Jordan Westburg doubled and homered Thursday as the Norfolk Tides won a drizzly 5-2 matinee against Gwinnett before 3,530 at Harbor Park.
Tides starter Ryan Watson pitched five solid innings, striking out seven despite yielding two earned runs and six hits. Winner Eduard Bazardo (3-0) and Nick Vespi, who gained his seventh save of the season, each pitched two scoreless innings.
Norfolk (38-16), the International League’s top team, moved ahead 3-1 against the Stripers (23-31) in a seven-game series that will continue at 6:35 Friday night.
Westburg socked a pitch off the batter’s eye in center field to put the Tides ahead 1-0, the seventh time this season he has hit a first-inning home run. Gwinnett pulled even at 1 in the third on Forrest Wall’s RBI single and had the bases loaded with one out, but Watson escaped further damage by striking out Vaughn Grissom and Nick Solak.
Catcher Joe Hudson’s home run to left gave the Stripers a 2-1 lead in the fifth.
In the sixth, though, the Tides went ahead to stay against Gwinnett starter Tanner Gordon (0-4), who lasted seven innings. Shayne Fontana walked, went to third on Westburg’s double and scored the tying run on Joseph Rosa’s sacrifice fly to center. Josh Lester then laced a double to the base of the wall in right-center to bring in Westburg.
In the eighth, with runners on first and third, Fontana took off for second base and Mark Koloszvary scored as part of the double steal as Hudson committed a throwing error. Rosa then singled home Fontana for the day’s final run.
On Wednesday night, the Tides and Stripers split a doubleheader, with Norfolk winning 8-3 before Gwinnett’s 7-0 triumph in Game 2.
In that nightcap, Nick Margevicius and Dereck Rodríguez combined on a two-hitter. Rosa had the Tides’ only hits, both off Margevicius.
Tides starter Drew Rom (4-4) allowed two runs on five hits in three innings. He had five strikeouts, but walked five. Relievers Kyle Dowdy and Darwinzon Hernández then gave up a combined five runs in four innings.
Chadwick Tromp hit a two-run homer in a three-run sixth.
