Uncle Sam and Matt LeCroy getting photobombed by Justin Bloxom

Baysox 6, Senators 2

Rehabbing major leaguer Wei-Yin Chen dominated the Senators and the Baysox got after Blake Treinen early to coast to a 6-2 victory. The Senators only offense came in the ninth inning when Steven Souza launched a two-run home run but the rally ended there.

* They say familiarity breeds contempt. For these two teams, it might be a hostile series if Thursday is any indication. After Souza’s home run, Jerad Head twice had to avoid pitches thrown at his head.  It eventually resulted in manager Matt LeCroy getting ejected from the game, “I thought there was intent. I don’t mind the intent for hitting somebody, the reason why. But I don’t like where you went with the pitch and I have a problem that nobody said anything. And then they holler at our dugout for being vocal about it…When you go at someone’s head you threaten to end their career. There’s no need in that.” These two teams are still scheduled for six more games over the next four days.

* LeCroy on the struggling offense that has only accounted for twenty hits the last five games, “I thought tonight we squared some balls up, hit some balls on the barrel right at them. Some times when you get down early, six, you try to play catch up and you end up having some bad at-bats. But I thought our at-bats tonight were good. Their shortstop made some really good plays.”

* 7,288 fans packed Metro Bank Park making Thursday night’s game the best attended game in 2013 and the ninth-best all-time.

* Starting tomorrow’s Game 1 will be Robbie Ray making his Double-A debut. Pitching coach Paul Menhart saw the southpaw in spring training, “(Ray has) a very good ability to throw the fastball and command it to both sides. The off-speed pitches were seldom used in spring training. I know he worked very hard on them and I have read the reports that they’ve gotten better.”

Photo courtesy Kyle Mace

Photo courtesy Kyle Mace

Photo courtesy Kyle Mace