Salt Lake Bees briefly atop division

SALT LAKE CITY — The Salt Lake Bees — for a few short hours on Wednesday — were in first place in the PCL's Pacific North Division for the first time in nearly two months.

But that was before the Bees lost 7-1 to the New Orleans Zephyrs on Wednesday night at Spring Mobile Ballpark. That dropped the Bees back to one-half game behind the flailing Tacoma Rainiers in the standings.

Salt Lake started the day one-half game behind Tacoma, but the Rainiers' afternoon loss at Omaha on Wednesday gave both teams identical 61-57 records for a few hours. It was the first time the Bees had been atop the division since June 17.

The Bees' chance to take lone possession of the division lead by a half game was thwarted by the outstanding pitching of New Orleans starter Alex Sanabia. The Zephyrs' starter gave up just four hits and no runs in eight innings.

"(Sanabia) threw a lot of change-ups and he had a good one," said Bees manager Bobby Mitchell. "He kept everybody off balance. He threw well. He kept the ball down. We had a couple of chances, but not too many."

The Zephyrs, meanwhile, scored six runs off Bees starter Eric Junge in seven innings, handing him his first loss in a Bees uniform in four decisions.

Despite Salt Lake's loss on Wednesday, the Bees are a much hotter team than the division-leading Rainiers right now. Tacoma has lost eight games in a row — which has allowed the Bees to make up a huge deficit in the division standings. Salt Lake has trailed Tacoma by as many as nine games in the past month.

The Bees will have a rare day off from playing today — although they will be traveling from Salt Lake City to Nashville by way of Atlanta. They will play their next eight games in Tennessee — with a four-game set against the Nashville Sounds beginning Friday followed by a four-game series against the Memphis Redbirds.

"It's a big road trip," said Mitchell. "We'd like to win more than we lose on the trip. That would be really good because they are two tough teams that we haven't seen before all year and we have to go play them on the road."

BEES WAX: Bees catcher Hank Conger's season-best hitting streak of nine games came to an end on Wednesday, as he went 0-for-3. He did draw a walk, however. ... Attendance at Tuesday's game was 7,450.

e-mail: lojo@desnews.com