Tacoma Turns Tales on Sox in 10-5 Loss

Published on August 20, 2015 under Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
Colorado Springs Sky Sox News Release


COLORADO SPRINGS, CO - The Sky Sox could not keep up their torrid offensive pace, dropping Thursday night's 10-5 contest to the Tacoma Rainiers before a crowd of 5,515 at Security Service Field.

Sox starter Hiram Burgos (2-3, 3.50) tossed a scoreless first before allowing individual runs in each of the next three frames. Leury Bonilla's second-inning RBI single, Jabari Blash's solo blast in the third and Steve Baron's run-scoring sac fly in the fourth accounted for the Tacoma damage against the right-hander. Blash's homer was his second solo shot in as many nights and his 16th on the season. Burgos would depart after four innings of work, allowing those three runs on six hits and a walk while striking out two.

His counterpart, former New York Yankees Ace Chien-Ming Wang (3-3, 4.78) looked to be in vintage form on the warm Colorado Springs evening. The right-handed sinker-baller surrendered three runs (just two earned) on seven hits while striking out five and walking none over seven impressive innings of work.

Jeremy Horst took over for the Sox in the Tacoma fifth with his team trailing 3-0. The left-hander would give up four hits and free pass in the frame with Baron, Patrick Brady and Shawn O'Malley driving in runs on back-to-back RBI singles. The Rainiers doubled their lead by the time Horst retired Chris Taylor with the inning's final out, holding a commanding 6-0 advantage they would maintain until the seventh.

Rob Wooten tossed a scoreless sixth before being taken deep for a solo home run by Brady with two out in the seventh. The infielder's first career Triple-A home run extended the Rainiers lead to 7-0 heading to the home seventh.

Colorado Springs broke through for their only runs of the night in the that very next frame, scratching three across the plate against Wang on three singles and a couple of productive outs. Matt Clark, Michael Reed and Nevin Ashley loaded the bases with consecutive singles before Clark and Reed came around to score on a Juan Centeno RBI groundout and throwing error by Patrick Kivlehan. Matt Dominguez added an RBI groundout of his own to cut the Sky Sox deficit to 7-3 before Wang induced an inning-ending groundout off the bat of Pete Orr.

Tim Dillard would take the bump to start the Rainiers eighth, allowing four consecutive hits before recording an out. Stefan Romero's RBI double pushed the first run of the frame across before Kivlehan represented Tacoma's scoring with a run-scoring base knock. Dillard settled down to record three quick outs, ending the frame with the Rainiers now leading the Sky Sox 9-3.

Jim Henderson gave up the Rainiers' final run on a Chris Taylor RBI single in the ninth before Matt Clark cut the Sox deficit to 10-4 in the home ninth on his 18th long ball of the season. Pete Orr added an RBI sac fly against the recently acquire Rainiers reliever Jose Ramirez. The right-hander struck out Kyle Wren to end the ballgame, securing Tacoma's 1-5 win on Thursday night. The win improves Tacoma to 59-67 while the Sox drop to 52-73 on the season.

The Sox will look to avenge the tough loss with a win on Friday night. The Sox will send Ariel Pena (1-2, 4.68) to the mound against Tacoma lefty Edgar Olmos (1-1, 3.55) in game three of this four-game set with the Rainiers. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 PM MDT at Security Service Field.

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Pacific Coast League Stories from August 20, 2015


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