Jacksonville Wins Third In A Row Over The Blue Wahoos

June 9, 2015

Jesse Winker isn’t used to going so long between hitting the long ball. However, he hit his first home run in 163 plate appearances Monday.

The left-handed hitting Winker drove the ball deep to the opposite field in left for a solo dinger, which was his first since April 23. It ended one of his longest power outages in his four years in pro ball.

However, in-state rival Jacksonville Suns came back for the second night in a row after trailing in the sixth by scoring six runs in the seventh inning against Pensacola to pull out a 6-4 victory in front of 3,532 at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium.

The Cincinnati Reds’ No. 2 prospect according to MLB.Pipeline is now batting .315 since May 23. On the season, he has three homers and 15 RBIs and is batting .255. Winker said except at the beginning of the season, he has hit the ball hard—just right at people.

He said Jacksonville’s Austin Brice throws hard and he was just trying to work him into a hitter’s count, so he could jump on a fastball.

“He’s a big guy and I feel he’s right on top of me,” said Winker, who changed his walk up song Saturday to one by Waka Flocka. “I put a good swing on the ball and got it up and got it out. It has been a little bit of a dry spell but it’s Pensacola. The breeze can work against you.”

Pensacola manager Pat Kelly said there were plenty of positives to take away from the loss, which was Pensacola’s fourth straight. It dropped the Blue Wahoos to 22-34 and last place in the Southern League South Division. Jacksonville improved to 25-32 to take over fourth place in the division.

Kelly said Winker’s solo shot in the waterfront ballpark and Adleman’s six scoreless innings of two-hit ball were highlights of the game for Pensacola.

“We had the lead going into the seventh, which sounds like a broken record,” Kelly said. “Then their big inning got us. (Adleman) had done a nice job. I thought he was in a good spot.”

Adleman finished his first six innings by retiring 11 Jacksonville batters in a row and led the game, 3-0. He then walked Suns second baseman Austin Nola to lead off the seventh inning, which opened the flood gates to a six-run inning with Adleman getting tagged with four of those runs. Adleman fell to 2-6 on the year with a 2.33 ERA.

Both the Suns third baseman David Adams and pinch hitter Carlos Lopez hit two-run shots to lead the inning for Jacksonville.

Brice, Baseball America’s No. 29 Miami Marlins prospect, won his first start against Pensacola on May 11. In two games against Pensacola this season, Brice has now given up three runs in 10 innings on six hits and nine walks with six strikeouts. He entered Monday’s game with a 2-4 record and 7.09 ERA.

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News