Bees outslug Rainiers

A day after their biggest comeback victory of the season, the Salt Lake Bees provided a dramatic encore — rallying for a 9-8 win over the Tacoma Rainiers at Franklin Covey Field.

The Bees, who rallied from a five-run deficit on Wednesday, overcame a four-run hole this time around. After scoring once in the sixth inning, they scored four runs with two outs in the seventh to seize control and prevail in the series finale.

"We're starting to hit some home runs. When you do that you can come back," Salt Lake manager Brian Harper said. "We had a couple of big home runs last night, we had a couple today. It's a good thing to see."

The win—Salt Lake's third in four nights over Tacoma—moved the Bees (53-46) to within one-half game of division-leading Colorado Springs. The Sky Sox lost to Sacramento earlier in the day.

"It's going to go down right to the wire," said Harper, whose team gained ground thanks to some clutching hitting and pitching after the seventh-inning stretch. Trailing 8-5 with two down in the seventh, the Bees pulled even when Greg Porter blasted a three-run homer. Two batters later, Ryan Budde's RBI single capped the comeback.

Prior to the outburst, Tacoma built its lead by capitalizing on Salt Lake miscues. The Rainiers were hit by a pitch with the bases loaded before scoring two more runs on a fielding error by the Bees.

Before the inning was complete, Bryan LaHair contributed a two-run single to extend Tacoma's advantage to three.

The teams exchanged leads a couple of times earlier in the game.

A single by Adam Jones gave Tacoma a 1-0 lead in the first. Salt Lake responded with RBI singles from Tommy Murphy in the third and Adam Pavkovich in the fourth to make it 2-1.

Both squads hit two-run homers in the fifth—Oswaldo Navarro for Tacoma and Matt Brown for Salt Lake.

The blasts left the Bees with a 4-3 lead. Tacoma's eruption in the sixth wiped that out, however. Salt Lake's rally began in the bottom of the frame when Gary Patchett's RBI single closed the gap to 8-5.