Grizzlies get comfortable in shutting out the Salt Lake Bees

SALT LAKE CITY — Beware of the bears at Spring Mobile Ballpark. They're making themselves quite comfortable here.

On Friday, the Fresno Grizzlies extended their winning streak on the Salt Lake Bees' home field to seven games over the past two seasons.

Strong pitching and effective hitting led the visitors to an 8-0 victory.

"It's always a battle," said Salt Lake manager Bobby Mitchell. "I have no idea why one team kind of dominates the other."

Fresno has enjoyed great success against Bees as of late. The Grizzlies have won 15 of the past 21 meetings overall.

"We've got to turn it around tomorrow and see what we can do," Mitchell said. "Maybe get a lead, create some runs and go from there."

While starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner was holding the Bees to just one hit, the Grizzlies built a commanding 8-0 lead over the first 5 1/2 innings.

Jesus Guzman put Fresno on the board with an RBI single in the second. An inning later, the Grizzlies added three more scores — off a run-scoring single by Eugenio Velez, a Salt Lake throwing error and a sacrifice fly from Buster Posey.

Leading 4-0, Fresno doubled its advantage over the next two innings.

An RBI single by Matt Downs in the fifth was followed by run-scoring hits from Brett Pill, Guzman and Steve Holm in the sixth.

The eight runs proved to be more than enough for Fresno to prevail in the series-opener.

Bumgarner, who was relieved in the seventh after reaching his pitch count (106), improved to 4-1 on the season.

After Peter Bourjos led off with a single in the first, Salt Lake didn't get another hit against the 20-year-old lefty until Robb Quinlan singled to open the fifth. The other Bees' hits on Bumgarner were singles in the sixth (Bourjos) and seventh (Mark Trumbo).

"We expected him to pitch well against us," Mitchell said while noting that Bumgarner is a good pitcher who has done well in the big leagues. "We knew we would have to battle."

Bumgarner, he added, is very deceptive with his delivery and keeps the ball down well.