Salt Lake Bees lose again, this time in 12th

SALT LAKE CITY — People call the games following the All-Star break "the second half of the baseball season."

That's not actually true, however. The season, in fact, is almost two-thirds complete, as the Salt Lake Bees played their 91st game of the year on Thursday night. Following the Bees' 5-4 loss in 12 innings against the Sacramento River Cats at Spring Mobile Ballpark, Salt Lake now has just 53 games remaining in the 144-game season. That doesn't leave them much time to try to catch Tacoma, which now leads Salt Lake by nine games in the PCL's Pacific North Division standings.

It was an up-and-down "first half" of the season for the Bees — ending on a down note. Salt Lake lost seven of its final eight games before the All-Star break.

Thursday's loss — after a four-day break — caused even more pain. The Bees never trailed — until the top of the 12th inning when Sacramento's Michael Turner hit the game-winning single off Bees reliever Amalio Diaz.

Early in the game, it seemed like the All-Star break seemed to be just what the Bees needed. Salt Lake jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning on a run-scoring single by Mark Trumbo and a three-run homer by Terry Evans.

Trumbo, Salt Lake's lone representative in the Triple-A All-Star Game in Allentown, Penn., on Wednesday, had a big night. After getting on base in both of his trips to the plate as an All-Star — with a hit and a walk — Trumbo got three more hits Thursday.

With Bees starter Sean O'Sullivan in control — giving up just a solo home run — Salt Lake led through the eighth inning. But the Bees couldn't score any insurance runs, and the River Cats made them pay in the eighth inning, scoring three runs off Bees relievers Barret Browning and Michael Kohn to knot the game, 4-4.

The Bees had a runner in scoring position with the chance to win in the eighth, ninth, 10th and 11th innings but could never get the clutch hit they needed. Sacarmento took advantage by scoring the winning run in the 12th.

Salt Lake will play the second of the four-game set against Sacramento tonight with Trevor Bell (1-0, 3.38 ERA) is scheduled to pitch against Tyson Ross, who will be making his first start of the season.

BEES WAX: Sacramento manager Tony DeFrancesco was missing Thursday night, as he is on vacation. The Oakland Athletics, the parent club of the River Cats, give their minor league managers one series off per summer, and DeFranceso chose this one. ... Bees outfielder Peter Bourjos was named the PCL's Player of the Week for July 5-11. He is the first Salt Lake player to win a weekly award from the league this season. He hit .483 (14-for-29) during the week with seven runs scored and seven RBIs. ... Attendance on Thursday night was 7,249.

e-mail: lojo@desnews.com