Salt Lake Bees: Once-hot team looks for answers in May
Instead of waltzing through opponents and winning games without skipping a beat, the Bees are now struggling to hit the ball, surrendering runs and — as one might expect — finding themselves on the wrong side of the scoreboard.
"Hopefully," Salt Lake skipper Bobby Mitchell said after dropping a 5-0 decision to Albuquerque, "May isn't a complete reversal."
Salt Lake's previously hot bats went cold on Tuesday as Isotopes pitcher Bobby Keppel tossed a masterful 6 2/3 innings. Though he entered the game with a 6.94 ERA, Keppel allowed only three hits and struck out two as he improved to 4-2.
Salt Lake starter David Austen (0-1) had a solid five innings of work, allowing only one run on seven hits, but the Bees batters failed to give him any support.
"We're not swinging the bats very good right now," Mitchell said.
"It's something we've got to get better at."
Still comfortably ahead in the standings with a 25-7 record, the Bees have now lost five of six games, including the first two of the current eight-game homestand.
"That happens to all teams," he said. "But you deal with it and try to just play ball."
The losses, though, have the Bees frustrated and hopeful about a return to their winning ways of April.
"Non-hitting can be contagious, too," Mitchell said.
Tuesday night, after a day of rain showers left the game in doubt, Salt Lake struggled to get runners in scoring position and when they did, it was usually with two outs. The Bees left seven runners on base with five of those just a single away from reaching the plate.
Albuquerque, on the other hand, manufactured a run in the third with a double, sacrifice fly and RBI single to left. They scored again in the sixth and twice more in the eighth to build a safe lead.
Salt Lake threatened to climb back into the game in the sixth when a throwing error on a pickoff move by Keppel put a runner on third with two outs. But a strike out ended that opportunity.
Again the Bees threatened to make it a game in the seventh with the bases loaded and two outs. But Gary Patchett ended the inning by floating a lazy fly ball to left after fighting off several pitched with foul balls.
"We haven't been able to come up with a 2-out hit like we did earlier in the season," Mitchell said. "We just couldn't get anything going."
Matt Brown grounded into a game-ending double play to end the contest and leave the Bees wondering how to return to the team they were barely a week ago.
"I didn't think we were as good as we were playing," Mitchell said.
"At the same time, I don't think we're as bad as we've been playing lately."
BEELINES: The first pitch was delayed almost a half an hour as the grounds crew tried to prep the field after a day of rain showers, ... Attendance was announced 2,659 though only a few hundred fans braved the conditions to come to the ballpark. ... Sunday's game has been changed to 6:35 to allow concession and park employees to work both the Utah Jazz playoff game and the baseball game.
E-mail: jeborn@desnews.com
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