Bees walk away with a win

Perhaps the Salt Lake Bees should revamp the club's marketing slogan.

After Tuesday's game at Franklin Covey Field, "Classic baseball is back" could easily be reworked to "Pacific Coast League baseball is back."

In a game reminiscent of the days when no lead was safe in the PCL, the Bees and Tacoma Rainiers put on quite a show. They combined for 34 hits and 17 walks in a marathon that lasted nearly four hours.

It ended in the bottom of the ninth when Ryan Budde drew a bases-loaded walk to give Salt Lake a 15-14 victory.

Tacoma reliever Renee Cortez walked all four Bees batters he faced in the ninth — allowing Salt Lake to prevail despite blowing an eight-run advantage.

The Rainiers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the second. Guillermo Quiroz, Michael Garciaparra and T.J. Bohn drove in runs with a double, a single and a groundout, respectively.

The outburst, however, failed to hold up.

Salt Lake fired back quickly with seven runs in the bottom of the inning. The barrage began with an RBI triple from Adam Pavkovich, who then scored on a single by Corey Myers. Two batters later, a sacrifice fly by Maicer Izturis tied things up.

The Bees used power to temporarily pull away.

Back-to-back homers by Howie Kendrick, who had a three-run shot, and Nick Gorneault gave Salt Lake a 7-3 edge.

An inning later, the lead swelled to eight runs — off RBI singles from Casey Smith and Reggie Willits and a two-run triple by Kendrick.

Trailing 11-3, the Rainiers managed to chip away at the deficit. A two-run homer by Adrubal Cabrera in the fifth and a solo shot by Adam Jones in the seventh separated an RBI double from Greg Dobbs in the sixth.

Salt Lake responded after the seventh-inning stretch with an RBI single by Izturis and score off a steal to make it 13-7—a margin, though, that failed to prove decisive.

Tacoma managed to pull even in the top of the eighth with a rally featuring run-scoring hits from Hunter Brown, Cabrera and Quiroz. Shin-Soo Choo capped off the comeback with a sacrifice fly.

An exchange of scores followed.

Curtis Pride put Salt Lake back on top with a fielder's choice in the bottom of the eighth, but Tacoma answered in the ninth with a solo homer from Todd Sears.

The series continues tonight at 7. Salt Lake RHP Steven Shell (1-2, 3.34 ERA) and Tacoma LHP Cesar Jimenez (1-4, 5.91 ERA) are the scheduled starters.

BEES WAX: Gorneault set a franchise-record by driving in a run for the 11th straight game . . . Izturis, who had been on the disabled list since April 24 with a left hamstring strain, began a major league rehab assignment with the Bees . . . Willits has now reached base in 19 consecutive home games . . . Infielder Abel Nieves has been reassigned to Single-A Rancho Cucamonga . . . Tony Reagins, director of player development for the parent Angels, is in town for the series . . . Attendance was 3,724.

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E-mail: dirk@desnews.com