SL1 Montgomery Biscuits

Biscuits Squeak by Smokies, 6-5

August 25, 2018 - Southern League (SL1)
Montgomery Biscuits News Release


MONTGOMERY, Ala. - The Biscuits (73-59) bent late, but didn't break in a 6-5 victory over the Tennessee Smokies (64-66) in the second of a five-game series on Saturday night at Riverwalk Stadium. The Biscuits still lead the Second Half North Division standings by four games with eight to play in the regular season, and can clinch a playoff spot for a team-record fourth-consecutive season with a win and a Birmingham Barons loss on Sunday.

Brock Burke (6-1), who won Southern League Pitcher of the Week honors on Monday, allowed a first-inning sac fly to Trent Giambrone, but was dominant after that, hurling eight innings of one-run ball, and striking out a season-high 11. Burke has now won six of his first eight Double-A starts including each of his last four.

Justin Steele (0-1) was making his Double-A debut on the other side for Tennessee, but three batters in, the southpaw ran into Nick Solak, who clubbed a skyscraping two-run home run over the left field wall to put the Biscuits in front for good at 2-1. Solak is now a home run shy of becoming the first Biscuit to hit 20 homers in a season since Gaby Martinez in 2008, and the first Biscuit to hit 20 home runs and steal 20 bases in the same season since 2005 when Delmon Young did it and won Southern League MVP.

The Biscuits loaded the bases four times over five innings and scratched across four more runs thanks to a David Rodriguez RBI-single in the fourth, a Danny De La Calle RBI-single in the fifth, and a two-run single by Rodriguez, also in the fifth.

With the Biscuits up 6-1 in the ninth, Mike Broadway was summoned from the bullpen, and that's when things got hairy as the right-hander served up a two-run home run to Wynton Bernard, and allowed a single to P.J. Higgins before an out was recorded.

After the first out and a Tyler Alamo single, Broadway was replaced by Yoel Espinal, who surrendered another single to Jesse Hodges. Zack Short then popped out, but then Charcer Burks punched a two-run single into right to make it a one-run game at 6-5. With runners at first and third, Jeffrey Baez then sent a teardrop into shallow right-center that would have fallen had it not been for Solak taking control and snagging it to put an end to a nerve-wracking finish.

The Biscuits will try to make it three in a row over the Smokies on Sunday when Sam McWilliams (4-7) faces Thomas Hatch (8-5) at 5:05 PM CT. The rest of the current 10-game home stand includes AUM Night, featuring a 2019 Schedule Poster Giveaway, on Sunday, August 26, and Fan Appreciation Night on Tuesday, August 28.

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Southern League Stories from August 25, 2018


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