SL1 Birmingham Barons

Parke Leads Barons to Bounce Back Win

Published on July 29, 2019 under Southern League (SL1)
Birmingham Barons News Release


MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Starter John Parke earned his third win of the season, shutting down the Montgomery Biscuits (70-38) in a 6-2 victory for the Birmingham Barons (48-56) Monday night at Riverwalk Stadium.

Parke was dominant in all fashions, stifling the Biscuit bats with good off-speed and location of pitches. He would finish with seven shutout innings, allowing just three hits, zero walks and striking out five.

For the South Carolina product, he now has a quality start in four of his last six outings.

Leading 1-0 in the fourth, Birmingham caught flight. Outfielder Blake Rutherford showed off the power when he hammered a 3-2 Paul Campbell pitch the opposite way over the fence for his seventh homer of the season.

The very next batter, first baseman Gavin Sheets, lasered his 2-2 Campbell pitch down the right field line and over the wall. It was Sheets' 13th dinger of the season and his 67th RBI, the latter which tied him for most in the Southern League, and it thrusted the Barons to their 3-0 lead.

After a Ti'Quan Forbes RBI double in the top of the ninth, center fielder Luis Gonzalez blasted a two-run shot to deep right and padded the Barons lead to 6-2.

Like game one of the series, the Barons jumped out to a quick three-run lead early. On top of the Rutherford and Sheets homers, shortstop Ramon Torres laced an RBI single to right, scoring Alfredo Gonzalez in the third and opening the scoring.

In the bottom of the eighth, Biscuits catcher David Rodriguez got ahold of a Luis Martinez pitch and sent it deep to left for a two-run homer to cut the Barons lead to just 3-2. Later in the inning with one out, Vidal Brujan popped out on the infield to Torres and Torres picked off runner Thomas Malone at first for a double play.

The home runs from Rutherford and Sheets snapped the Barons out of their season-long homerless drought of seven consecutive games.

The Barons win snapped an eight-game winning streak for the Biscuits.

Birmingham will continue their series with Montgomery Tuesday evening, starting at 6:35. Right-hander Blake Battenfield (4-2, 4.30) will start and make his 13th appearance with the Barons.

WJQX-FM 100.5 will be the home of the Barons on Tuesday. Fans can tune into the Coca-Cola Pregame Show starting at 6:20 p.m.

The Birmingham Barons are the proud Double-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. The Barons will open the home portion of their 2019 season, which celebrates the 25th anniversary of Michael Jordan's lone year in baseball, against the Tennessee Smokies at 7:05 p.m. April 10 at Regions Field. For ticket information, game schedule, promotions calendar or additional information about Regions Field, please visit barons.com or call (205) 988-3200.

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Southern League Stories from July 29, 2019


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