Salt Lake Bees: Hot-hitting Pettit leads Bees to win

The vast majority of the Salt Lake Bees position players entering this season were veterans of last year's division champion club.

One notable exception, however, was outfielder Chris Pettit, who spent last season in Double-A Arkansas.

Suffice it to say that despite his lack of Triple-A experience, Pettit is fitting right in with the Bees. In fact, Pettit has been the best hitter on the veteran ballclub so far.

Pettit, who leads the Pacific Coast League with a .438 batting average, had two more hits and a walk on Monday night during the Bees' 9-7 victory over the Tacoma Rainiers in front of 4,106 fans at Spring Mobile Ballpark.

"I just tried to come in and fit in," said Pettit. "We have a lot of good hitters in the lineup. It makes it a lot easier when you have good hitters one through nine."

Monday's victory, Salt Lake's fourth straight, improves its PCL-best record to 17-7. Tacoma fell to 11-13 with the loss.

The Rainiers scored two runs in the top of the first inning and never trailed until the bottom of the seventh. That's when the Bees scored four runs to turn a three-run deficit into a one-run lead with the big hit being a two-run double by Pettit.

Salt Lake manager Bobby Mitchell certainly isn't surprised by Pettit's fast start to the season. Mitchell was previously the 24-year-old Californian's manager in Single-A Rancho Cucamonga.

"Even his outs are very good at bats," said Mitchell of Pettit. "He knows the strike zone very well, and he doesn't swing at many bat pitches. He has great hand-eye co-ordination in putting the bat on the ball. So there are pitchers' pitches that he is able to foul of that others swing at and miss."

Mitchell has used Pettit all over the lineup so far this season, but he's been the team's cleanup hitter the past two days — even though he's not known as a power hitter.

"He's got a lot of confidence going right now," said Mitchell. "And I have a lot of confidence in him with men on base because I know he will put the ball into play and he's, obviously, our hottest hitter right now."

Pettit now has hit safely in a dozen consecutive games, which is the longest by a Bees player this season.