WooSox can’t figure out Nationals prospect Cade Cavalli as they drop rain-shortened game, 5-1, to Rochester

WORCESTER — It was a wet one at Polar Park on Saturday afternoon, as the WooSox dropped a rain-shortened contest against the Red Wings, 5-1, after a two-plus hour rain delay.

The WooSox lost their leadoff man and hottest hitter in the middle of the game as Eric Hosmer left the Red Sox game with an injury, prompting the team to call on Franchy Cordero for the second time this season. Cordero left Polar Park in the middle of the game to head to the airport.

“I think for him it’s a matter of getting back down here and taking a deep breath,” WooSox manager Chad Tracy said about Cordero earlier in the week. “We put him at the top of the lineup to get him as many at-bats as we can, and let him take a deep breath and get back to who he is, or who he was for a couple of months in the big leagues. I think people forget sometimes because his last little bit of time up there, he struggled, but they forget the first bit of time when he was helping them win. Then more stuff started to pile up. He was asked to do different things and he had some struggles.”

Cordero went 0-for-2 with a sac fly before he left Saturday’s game, and has driven in 10 runs over his last three games with Worcester.

The WooSox had the task of facing top Nationals pitching prospect Cade Cavalli on Saturday, who showed why he’s the no. 58-ranked prospect in the minors according to MLB.com.

Cavalli walked three (all in his final two innings of work) and allowed two hits, striking out eight as he held a potent WooSox offense to just one run.

Connor Wong continued his hot-hitting streak with a second-inning double off the Worcester Wall and Triston Casas had two singles, and Cordero drove in the only run for the WooSox with a fifth inning sac fly. But other than that, the WooSox couldn’t get much of anything going against Cavalli and, later, reliever Andres Machado.

Victor Santos made his third start for the WooSox and it was his best one yet, though a couple of big hits led to trouble for the righty.

A leadoff walk in the third came back to hurt Santos as Andrew Stevenson followed up with a triple that Cordero had trouble corralling in center field. A batter later, Lucius Fox went deep, just his second home run with the Red Wings, to give Rochester a 3-0 lead.

Santos allowed four runs on eight hits and three walks, striking out four.

The WooSox bullpen looked sharp in their 3 2/3 innings of work before the game was called. Geoff Hartlieb allowed an unearned run in 2 2/3 innings of work and Eduard Bazardo tossed a hitless seventh inning.

The skies opened up in the top of the seventh, and the umpires called for a delay in between the top and bottom of the inning.

The WooSox will finish off the series on Sunday afternoon behind Brian Keller on the mound against Rochester’s Daniel Ponce de Leon.

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