Yard Goats Open Road Trip with Loss in Somerset
Bridgewater, NJ- The Somerset Patriots homered their way to a 5-2 victory against the Yard Goats on Tuesday night at TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater, New Jersey. The Yankees affiliate smashed three homers, including two from first baseman Josh Moylan, to take the first meeting of the season between the two division rivals. Jack O’Dowd, who was promoted to Hartford today, became just the second ever Yard Goats player to hit a home run in his first at-bat joining Rockies third baseman Kyle Karros who did it April 4, 2025 against Somerset. Dowd is the son of former Rockies General Manager Dan O’Dowd who led the Rockies to the World Series in 2007. Yard Goats second baseman Roc Riggio had three hits, including a home run against his former team.
Somerset scored the first run of the game in the first inning as DJ Gladney cracked a two-out RBI single against Yard Goats starter Jackson Cox, scoring Jackson Castillo to make it 1-0. Cox retired the side in order in the second inning with two strikeouts and finished the game with eight K’s in six innings.
The Yard Goats tied the game in the third inning as Jack O’Dowd hit a home run in his first at-bat after getting called up for Class-A Spokane. The solo homer was his 17th of the season and came off Patriots starter Cade Smith.
The Patriots took a 3-1 lead in the fourth inning as Josh Moylan cranked a two-run homer over the right field fence. It was his first of two homers in the game as the first baseman hit a solo shot in the sixth inning to make it 4-1. Somerset added a run in the seventh inning when Jackson Castillo belted a homer off reliever Michael Prosecky.
Cade Smith pitched six solid innings and allowed only a run, solo homer by O’Dowd, on four hits, walked two and struck out four and earned his fifth win of the season.
The Yard Goats got a run back in the ninth when Roc Riggio smashed a solo home run against his former team to make it a 5-2 game. Somerset’s bullpen retired nine of ten batters faced with five strikeouts.
The Yard Goats continue the road trip in New Jersey on Wednesday night 6:35 PM. LHP Griffin Herring will start for the Yard Goats and LHP Xavier Rivas will start for Somerset. The game will be broadcast on the free Audacy App, iHeartRadio app, Yard Goats website and streamed on MiLB.TV.