Wednesday night’s game was a complete performance for the Greenville Drive, as three pitchers combined to blank the Greensboro Grasshoppers and the offense struck early and often in a 7-0 victory.
In his sixth start of the season, Drive (27-31, 65-63) southpaw Jake Drehoff (3-1) baffled Greensboro’s lineup for six innings. After allowing a leadoff single in the first, he retired 15 straight hitters until a single in the sixth. Those were the only two baserunners he allowed in his six innings, and he struck out four.
Jeffry Fernandez followed with two scoreless innings in his first relief appearance of 2015 after 23 starts, and Ryan Harris preserved the shutout in the ninth.
The bottom of the first began with Yoan Moncada swatting a solo homer to left-center off Grasshoppers (19-39, 48-79) starter Gabriel Castellanos (1-1), his eighth home run of the year. Michael Chavis followed with a double off the Green Monster, and he and Andrew Benintendi came in to score when Greensboro mishandled a potential double play grounder.
The Drive added a run in the third. Benintendi hit a one-out infield single for his first hit at Fluor Field, stole second, moved to third on a groundout and came home on a wild pitch.
A three-run fourth chased Castellanos from the game and stretched the Drive lead even further. Chavis smacked a ground-rule double to right-center to score Bryan Hudson, who singled with one out, and a misplay in left field later in the inning allowed Moncada and Chavis to score.
Hudson picked up three hits to pace the Greenville offense, and Chavis had two hits and scored a pair of runs. Moncada reached base three times with the homer and two walks, while Benintendi scored two runs.
The series continues on Thursday night at 7:05 PM at Fluor Field. LH Dedgar Jimenez (7-9, 4.57) takes the ball for the Drive, and the Grasshoppers will send RH Enderson Franco (1-3, 5.31) to the mound.
(Copy written by Cameron White of the Greenville Drive.)
(Photo: Steve Wallace via Greenville Drive.)