-third of Portland's total hits by going 2 for 4 with one run scored and one stolen base.
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After a rough season debut in his last time out, Juan Daniel Encarnacion bounced back for Greenville on Sunday. Making his second start of the season, the 22-year-old right-hander allowed just one run on four hits, one walk, and two hit batsman to go along with five strikeouts over five solid innings of work. Of the 73 pitches he threw, 47 went for strikes. In relief of Encarnacion, Casey Cobb and Aaron Perry each gave up one run out of the Drive bullpen before Jaret Godman picked up the save by fanning two of the three batters he faced in a scoreless ninth inning.
Eddinson Paulino provided some early offense for Greenville by homering on the very first pitch he saw to lead off the bottom of the first. An inning later, Alex Erro plated Max Ferguson with a line-drive RBI single. In the sixth, the Drive doubled their run total when Marcelo Mayer scored on a wild pitch and Blaze Jordan scored on a ground-rule double from Eduardo Lopez. Paulino, Erro, Ferguson, and Lopez each had one hit. Jordan led the way by going 2 for 4 out of the cleanup spot.
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A seven-run first inning is what did the Red Sox in on Sunday. Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz lasted just one-third of an inning in his second start of the season for Salem. The 19-year-old allowed seven runs (all unearned after a pair of errors) on five hits and 25 pitches (17 strikes) before getting the hook in favor of Gabriel Jackson. Jackson, Felix Cepeda, Michael Valera, and Nathan Landry followed to combine for 7 2/3 innings of relief. Salem's lineup was held to just three hits, and two of them belonged to Luis Ravelo.
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Player of the Day: Following Sunday's performance in which he reached base three times, Nick Yorke is now batting .231/.444/.385 with one double, one home run, one RBI, nine runs scored, one stolen base, nine walks, and eight strikeouts through his first eight games (36 plate appearances) with Portland. The 21-year-old's .444 on-base percentage currently ranks eighth among qualified hitters in the Eastern League.
Photo Credit: Nick Yorke by Kelly O'Connor