A pitchers' duel in which only the leadoff hitters seemed able to get on board ended with a bang in the bottom of the 10th inning when Yamaico Navarro belted a grand slam off the top of the wall in left center to give the Salem Red Sox a 5-1 Carolina League win over Winston-Salem at Salem Memorial Ballpark on Thursday.

Navarro, who missed all but the first game of the first half with a wrist injury, has gone 25-for-76 (.329) with seven doubles and four home runs in 19 games since his return.

He knocked in all five runs for the Red Sox (12-8) on Thursday, hitting an RBI-double in the sixth inning.

"He's fun to watch," said Salem manager Chad Epperson.

Salem needed Navarro's heroics thanks to outstanding pitching by newcomer Stephen Fife and his Winston-Salem counterpart Justin Edwards. Neither walked a batter; both gave up only a single run.

Che-Hsuan Lin set up the Red Sox as best he could, going 4-for-5 with a double from the leadoff spot.

But it wasn't until the sixth inning, when Daniel Nava bunted Lin over to second and Navarro doubled to bring him in that the Sox dented the scoreboard.

Edwards made it through eight innings, allowing just that one run on six hits, striking out four. He needed just five pitches to retire the Salem side in the fourth inning and four to do the same in the seventh.

Fife was nearly as strong in his Carolina League debut.

Though the first two batters singled, one on a bunt, Fife wriggled out of that first-inning jam and made it through the fifth inning without allowing a run.

Dale Mollenhauer, who went 3-for-5 with a double, led off the Winston-Salem sixth with a single and went to second on a sacrifice bunt. Fife fell behind Jim Gallagher 3-1, then gave up an RBI-single to center. Gallagher went to second on the throw to the plate by Lin and to third on a single to left by Brent Morel.

Fife bounced a pitch, allowing Morel to scoot up to second, putting two runners in scoring position with just one out. But Seth Loman slapped a pitch off the handle of the bat, and also his hand. Third baseman Luis Segovia scooped it up and threw home to get Gallagher out at the plate, then catcher Tim Federowicz tagged out Loman, who hadn't run toward first, for the double play.

"[Fife] was very calm, he had good mound presence," Epperson said. "We had some very quick innings there, Through four innings he'd thrown 52 pitches, then he had the five-pitch fifth. He had to pitch around some things, and he kept the damage to a minimum there in the sixth.

"There were a lot of positives."

After six innings, though, Epperson went to reliever Dave McKae, who pitched for the first time since going on the disabled list on June 8. McKae too had to pitch around some trouble, most notably, in the eighth when Mollenhauer led off with a double and went to third on a wild pitch before McKae could get an out. McKae then struck out Greg Paiml, intentionally walked Gallagher and got Morel to ground into a double play to preserve the tie.

Robert Coello also got into trouble for Salem, starting the ninth by giving up a single and hitting a batter.

The Tyler Kuhn moved the runners up with a sacrifice bunt, but Coello struck out Logan Johnson and got Joe Persichina to pop out to force the extra inning.

Luis Segovia led off the Salem 10th by drawing a walk from reliever Hector Santiago.

Kris Negron bunted up the first base line to move him over and Lin singled to put runners at the corners. Nava hit a swinging bunt that landed on the third base line. Catcher Logan Johnson picked it up, judging it had gone foul, but umpire Drew Ashcraft disagreed and ruled the ball fair and Nava safe at first and the bases loaded.

Luis Exposito got ahead 3-1 on Santiago, but ended up popping out to bring Navarro to the plate.

All night, Navarro said, he'd been seeing nothing but breaking pitches "slide, slider, slider. Change up. Curve. No fastballs. I don't know why."

It could be because of what he did when he finally saw one. Navarro had struck out in ninth inning, but said he wanted to "wait for my pitch" in the 10th.

That pitch, on a 2-1 count, was "a fastball in the middle," Navarro said. At least it was for a moment. Then it was a battered projectile hurtling out of the park as the Red Sox gathered at the plate for a victory celebration.

How the runs scored

Winston-Salem sixth: Mollenhauer singled. Paiml sacrifice bunted, Mollenhauer to second. Gallagher singled and went to second on the throw, Mollenhauer scored. Dash 1, Red Sox 0.

Salem sixth: Lin singled. Nava sacrifice bunted, Lin to second. Exposito flied out. Navarro doubled, Lin scored. Red Sox 1, Dash 1.

Salem 10th: Segovia walked. Negron sacrifice bunted, Segovia to second. Lin singled, Segovia to third. Nava singled, Lin to second. Exposito popped out. Navarro homered, Segovia scored, Lin scored, Nava scored. Red Sox 5, Dash 1.

WINSTON-SALEM SALEM

ab r h bi ab r h bi

Mollenhauer 2b 5 1 3 0 Lin c 5 2 4 0

Paiml ss 4 0 1 0 Nava rf 4 1 2 0

Gallagher 1b 4 0 1 1 Exposito dh 5 0 0 0

Morel 3b 4 0 1 0 Navarro ss 5 1 2 5

Loman dh 4 0 1 0 Rizzo 1b 4 0 1 0

Sanchez cf 3 0 0 0 Federowicz c 4 0 1 0

Kuhn lf 3 0 2 0 Mailman lf 4 0 0 0

Johnson c 4 0 0 0 Segovia 3b 3 1 0 0

Persichina rf 4 0 0 0 Negron 2b 3 0 0 0

Totals 35 1 9 1 Totals 37 5 10 5

Winston-Salem 000 001 000 0-- 1

Salem 000 001 000 4-- 5

E--Paiml (19). DP--Winston Salem 1, Salem 2. LOB--Winston Salem 8, Salem 6. 2B--Kuhn 2 (6), Mollenhauer (17), Lin (14), Navarro (8). HR--Navarro (4). S--Paiml, Kuhn, Nava, Negron.

IP H R ER BB SO

Winston-Salem

Edwards 8 6 1 1 0 4

Santiago L, 2-4 1 ²₃ 4 4 4 1 1

Salem

Fife 6 6 1 1 0 5

McKae 2 2 0 0 1 1

Coello W, 4-2 2 1 0 0 0 2

WP--Fife, McKae. HBP--Sanchez (by Coello). Umpires--Ashcraft, plate; Blakney, bases.

T--2:34. A--4,518.