from Bill Hass with Bill on Baseball(Greensboro Grasshoppers) at www.gsohoppers.com:
Big inning dooms Hoppers again
Thursday night’s game followed a familiar pattern for the Hoppers.
Delmarva scored seven runs in the top of the fourth inning and cruised to a 10-4 victory at NewBridge Bank Park. The game was officially called with two outs in the top of the ninth after rain swept in and drenched the field.
Hoppers pitching has been susceptible to big innings at home. In the last home stand, they surrendered six-run innings on consecutive nights in losses to Lakewood and a 5-run inning that they survived in a win over Hagerstown.
This time, Greensboro jumped on top 2-0 in the bottom of the first on Viosergy Rosa’s 10th homer of the season. Starter Austin Brice faltered in the third inning, giving up two runs to tie the game. Then things really fell in on him in the fourth. Lucas Herbst tagged him for a three-run homer and, after he left the game, Helpi Reyes gave up a three-run shot to Torsten Boss. That made it 9-2 and put things out of reach.
“Big innings are killing us,” said manager Jorge Hernandez. “The pitchers are just not hitting their spots. They’re falling behind in the count early and hitters are sitting on the fastball. We’ve got to mix the pitches, go inside and outside and work ahead in the count.”
The teams play again today at 7 p.m. Dejai Oliver will start for the Hoppers.