RICHMOND, Va. – In a night of celebration for the entire Richmond community, MVP Jacob Heyward and representatives of the hometown Flying Squirrels pushed the Western Division to a 5-0 win in the 2019 Eastern League All-Star Game presented by Genworth on Wednesday night at The Diamond. The game saw a sellout crowd of 9,560 fans, the most in the Eastern League All-Star Game’s recorded history.
The Western Division pitching staff held the Eastern Division batters to just two hits in the night. Richmond left-hander Caleb Baragar, who was named the game’s starter by Flying Squirrels manager Willie Harris, was credited with the win after tossing a scoreless first inning with a strikeout.
The West took the lead in the bottom of the first inning on a run-scoring groundout by Richmond’s Jalen Miller, set up by a lead-off double by Bowie’s Mason McCoy against East starter Adonis Medina from Reading.
In the second inning, Harrisburg’s Rhett Wiseman brought in his Senators teammate Tres Barrera with an RBI double and later scored on a single by Erie’s Jose Azocar.
Another member of the SeaWolves, Isaac Paredes, extended the lead to 4-0 in the fourth with a sacrifice fly.
In the sixth, Heyward clubbed a solo home run against Portland left-hander Dedgar Jimenez to open the lead to 5-0. He finished the night 1-for-4 with a homer, an RBI and two runs scored.
Flying Squirrels relievers Tyler Cyr and Melvin Adon combined to record the final four outs of the game and each picked up a strikeout. Adon had a fastball register at 103 mph in the ninth inning.
Heyward is the second consecutive player and third all-time to win the BUSH’S® Eastern League All-Star Game MVP Award. Luigi Rodriguez won it last year in Trenton and Javier Herrera picked up the honor in 2013 at New Britain.
Hosting the Eastern League All-Star Game for the first time ever, the Flying Squirrels landed a franchise-record seven players on the All-Star rosters, the most in the league this season and a new franchise record.
Richmond first baseman Zach Houchins picked up one of the Western Division’s nine hits.
Trenton reliever Daniel Alvarez had three strikeouts in his inning of work, the most of any pitcher in the game.
After a seven-game road trip, the Flying Squirrels return to Richmond on Thursday, July 18 to open a series against the Erie SeaWolves.
