The Venezuelan native becomes the 11th player in DMBL history to hit for the cycle. Coincidentally enough, the last player to do it was San Francisco 1B Brandon Belt, who did it last year -- also against El Paso.
Batting 3rd in the lineup between Jonathan LuCroy and Victor
Martinez, Solarte got the triple out of the way early in the 1st inning
but would be stranded there. He blasted a 2-run HR off starter Jonathan
Gray in the 3rd to increase San Fran's lead to 4-0. He drove in another
run in the 4th with a single, to make it 5-0.In the 7th, Solarte struck out against reliever Edwin Diaz before coming to the plate again in the 8th against Addison Reed. He swatted a double to bring home another run, making it 8-2 and chasing Reed. (Steve Cishek came on and immediately yielded a home run to the next batter, Martinez.)
The switch-hitting Solarte, who had a strong spring leading the league in batting, collected all of his hits from the left side as El Paso employed five right-handers last night. He raised his average to .302, swatting his first homer and first triple of the season, going 4-5 with 4 RBI and 2 runs scored.
Solarte won a ring with Tucson last season before coming over to San Francisco in a trade just before protected lists were due. The Kingsnakes packaged him with Martinez in exchange for a 3rd round pick which they used to select RP Pedro Strop. Solarte was a bench player in the then-Scorpions' title run. He made 6 postseason plate appearances as a pinch-hitter, including 2-3 with an RBI (the result of a bases-loaded walk) in the 4-2 series win over Arkansas in the finals. This season he's platooned as San Fran's 3B, yielding at-bats to Yunel Escobar versus left-handers.
San Francisco finished with 15 hits in the 10-2 thrashing as Junior Guerra went 7 innings for his 4th quality start, improving to 3-1 and rising to 3rd in the league with a 1.74 ERA, and 4th in WHIP, 0.81. He also has a league-high 31 innings pitched (tied with Marietta's Mike Foltynewicz).
The Experience improved to 10-7, percentage points ahead of Hopatcong in the Bonds Division. El Paso fell to 6-12, in the basement of the Hernandez Division.
It was an interesting night in the DMBL as over in Hoboken, Allentown catcher Matt Wieters was a triple shy of a cycle, going 3-5 with 5 RBI in a 9-3 blowout of the Cutters. And in Philly, Lonnie Chisenhall doubled, singled and tripled before coming to the plate in the 9th for Vancouver. He grounded to 2nd but led a 14-hit attack in the Iron Fist's 15-8 pummeling of the Green Rage.
No comments :
Post a Comment