Wappingers Falls, NY – The Hudson Valley Renegades walked off the Wilmington Blue Rocks 7-6 on Saturday afternoon at Heritage Financial Park to split the series 3-3.
Hudson Valley grabbed its fifth walk-off win of the season, and its first since 5/31 against Bowling Green.
Kyle West hit his second walk-off homer of the year. Three of the Renegades’ five walk-offs have been walk-off home runs.
Every Renegade that started in the batting order got on base. All but two got hits.
Hudson Valley scored first for a second straight game. Wilmington took the lead in the top of the fifth and the top of the ninth.
Renegades pitchers struck out 12 Blue Rocks. They struck out 26 total batters in the last two games.
The Renegades improved to 4-8 this season against Wilmington, and 3-3 against them in the second half. The series split with the Blue Rocks came after they had won three of the first four games in the series.
RHP Sean Paul Liñan (4.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K) allowed just one earned run for the first time since 5/9 vs Winston-Salem.
Liñan threw 77 pitches, his second-most this season. His season-high 82 pitches came on 5/22 at Brooklyn.
Liñan walked fewer than three batters for the first time since 6/7 at Frederick.
Liñan has struck out at least three batters in all 14 starts he’s made this season.
1B Kyle West (1-for-4, HR, R, 3 RBI, BB, K) hit his second walk-off home run of the season, with the other coming against the Brooklyn Cyclones on 4/22.
West became the first Renegades player to reach 15 home runs in a season since 2022 when Tyler Hardman clubbed a franchise record-tying 22 home runs.
He is the fourth player in the Yankees era (2021-present) to hit 15-or-more home runs in a season, and the sixth player in franchise history to do so, joining Dan Grummitt (22, 1999), Joey Gomes (15, 2002), Josh Breaux (17, 2021), Anthony Volpe (15, 2021) and Hardman.
West’s 15 home runs lead the team and rank eighth in the South Atlantic League.
The blast was West’s first home run since Sunday, 6/28. He had seven long balls in the month of June.
SS Kaeden Kent (0-for-3, BB, K) extended his on-base streak to 20 games.
Kent is the third Renegade this season to work an on-base streak of at least 20 games (Eric Genther and Roderick Arias).
Kent is batting .337/.392/.465 over the stretch with 16 R, 14 RBI, 5 2B, 2 HR, 7 BB, 18 K.
DH Roderick Arias (3-for-4, R, 2 2B, RBI) grabbed his 13th multi-hit performance since 6/5.
Since 6/5, Arias is batting .392/.426/.691 with a 1.117 OPS, 8 2B, 7 HR, 19 R, 24 RBI, 6 BB, 28 K.
Arias grabbed his fourth three-hit game of the season and his first since 6/26 at Bowling Green.
3B Core Jackson (1-for-5, 2 R, 2 K) extended his on-base streak to 14 games.
Jackson’s hitting .258/.288/.452 (16-for-62) across it with 8 R, 9 RBI, 3 2B, 3 HR, 2 BB, 12 K.
LF Wilson Rodriguez (0-for-3, 2 R, 2 BB, K) has reached base in 23 of his last 24 games played and is working a 13-game on-base streak.
Rodriguez is hitting .333/.448/.622 over the on-base streak with a 1.070 OPS, 10 R, 2 2B, 3B, 3 HR, 13 RBI, 11 BB, 11 K.
C Josue Gonzalez (0-for-3, R, BB, SB) extended his on-base streak to eight games.
Gonzalez is hitting .269/.387/.385 over the stretch with 4 R, 2B, 3B, 4 BB, 6 K.
RF Camden Troyer (2-for-4, RBI, K) grabbed his first multi-hit performance since 6/21 at Rome.
Troyer has hits in back-to-back games for the first time since 6/20 and 6/21.
2B Enmanuel Tejeda (1-for-3, RBI, BB, SB) brought home the game-tying run in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Tejeda had hits in three of five games played against Wilmington.
CF Luis Durango (2-for-4, SB) extended his team-high hitting streak to seven games.
Durango is hitting .375/.412/.275 over the stretch with R, 3 K, 6 SB.
Both of Durango’s hits were infield singles.
RHP Thomas Balboni Jr. (1.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K) got the Renegades out of a bases-loaded no outs jam in the top of the sixth inning.
Balboni has allowed 1 R across 6.2 IP in his last seven appearances.
RHP Luis Velasquez (1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K) came into the bottom of the seventh with one out and runners on second and third. He struck out the two batters he faced to end the inning.
Velasquez has not allowed a run in six of eight appearances with Hudson Valley this season.