By Tiffany Williams –
Back in downtown Worcester on Friday night, the Worcester Red Sox and the Charlotte Knights met for game four of their six-game series. With Friday night’s 10-2 win the Worcester Red Sox also won this series and are now winners of five in a row. The last time Worcester won five straight was May 27 – June 1 and before that was April 8-13.
Mark Payton kicked off this game at the top of the first with his ninth homer of the season to give Charlotte a 1-0 lead. But in the bottom of the first, Worcester took control of this game with Connor Wong hitting his ninth homer of the season to make it a 1-1 game. Ronaldo Hernandez then hit his fifteenth double of the season to get Ryan Fitzgerald over the plate and put Worcester on top 1-2. Before the end of the inning Christin Stewart and Ronaldo Hernandez made it over the plate to put Worcester on top 1-4. At the bottom of the third Christin Stewart hit his eleventh dinger of the season to put Worcester on top 1-5. At the top of the seventh Laz Rivera made it over the plate for Charlotte to make it a 2-5 game. At the bottom of the seventh Christin Stewart hit his second dinger of the game and 12th of the season, and drove in Jaylin Davis to put Worcester on top 2-7. Worcester was not riding this one off into the night, with Ryan Fitzgerald hitting his thirteenth dinger of the season to help drive in Connor Wong and make this a 2-10 game at the end of the eighth.
If the Worcester Red Sox want to prove they are the best team in minor league baseball, guys like Ryan Fitzgerald, Jaylin Davis, Christin Stewart, Connor Wong and Jeter Downs need to showcase their skills and right now is about the right time to start doing that.
Brian Keller is expected to start for Worcester on Saturday and Brayan Bello is expected to be back at the mound on Sunday. Bello had some success against Charlotte at the start of this series and has had multiple dominating performances since coming to Worcester. So he will look to continue his impressive season with a win on Sunday and Keller will seek to do the same on Saturday.
Pedro Castellanos is expected to make his 2022 season debut with the Worcester Red Sox this weekend, possibly Saturday at first base. With the addition of Castellanos it could be a lethal lineup for Worcester to sweep this series. Castellanos has spent this season with Double-A Portland batting .279 in 61 games with 18 2B, 1 3B, 8 HR, and 42 RBI. He has played 31 games at 1B, 15 in RF, 13 as the DH, and 4 in LF.
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