Blasters Done in by Walks, Errors in Laredo
Published on June 8, 2016 under American Association (AA)
Joplin Blasters News Release
The Joplin Blasters lost their third consecutive game on Tuesday night, losing a 2-1 game to the Laredo Lemurs at Uni-Trade Stadium in south Texas. The Blasters lost the middle game of a three-game set to Laredo despite outhitting the Lemurs 5-4.
Laredo opened the scoring in the bottom of the second inning with a run. Abel Nieves led off the inning with a single, and advanced to second base on a walk to Drew Martinez. Nieves moved up to third on a fly out by Matt Koch. With runners on first and third and one out, Drew Martinez stole second. The throw skipped into centerfield, which allowed Nieves to score easily for the game's opening run.
The Blasters answered with a run of their own in the top of the third. Aaron Brill drew a leadoff walk and Zack Burling laid down a sacrifice bunt to put a runner on second with one out. Ronnie Richardson proceeded to single through the right side of the infield, scoring Brill and tying the game.
Pitching would dominate the game from that point on, with each starting pitcher working a quality outing. Joplin starter Carlos Fuentes recorded his best appearance of the season, allowing just an unearned run on three hits. Fuentes struck out four Laredo hitters, and saw his season ERA drop to 0.90. Laredo's Troy Marks tossed five innings for the Lemurs, while relief pitcher Kyle Winkler won his fourth game for two perfect innings.
Another Blaster error allowed the Lemurs to push across the game-winning run in the bottom of the seventh. Against eventual losing pitcher Jose Ortega, Reggie Wilson drew a one out walk. When a pickoff throw got away from Blasters, Wilson advanced to third base, where he stood with two outs. Ty Morrison recorded his second hit of the game, a single that drove in Wilson and gave Laredo the decisive 2-1 lead. Closer Jeff Inman recorded the final three outs of the game and earned his sixth save.
The Blasters' offense was again led by Mitch Glasser, who went 2-for-4 with a double. Glasser has recorded four of Joplin's eight hits during the series. Burling also posted an impressive at-bat in the fifth, where he saw 13 pitches from Marks en route to a walk.
Joplin will look to avoid a sweep on Wednesday night in Laredo, playing the series finale with the Lemurs at Uni-Trade Stadium. The contest will pit Laredo's Ryan Beckman against Joplin's Patrick Mincey, who will be making his second career start.
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