The Blue Crabs were out-slugged by the Bridgeport Bluefish in an 8-5 loss on Wednesday night, May 26 at Regency Furniture Stadium.
The two teams hit a combined five home runs, and Bridgeport had 16 total hits. Designated hitter Travis Garcia gave the Blue Crabs a 2-0 lead in the first with his third homer of the season, scoring leftfielder Casey Benjamin who drew a leadoff walk. Bluefish second baseman Tim Johnson answered back with a solo shot in the second, however, cutting their deficit in half. Benjamin hit his third home run of the year an inning later to make it 3-1 Blue Crabs, but the Bluefish scored in each of the next two innings to take a 4-3 advantage. It was leftfielder Danny Putnam’s leadoff homer in the fifth that gave the Bluefish their first lead of the night. Third baseman Patrick Osborn evened the score once again in the bottom of the inning with an RBI single, scoring catcher Octavio Martinez.
The Blue Crabs then regained the lead in the sixth when second baseman Kody Kirkland crushed a solo homer into leftfield. RHP Jarrett Santos (1-1) pitched six innings and had a no decision. Right-handed reliever Joe Newby (0-1) was tagged with the loss after the Bluefish scored three runs in the seventh. First baseman Joe Jiannetti had a two run single and then designated hitter Brian Barton knocked an RBI double into rightfield. The Bluefish tacked on one more in the ninth as Jiannetti hit another RBI single, scoring rightfielder Charlton Jimerson. Jiannetti went 3-for-5 with three RBI. RHP Matt Kaiser improved to 2-2 and former MLB righty closer Jorge Julio earned his third save of the year.