Shawn Rapp shines again as York tops Lexington, 5-1

Shawn Rapp answered York’s Friday-night loss with another sharp start, and the Revolution turned the quick turnaround against Lexington into a 5-1 win at WellSpan Park. The left-hander, who entered the game as the reigning Atlantic League Pitcher of the Week, helped York flip the script after a 14-6 setback the night before.

The contrast with Friday was immediate. Lexington had broken open the series opener, but York kept the Legends to one run Saturday and backed Rapp with enough offense to finish the weekend on a far cleaner note. At WellSpan Park in York, Pa., the Revolution looked nothing like the club that had been chased from the field the night before.

Rapp’s outing fit a stretch that has made him one of York’s most dependable arms. On July 21 in Lancaster, Pa., he threw five no-hit innings in a 5-1 win over the Lancaster Stormers. A week later, York announced that he had been named Atlantic League Pitcher of the Week for the July 21-26 stretch, and he was 2-0 with a 0.84 ERA during that span while allowing just one run. Saturday’s start extended that run of form instead of interrupting it.

The victory pushed York to 56-33 overall and 21-5 in the second half. The club described that 21-5 mark as the best second-half start in Atlantic League history, a pace that has separated the Revolution from the rest of the field. York had already been building that cushion before the Lexington series, sitting at 48-31 and 13-3 in the second half after the July 21 win over Lancaster, when it held a season-high 2.5-game lead for first place and had won five straight and 10 of its previous 11.

Beating Lexington after the previous night’s lopsided loss kept that momentum intact. More importantly for York, Rapp gave the rotation another outing that reinforced how quickly he has become a stabilizing force in a stretch that is defining the Revolution’s season.