Yard Goats Drop Road Trip Opener in New Jersey
Bridgwater, NJ- Somerset scored five runs in the first inning and defeated the Yard Goats 7-2 on Tuesday night at TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater, New Jersey. Josh Moylan drove in four runs on two hits, including a three-run double and a solo home run as the Yankees affiliate moved to within 2.5 games of first-place Reading with five games remaining in the regular season. The Yard Goats play the winner of the division in a best of three series starting next Tuesday. Andy Perez had an RBI double for the Yard Goats and the bullpen of Davis Palermo and Austin Smith allowed just one run in 4.1 innings.
Somerset took advantage of a two-out error and scored five runs in the first inning against Hartford starter Bryson Hammer. Roderick Arias cracked a double, scoring 30Core Jackson, and gave the Patriots a 1-0 lead. With two outs, Coby Morales hit a ground ball that slipped by Roynier Hernandez allowing the inning to continue. Somerset followed with a three-run double by Josh Moylan and RBI double by Cole Gabrielson to make it a 5-0 game.
Hammer settled down and retired nine in a row before allowing a run on a two-out single in the fourth inning by Jace Avina to make it 6-0.
The Yard Goats scored their first run of the game in the sixth inning off the Somerset bullpen. Jared Thomas led off with a single and stole second base. After taking third on a grounder, he scored on a wild pitch to make it 6-1.
Somerset came back with a run in the bottom of the inning on a solo homer by Josh Moylan. The first baseman cranked his 15th home run over the center field fence to make it 7-1.
The Yard Goats made it 7-2 with a run in the eighth inning. Jacob Humphrey singled and scored from first base on a wall scraping double by Andy Perez, his 30th double of the season.
The Yard Goats continue the six-game road trip against the Somerset Patriots on Wednesday night (6:35 PM). The game will be broadcast on the free Audacy App, iHeartRadio app, Yard Goats website and streamed on MiLB.TV. The Yard Goats will host Game Two of the ELDS next Thursday, September 17th (6:30 PM) at Dunkin’ Park.