First night buzz: Bees fall to Rainers in slugfest to spoil Salt Lake's home opener

SALT LAKE CITY — Although the final score didn't turn out so good, opening night proved to be one to remember for the Salt Lake Bees.

Friday's 13-11 extra-inning loss over the Tacoma Rainiers featured the biggest opening crowd in the franchise's 17-year history in Utah. The 15,057 fans at Spring Mobile Ballpark were treated to quite a show.

"It was a fun game," said Salt Lake manager Bobby Mitchell. "It didn't work out the way we wanted it to, but it was fun — a lot of action."

Highlights included Cory Aldridge's tie-breaking three-run homer in the sixth and a three-triple game by Peter Bourjos. The latter tied a Pacific Coast League record held by eight others (none since 2000), including former major leaguer Bobby Valentine.

"It's pretty cool to do that. I wish it would have came with a win," said Bourjos, who has tripled five times in the first nine games of the season. "It's kind of disappointing that we lost."

The teams combined for 33 hits in the series opener, which took 3½ hours to complete and ended with postgame fireworks.

Tacoma broke an 11-11 deadlock with two outs in the 10th inning. The Rainiers pulled ahead on an RBI double by Josh Wilson. Ezequiel Carrera added some insurance with a run-scoring single.

"You've got to give them credit. We couldn't hold them," Mitchell said. "They finished with a flurry. That's the way it goes, I guess."

Salt Lake came up empty in the bottom of the inning, stranding a baserunner on third at game's end.

The Bees, who opened the season with a 3-5 road trip to Nevada, appeared to have the upper hand early when Bourjos led off with his first triple. Unfortunately for Salt Lake, the speedy centerfielder never made it home.

Tacoma got the next three batters out and carried the momentum into the second inning. That's when the Rainiers poured it on with five runs.

Salt Lake began chipping away at the 5-0 deficit in the bottom of the second. Gary Patchett's bunt single put the Bees on the board. An inning later, they capitalized on Bourjos' second triple. He scored on a single by Freddy Sandoval. Michael Ryan later added a sacrifice fly to make it 5-3.

The Bees evened the score in the fourth after Patchett, Hainley Statia and Bourjos opened with singles. Patchett wound up scoring on a wild pitch and Statia crossed on a fielding error.

The tie, though, didn't last long.