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New Orleans Baby Cakes

Zephyrs Come up Short in Wild, 12-Inning Affair

August 15, 2014 - Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
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Justin Smoak broke a 12th inning tie with an RBI double, and the Tacoma Rainiers added an insurance run en route to a 9-8 win over the New Orleans Zephyrs on Thursday night.

Xavier Avery led off the 12th by drawing a walk against Edgar Olmos. Following a sacrifice bunt, Smoak ripped a double into the left field corner to put the Rainiers on top, and scored one out later on a single by John Hicks, who finished with four RBI.

Down to their final strike in the bottom of the 12th, the Zephyrs got an RBI double from Brian Bogusevic to get back to within a run, but Juan Diaz struck out to end the game.

The Z's had slugged their way to a 4-0 lead through three innings on the strength of Justin Bour's two-run homer in the first and solo shot in the third, sandwiched between a Kyle Jensen solo home run in the second.

Bour, who also went deep twice on June 2 at Colorado Springs, has homered in all three games against Tacoma. It is the second time this season he has hit home runs in three straight games with the Z's, but the first time he has done so in consecutive days.

Jensen, meanwhile, became the ninth Zephyr to hit 25 home runs in a season when he took Tacoma starter Forrest Snow deep with one out in the second. Jensen moved into a tie for third place in the Pacific Coast League in both home runs and RBI, driving in his 80th run of the year.

Tacoma rallied in the fourth by loading the bases against Alex Sanabia, who forced in a run with a two-out walk to Julio Morban. Hicks then ripped a line drive to center past a diving Austin Wates to clear the bases and tie the game.

The Rainiers sent eight batters to the plate in the seventh inning to take their first lead. Ketel Marte singled against Grant Dayton, and Chaz Roe issued walks to three of the first four batters he faced, in addition to an RBI single to Ji-Man Choi, as Tacoma took a 6-4 lead.

New Orleans responded in the bottom of the inning with three hits and two walks, but only managed one run due to a pair of bizarre plays.

With the bases loaded and no outs, Bour nearly hit his third home run with a drive to deep right-center field. Morban briefly made a running catch, but dropped the ball as he crashed into the wall. As one run scored from third base, confused trio of Zephyrs baserunners converged at second, resulting in Bour being tagged out in a rundown. Morban was injured on the play and helped off the field.

A walk to Mark Canha again loaded the bases, and the Zephyrs appeared to plate the tying run when Canha broke up a potential double play grounder by Rob Brantly. But Canha was called out for inteference on his slide, and the tying run was taken off the board.

It proved to be a short-lived reprieve for the Rainiers, as Jensen led off the eighth with a double, went to third on a sacrifice bunt by Bogusevic, and scored on Juan Diaz's fly out to right to knot the score at 6-6.

Stefan Romero led off the top of the ninth by drilling Arquimedes Caminero's second pitch over the left field wall, and the Rainiers turned a one-run lead over to closer Todd Coffey, only to see Kike Hernandez hammer his first home run as a Zephyr and ninth of the season.

Blake Beavan (3-2) took over for Coffey in the 10th and allowed one hit in 2 1/3 scoreless innings to earn the win. Matt Palmer worked around Bogusevic's RBI double in the 12th for his second save.

Olmos (1-2) gave up two hits and two runs with two walks and was charged with the loss in the Zephyrs' longest game of the season, both in innings played and time of game (4 hours, 48 minutes).

The Zephyrs and Rainiers conclude the series on Friday at 7 p.m.

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