Salt Lake Bees: Bumbling Bees can't beat it

On the night the Salt Lake Bees honored the late Michael Jackson by spinning his hits all night, the game against the Fresno Grizzlies was like a broken record.

In other words, for Bees fans it was bad — and certainly no thriller.

For the fourth night in a row, the Bees simply couldn't get any clutch hits on Thursday. The result this time was a 6-2 loss in front of 11,068 fans, which completed a four-game series sweep by Fresno at Spring Mobile Ballpark.

"Scoring two runs in a game means you're not going to win too many," said Bees manager Bobby Mitchell.

"We were in the game until late because of our pitching, which is encouraging. But we've got to start scoring more runs, that's the bottom line."

Salt Lake pitcher Trevor Bell was the hard-luck loser. He gave up just five hits in 6 2/3 innings.

"Bell pitched really well, but the bullpen didn't," said Mitchell.

If there is one good thing about the game for the Bees, it's that Fresno won't be back this season.

Fresno has had the Bees' number, especially at Spring Mobile Ballpark.

The Grizzlies took three of four against the Bees last month in Salt Lake, and their three wins to open this series clinched another series victory. Fresno became the first visiting team to win a pair of season series on Salt Lake's home field since both Portland and Edmonton did it in 2004.

Salt Lake is now just one game above .500 at 50-49. Fresno improves to 52-46.

The Bees will open another four-game home series tonight, this one against Portland. Salt Lake will try to end it's losing streak with Dan Denham (8-4, 4.01 ERA) on the mound against the Beavers' Walter Silva (3-4, 5.17).

BEES WAX: Infielder Matt Brown is expected to return to the Bees lineup in the near future, perhaps as early as today. Brown, a PCL All-Star and USA Olympian last year, has been out since June 30 with left elbow inflammation. ... Bees catchers Bobby Wilson and Ryan Budde are having outstanding seasons defensively. Salt Lake pitchers — thanks in large part to the catchers — have a league-low 28 wild pitches. Also, Bees catchers have thrown out a league-best 39.4 percent of would-be base stealers. Wilson has gunned down 40.7 percent of potential base stealers, while Budde has caught 38.3 percent of the would-be thieves.

e-mail: lojo@desnews.com