Offense Can't Keep Pace with Three More Greenville Homers in Game Three Loss

GREENVILLE, SC – For the second time in the series, three Greenville swings defined nine innings of baseball in 7-2 loss for the Emperors.

Called up from Augusta on May 13, Logan Samuels made his fourth start for Rome on Thursday, seeking his first win for the Emperors. Miguel Bleis took the first pitch he saw from Samuels and hit it deep into left field, putting the Drive quickly on the board. In the bottom of the third inning, Andy Lugo went from first to third on a throwing error from Rome catcher Harry Owen and scored when teammate Yophery Rodriquez singled, making it 2-0 Greenville. Rodriguez wouldn’t have to wait long to head home himself, as Bleis again cranked a first-pitch homer to left field, doubling the Drive’s score.

Rome went down quietly in the top of the 4th but took advantage of several fielding errors in the next inning to get back a couple of runs. Both Harry Owen and Jace Grady reached base via errors from the Drive defense. Owen scored on a Lizandro Espinoza groundout, and Grady scoring on yet another error by Greenville. The three errors committed by Greenville in the 5th were part of seven total from both teams in the contest.

The BoSox affiliate bounced back in the next half inning as Bleis reached base, followed by a single from Brooks Brannon. Samuels exited the game after Brannon’s at-bat, and Samuel Strickland came into replace him. Strickland faced Nazzan Zanetello, who proved himself a threat to the Emperors after Tuesday night’s two-homer outing. Zanetello belted a 1-1 offering from Strickland into left center for his fifth homer of the season, adding three insurance runs for Greenville.

Both offenses cooled off after the 5th, combining for just three more hits the entire rest of the game. Max Carlson earned his third win of the year for the Drive, pitching 4.2 innings and allowing one hit. Samuels took the loss giving up six runs on six hits with all of them being earned.

Tomorrow, Rome looks to tie up the series at 2-2 as Garrett Baumann will start for the Emps. First pitch is at 6:45 EDT and can be streamed live on milb.tv.