Bees rally past 51s

LAS VEGAS — The Bees' bats woke up in the seventh inning, scoring five runs on four hits and two hit batters, as Salt Lake rallied to beat the Las Vegas 51s 9-6.

Jered Weaver was originally scheduled to start for the Bees, but he was called up to Los Angeles on Friday and made his first major league start on Saturday pitching seven scoreless innings for the Angels.

Chris Bootcheck opened the game for the Bees and gave up nine hits in three innings of action, but was bailed out by a season high three double plays from his defense, and allowed only three runs.

The Bees scoring started with a Nick Gorneault solo-homer in the top of the fourth to cut the 51s lead to 3-1.

The 51s added a run in the bottom of the fifth and Reggie Willits scored on a Curtis Pride double in the sixth to keep the Bees within two runs.

The decisive seventh inning opened with singles from Jeff Mathis and Adam Pavkovich followed by Franquelis Osoria hitting Ryan Budde with a pitch.

Correy Myers scored Mathis on a single fly ball to right field in his first at bat of the season for the Bees.

Willits followed Myers with a two run double and after Osoria walked Pride and hit Howie Kendrick to score Myers, Gorneault grounded out as Willits scored the Bees fifth run of the inning.

Mathis added two insurance runs on a single in the ninth to put the Bees up 9-4.

The 51s added two runs of their own in the ninth, but drop to 27-22 on the season and 5-4 against the Bees with the loss.

The win improves the Bees to 29-19 and increases their lead over the Portland Beavers to 1 1/2 games.

Bees XX

51's XX