In baseball, turning a double play is often referred to as ‘rolling em up.’ That’s exactly what the Norfolk Tides did to the Louisville Bats Thursday as they turned three double plays en route to a 4-1 victory. Tides pitching forced the Bats to leave seven runners on base, including five in the sixth and seventh innings combined.
The Bats had runners and second and third with nobody out in the sixth and failed to score. After a run scoring single from Dioner Navarro in the seventh, Mike Costanzo struck out with the bases loaded to end the inning.
For the 24th time in 35 games, the Bats allowed the first run of the game. After Blake Davis tripled to start the second inning, Xavier Avery belted his fifth home run of the season to put the Tides up 2-0.
Louisville got one out singles in the first, second, and eighth innings only to ground into double plays to end each frame.
The Tides tacked on insurance runs in the seventh (RBI single from Jamie Hoffman) and eighth (RBI triple from Blake Davis) for the final margin.
Navarro continued to stay hot for the Bats, going 3-for-3. Louisville also got a multi-hit effort from Neftali Soto, who went 2-for-4 and is now 11-for-39 (.282 average) in ten games in May. Chris Valaika extended his hitting streak to six games with a 1-for-4 day.
The Tides took the series from the Bats 3-1 and won the season series 5-3. The Tides improved to 15-18 while the Bats fell to 11-24 on the year.
Louisville continues their eight game home stand Friday as they welcome the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs to Louisville Slugger Field. Louisville is set to send Brett Tomko (0-3, 3.41 ERA) to the mound opposite Scott Elarton (3-1, 2.84 ERA). First pitch is set for 6:35.
