Clutch Hitting, Pitching Gets Captains Game 1 Win

Published on August 31, 2010 under American Association (AA)
Shreveport-Bossier Captains News Release


PENSACOLA, Fla. - In a tight game that had all the atmosphere of the playoff duel that it was, the Shreveport-Bossier Captains topped their 2010 nemesis David Nathanson and the Pensacola Pelicans 6-2 at Pelican Park on Tuesday night, giving the Captains a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five South Division Championship Series.

After stranding two runners in the top of the first, the Captains got on the board when Jorge Alvarez doubled to start the second and scored on Jovanny Rosario's two-out triple to the wall in right-center. Nathanson (0-1), who was 2-0 against Shreveport-Bossier in the regular season, then kept the Captains off the board for the next two innings, but he ran into trouble in the fifth after hitting Bryan Sabatella with one out. After a flyout by Robert Perry, Christopher Garcia (who was 3-for-3 off the Pensacola starter) singled to left, and Palmer Karr (who was 2-for-2 with a walk against Nathanson) smashed a hanging slider on a 1-2 count to the wall in left-center to score both runners and make it 3-0.

Captains starter Richard Salazar (1-0) cruised through the first seven hitters without giving up a baserunner, but then worked around two runners in the third and fourth, before Pensacola answered the Captains' two-spot in the fifth with one of its own. Marcos Rodriguez singled to start the inning, and moved to third when Garcia hesitated on Leon's bunt to the right side and threw over Salazar's head trying to cover first. Dallas Christison then banged the first pitch he saw for an RBI double to left, before Francisco Leandro hit a sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 3-2.

But Salazar got Adolfo Gonzalez on a lineout to Garcia and Lou Palmisano on a grounder to short, keeping the lead into the sixth. Shreveport-Bossier got its final run off Nathanson in that frame, on consecutive one out hits from Uriak Marquez and Brian Peterson, a double and a single that gave the Captains a 4-2 lead.

Salazar ran into more trouble in the sixth, with a one-out walk to John Alonso and a double by Chase Porch. But he kept the runners from scoring when Marcos Rodriguez grounded out, and righty reliever Dan Griffin struck out Leon on three pitches to end the inning.

Griffin then struck out two more and worked around an error in the bottom of the seventh, while Jameson Maj got out of a two-on, no-one out jam in the eighth after a bunt, a shallow fly ball and a grounder to second. Meanwhile, the Pensacola bullpen shut the Captains out for 2 2/3 innings before Perry, who was 0-for-4 and may have misread two balls in left field, redeemed himself with a first-pitch, two-out, two-run homer off Austin Chambliss right down the leftfield line to give Shreveport-Bossier some breathing room.

Hector Carrasco came on and survived a bout of wildness in the ninth, where he walked one and only threw six strikes out of 16 pitches, but he got a groundout from Palmisano to end the game and give the Captains the series edge.

Notes: The win was the Captains 12th in a row overall and ninth in a row on the road.Seven of the nine Captains hitters had at least one hit.Nathanson had pitched 16 innings at Pelican Park against the Captains this year and had only allowed three runs, including a shutout on July 8.Pensacola left 10 men on base in the game.Five of the Captains six runs came with two outs and the one that didn't had Peterson make the second out of the inning at second on the same play.

The Shreveport-Bossier Captains play Game 2 of the 2010 South Division Championship Series against the Pensacola Pelicans in on Wednesday, September 1, at 6:45 p.m. The Captains will next be at home for Game 3 of the series, at 7:05 p.m. on Friday, September 3. Postseason tickets are on sale now at Fair Grounds Field for all possible home playoff games. All games are broadcast streaming live on ustream.tv. For information on tickets, promotions, advertising, and other opportunities with the Captains, check out the team's Web site at www.sbcaptains.com, or call the Fair Grounds Field office at (318) 636-5555.

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American Association Stories from August 31, 2010


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