RICHMOND, VA – The Reading Phillies (10-3) handed the Richmond Flying Squirrels (6-7) their roughest night in franchise history, winning going away 19-6 in front of 3,526 at The Diamond on Tuesday night. The 19 runs were the most ever allowed in a game by the Squirrels as were the 22 hits the R-Phils recorded. Reading also broke the franchise mark for runs allowed in single inning, plating 10 in the sixth.
Reading jumped on Richmond left-hander Jason Stevenson to take the early advantage. Cesar Hernandez got the R-Phils started with a one-out single into left field. Darin Ruf followed with a single through the left-side of the Richmond infield to put two aboard. Stevenson fanned Sebastian Valle for the second out, but uncorked a wild-pitch with Leandro Castro at the plate that allowed both runners to move up. Later in the encounter, Castro blistered a two-run double into the left-field corner for a 2-0 lead.
R-Phils’ right-hander Trevor May got off to a clean start, holding off the Squirrels in the first two innings. Ruf added a run to his support in the third as he faced Stevenson for the second time. Stevenson opened with a fastball, and Ruf belted his first home run of the season to left field for a 3-0 Reading lead.
Richmond scratched across a run against May in the fourth inning when Ryan Cavan brought in Daniel Mayora with a single. However, things went downhill in a hurry from that point.
Stevenson (1-2) did not survive the fifth, as the R-Phils pulled away with five additional runs. The floodgates opened with a leadoff single from Hernandez. Ruf followed with a double and Stevenson walked Valle to load the bases. Castro collected his third RBI of the night with a single and Jiwan James made it 6-1 with a two-run double sliced into the right-field corner. Stevenson was lifted in favor of Chris Gloor. The lefty permitted the remaining runners to score for an 8-1 lead on back-to-back sacrifice-flies.
The loss was pinned on Stevenson as he conceded eight runs – all earned – on 10 hits. He walked two and struck out three. May (3-0) earned the win over five innings. He permitted just a lone run on four hits, walked two and struck out seven.
Things went from bad to much worse for the Squirrels in the sixth. Reading sent 15 batters to the plate and scored a combined 10 runs against Gloor and right-hander Edwin Quirarte. Castro batted twice in the inning and contributed both a sacrifice-fly and a two-run double. He recorded six RBIs on the night. Tyson Gillies and Hernandez each scored twice in the inning and recorded two hits. Ruf collected his fourth hit of the night during the inning, as did Hernandez. The inning was the worst in franchise history for Richmond as Reading eclipsed the previous high of eight runs allowed in a single frame. That occurred in 2010 also against Reading. The R-Phils led 18-1 after the inning, also breaking the Richmond franchise record for runs allowed in a game.
Richmond got five runs back in the seventh inning. The inning included a three-run home run from Wes Hodges. Reading capped the scoring with a lone run in the eighth. Ruf and Hernandez each tallied five hits in the ballgame.
