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Baxter scores Alfonzo with game-winning single in 13th inning

August 20, 2009 - Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
Portland Beavers News Release


PORTLAND, Ore. - Mike Baxter drove in Eliezer Alfonzo with an RBI single to right in the bottom of the 13th inning as the Portland Beavers knocked off the Iowa Cubs 10-9 in front of 4,134 at PGE Park on Wednesday night.

Alfonzo hit a one-out single to start the rally before Drew Macias' ground-rule double put the winning run on third. After an intentional walk to Valentino Pascucci, Baxter hit Blake Parker's 2-0 pitch on a line to right to give the Beavers (53-72) their third straight win.

The game began as a wild offensive affair, with the teams combining to score 17 runs over the first seven innings. The bullpens then shut down the offenses for five scoreless innings before Baxter's single ended the game four hours and 34 minutes after it started.

The game was the Beavers' longest of the season, in terms of both innings and time.

Pascucci went 3-for-5 with a first-inning grand slam and four runs scored and Russ Adams and Alfonzo added three hits apiece for the Beavers, who matched a season high with 17 hits.

Matt Craig led Iowa (63-61) with three hits while Chris Robinson drove in four runs, including three on a bases-loaded double in the seventh.

Walter Silva (6-5), the Beavers' seventh pitcher of the game, gave up a hit while pitching a scoreless top of the 13th to earn the win.

Parker (2-2) pitched 1/3 of an inning and gave up three hits, a walk and one earned run.

Adams, Chad Huffman and Alfonzo hit consecutive one-out singles in the bottom of the first and Pascucci brought them all home with a two-out grand slam off the left-field scoreboard, giving Portland a 4-1 lead.

After Iowa narrowed the lead to one in the third, Craig Stansberry delivered a two-run double in the fourth to up the Beavers lead to 6-3.

A sac fly brought the Cubs to within two in the sixth but Portland's Brett Dowdy followed a single by Pascucci and a double by Baxter with a two-run single in the bottom half of the inning.

Down 8-4, the Cubs rallied for four runs in the seventh off Portland reliever Scott Patterson. Craig delivered the first blow with an RBI single to score the rehabbing Andres Blanco. Following a walk to John-Ford Griffin that loaded the bases, Robinson, Iowa's representative in the Triple-A All-Star Game back in July, drove a three-run double into the right-center field gap to knot the game at eight.

Portland would load the bases with one out in the bottom of the seventh and scored one run to take the lead, though the damage could have been greater. Alfonzo collected his second single of the night to start the frame before a pair of walks loaded them up. After a force-out at the plate, Sean Kazmar's single to right scored Pascucci, but Baxter was thrown out at the plate by right fielder Micah Hoffpauir.

A pair of errors by Portland in the eighth inning allowed Iowa to tie the game back up. Camp reached on a throwing error by the second baseman Adams and Blanco reached on a sac bunt that the catcher Alfonzo threw into center field to put runners on second and third. After an RBI groundout by Hoffpauir tied the game at nine, Dowdy, who started the game at third base but moved to left field in the sixth, threw out Blanco at the plate on a fly ball double play off the bat of Griffin.

The Beavers host the Iowa Cubs again on Thursday night at 7:05 p.m. (Pacific) at PGE Park.



Pacific Coast League Stories from August 20, 2009


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