Salem Red Sox shut out by Wilmington
1. 41-vehicle wreck ties up traffic Sunday on I-81 in Rockbridge County
2. Virginia Tech football roster has holes on picture day
3. Medicare penalties hit hospitals in Roanoke, New River Valleys
4. Microfestivus beer event gets downtown Roanoke hopping
5. McFarling: 2 little numbers are a big hurdle for Virginia Tech football
6. DAN CASEY: Copter cost still stirring up dust
7. Arrest made in case of missing Nelson County teen
8. Roanoke farmers markets making local foods more accessible
9. Virginia attorney general's office grows under Ken Cuccinelli
10. Man's drowning is 5th in Lynchburg area
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
RAINLESS DELAY: Predicting the weather is a tricky thing. Just ask everybody who was at Salem Memorial Ballpark on Tuesday night.
After delaying the start of the game 44 minutes in anticipation — but no arrival — of bad weather, Salem and Wilmington ultimately got going, but they finished just five innings until the heavy stuff came.
The game went in the books as a 3-0 Wilmington victory. Those who were there, though, are most likely to remember the storm that wasn’t.
CALCULATED DECISION: The skies were cloudy but the air was dry at the scheduled 7:05 p.m. game time. But as they do before every game, the grounds crew, umpires, general manager and team managers all consulted the radar before the starting pitchers warmed up.
“There was weather in the area,” Salem skipper Billy McMillon said. “We didn’t want to start and have it start raining 20 minutes later.”
So they waited … and waited … and waited. Still nothing.
NO REGRETS: The players eventually warmed up and took the field, and the first pitch was thrown at 7:49. Although the delay was for naught, McMillon said it’s always better to be cautious.
“In the minor leagues, you can’t afford to have a starter get burned,” he said. “Once you start, minor league pitchers don’t usually pitch after delays. They would do it in the big leagues — I think [David] Price waited 45 minutes and pitched — but in the minor leagues, no team would send a guy back out there after a minimum of 30-minute rain delay. To try to avoid that, we tried to wait for the weather to clear up a little bit before we started the game.”
QUICK WORK: The on-field action was mostly forgettable from a Sox perspective. Wilmington’s Jared Schlehuber broke a scoreless tie with a two-run homer in the third inning, and the Blue Rocks added an unearned run in the fifth.
The Sox managed just three hits before heavy rains arrived. The game was delayed again for a little more than an hour before officials decided to bag it.
LOOSE ENDS: The loss snapped a three-game Salem winning streak. … Sox first baseman David Chester, who homered twice on Monday, had a single and a walk in two plate appearances. … Mookie Betts and Stefan Welch had Salem’s other hits.
ON DECK: The Sox send RHP Heri Quevedo (4-5, 4.60) to the mound at 11 a.m. today. He’ll face Wilmington RHP J.C. Sulbaran (0-2, 9.58) in the finale of the three-game set.
1. 41-vehicle wreck ties up traffic Sunday on I-81 in Rockbridge County
2. Virginia Tech football roster has holes on picture day
3. Medicare penalties hit hospitals in Roanoke, New River Valleys
4. Microfestivus beer event gets downtown Roanoke hopping
5. McFarling: 2 little numbers are a big hurdle for Virginia Tech football
6. DAN CASEY: Copter cost still stirring up dust
7. Arrest made in case of missing Nelson County teen
8. Roanoke farmers markets making local foods more accessible
9. Virginia attorney general's office grows under Ken Cuccinelli
10. Man's drowning is 5th in Lynchburg area
THE ROANOKE TIMES
