Salt Lake Bees' ninth-inning rally falls short, yet again

Salt Lake Bees fans at Spring Mobile Ballpark tried their best to encourage a ninth-inning rally, but it wasn't to be on Monday night.

Despite the fact that the Bees had the game-tying run at the plate and nobody out in the final frame with the meat of the order at the plate, the Portland Beavers held on to beat the Bees, 9-7.

"I was very hopeful," said Bees manager Bobby Mitchell about a possible rally after leadoff hitter Brad Coon got on base. "We were right in the spot in the lineup that looked good, no doubt about it."

But Chris Pettit, the Bees' top hitter for average, flew out. Then Terry Evans, who is third in the Pacific Coast League in home runs, struck out. And then Sean Rodriguez, who is second in the PCL in homers, struck out as well and the Beavers had salvaged a split in the four-game series.

Then again, the result shouldn't have come as any surprise. The Bees, simply put, are lousy at coming from behind in dramatic fashion. You can count Salt Lake's ninth inning rallies this season on zero hands.

Monday's loss means the Bees are now 0-43 on the season when trailing entering the ninth inning.

The Beavers scored all but one of their runs on three pitches. Bees starter Brad Salmon gave up a three-run homer to Danny Putnam and a two-run homer to Seth Johnson in the fifth inning. Bees reliever Dan Denham then surrendered a three-run shot to Chad Huffman in the seventh.

Salt Lake actually got some clutch, two-out hitting. All seven runs were scored with two outs, in fact. The Bees scored five in the third to knot the score, with catcher Bobby Wilson's bases-clearing double being the big blow.

The Bees took the lead in the fourth when Coon and Pettit each drove in runs with two-out base hits.

But the Beavers took the lead back for good on Huffman's blast.

"We should have walked Huffman in that situation," said Mitchell. "I put a lot of the blame for the loss on me."

The Bees now open an eight-game road trip to Sacramento and Las Vegas tonight. The River Cats have had Salt Lake's number in recent years and they have eliminated the Bees from the playoffs the past two. The Bees are scheduled to start Sean O'Sullivan (5-3, 6.62 ERA) against Sacramento's Shawn Chacon (5-5, 7.00) tonight.

BEES WAX: The Bees have lost their last 11 regular season games at Sacramento's Raley Field. Overall, Salt Lake is 2-20 in its last 22 games, including playoff games, in California's capital city. ... The Bees have turned 112 double plays this season, most in the PCL. ... There were 8,545 at the game on Monday night. The Bees are now fifth in the 16-team PCL in attendance, averaging 6,880 per game.

e-mail: lojo@desnews.com