LAWRENCEVILLE — Right-hander Aaron Blair pitched seven scoreless, no-hit innings and struck out 10 to lead the Gwinnett Braves to a 7-2 win over the Durham Bulls on Tuesday night at Coolray Field.
Blair (3-0) had a perfect game on the line through the first two outs of the sixth inning, when he issued a walk to Carlos Corporan. But he responded with a strikeout of Mikie Mahtook to end the sixth, and received two outstanding defensive plays in a hitless seventh. Second baseman Sean Kazmar Jr. laid out to take away a leadoff hit from Jaff Decker, and left fielder Ronnier Mustelier made a diving catch to rob a would-be bloop single from Nick Franklin.
The last standout play proved to be the end of Blair’s night as he was pulled after 7.0 innings and 87 pitches, 59 of them strikes. His 10-strikeout performance included six consecutive punch-outs – all swinging – from the second through fourth innings. Blair is the first G-Braves’ pitcher to record six consecutive strikeouts since left-hander Ian Thomas did so on May 16, 2015 vs. Louisville.
Madison Younginer replaced Blair in the eighth and saw the combined no-hit bid end on a two-out double by Pat Leonard. Durham (7-6) went on to score twice in the inning on RBI singles by Corporan and Dayron Varona, cutting the G-Braves’ lead to 7-2. Rob Wooten worked around a hit in a scoreless ninth to end the game.
Gwinnett (10-3) jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the third inning thanks to five consecutive singles against Bulls’ starter Jaime Schultz. Mustelier and Rio Ruiz set the table with singles, and Kazmar Jr., Emilio Bonifacio and Chase d’Arnaud all followed with RBI singles. Tyler Moore capped the frame with a sacrifice fly to left scoring Bonifacio.
The lead grew to 7-0 in the sixth inning. Schultz issued one-out walks to both Moore and Matt Tuiasosopo and allowed a single to Ryan Lavarnway to load the bases. Mustelier knocked him out of the game with an RBI single to center, though Tuiasosopo was thrown out at the plate by Bulls’ center fielder Decker. Right-hander Mark Sappington replaced Schultz and Ruiz greeted the reliever with a two-run double to left-center.
Schultz (L, 1-1) was tagged for seven runs on nine hits over 5.2 innings. Sappington followed with 1.1 scoreless innings and Jhan Marinez added 1.0 scoreless inning for the Bulls.
Ruiz finished 3-for-4 with a double, run scored and two RBIs to lead Gwinnett’s 12-hit attack. Mustelier went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI, and Bonifacio went 2-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI. Kazmar Jr. went 1-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to nine games.
Corporan went 1-for-2 with an RBI for Durham.
The G-Braves conclude the three-game series against the Bulls on Wednesday night at Coolray Field, first pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. Right-hander Tyrell Jenkins (1-0, 2.00 ERA) starts for Gwinnett, while Durham counters with right-hander Austin Pruitt (1-0, 1.38 ERA). Tony Schiavone has the play-by-play call on 97.7 FM and WSBRadio.com beginning at 6:35 p.m.
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