You hear that knocking? It’s the Reading Fightin Phils knocking on the door an an Eastern League championship. Reading took game one of the championship against the Erie Seawolves (Detroit Tigers). The best-of-three began in Erie and comes to Reading for games two and three (if necessary).
The game came down to the ninth inning as a scoreless tie. The Seawolves went to Moises Rodriguez to pitch the ninth and he opened the inning by walking Raylin Heredia, Carson DeMartini, and Aroon Escobar, the first three batters he faced. With the bases loaded an no outs, Erie went back to the bullpen for Colin Fields, who got Pedro Leon to pop-up to second base for the first out. Caleb Ricketts lifted a 2-2 pitch to right field that was deep enough to score Heredia for the first and what would be the only run of the game. Fields then got pinch-hitter Austin Murr to ground out to second to end the inning.
Reading also went to the bullpen in the ninth to bring Estibenzon Jimenez into the game. Jimenez put together a 1-2-3 inning with one strikeout to get the save. The win went to Wen-Hui Pan, who pitched a scoreless eighth inning and was awarded the win.
Between Mavis Graves, Pan, and Jimenez, the Reading bullpen threw four hitless innings with the three arms giving up just one walk while striking out six batters. Starter Luke Russo allowed five hits and a walk in his five innings of the game while striking out three batters.
Rodriguez took the loss for Erie. The Seawolves got seven innings out of starter Joe Miller who handcuffed Reading hitters and held them to just three hits and two walks while striking out seven batters.
Among Reading hitters, Escobar and Bryan Rincon both had a hit while Ricketts went 2-for-2 with the game-winning RBI.
Game two is in Reading on Tuesday night. Reading has not announced their starter, but Reading will go with Lucas Elissalt.
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