Salt Lake Bees: Long ball dooms team again
For 2nd straight night, River Cats blast 5 homers
"We picked a bad time to play one of the worst games we've played all year," said Bees manager Bobby Mitchell after his team's 13-5 loss Friday night at Franklin Covey Field.
The River Cats, for the second night in a row in two different ballparks, pounded five home runs against Bees. The win gives Sacramento a 2-1 lead in the best-of-5 PCL Pacific Conference finals. The Bees, who started the season on a 21-1 roll, need to win both tonight's Game 4 and then again in Game 5 on Sunday afternoon or their season will end on a down note.
Bees outfielders spent much of the night chasing balls that cleared their heads and went over the fence.
"The home run ball is killing us," said Mitchell. "You're not going to win too many games giving up five a night and 10 in two games."
It's not like hitting five blasts in a game is a common occurrence — even for the River Cats' potent offense. In fact, Sacramento never had five homers in a game during its entire 144-game regular season. They pounded four in a game just twice all year.
Shane Loux got the start for the Bees, but the PCL's pitcher of the year wasn't as sharp as usual. His second pitch, in fact, was pounded over the right-field fence by Sacramento lead-off hitter Chris Denorfia.
Loux, who has been called up to the parent Los Angeles Angels and was with the Bees on a rehab assignment after oral surgery, gave up a pair of homers in his three innings of work. Giancarlo Alvarado then surrendered three homers of his own in three-plus innings of work and the rout was on for the visitors from California's capital city.
Giving up homers was not the only problem for Salt Lake. The Bees may be one-step away from the majors, but their defense looked more little league in caliber during one particular batter with two outs in the fifth inning.
Sacramento's Carlos Gonzalez, one of the Oakland A's top prospects, hit a pop up in foul territory that should have been caught, but the ball glanced off the mitt of Bees third baseman Freddy Sandoval. Then, on the same at bat, Gonzalez drove the ball to center and Bees outfielder Brad Coon was under it for what looked like a routine out. Instead, Coon dropped the ball, allowing a run to score in the process.
Recent comments
Wow, Arnold, I'm very impressed. You are such an expert. Let me…
Hollywood | Sept. 6, 2008 at 7:05 p.m.
After the Bees won game one my comments were that they hadn`t done…
Arnold Ziffel | Sept. 6, 2008 at 9:41 a.m.
