Bats Offense Falls Flat in 6-2 Loss To RailRiders
The Louisville Bats offense failed to take advantage of key opportunities, falling 6-2 against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders on Wednesday. The Bats left eight men on base and went 0-6 with runners in scoring position, leading to their ninth consecutive loss. It’s Louisville’s second nine-game losing streak of the season. After
The Louisville Bats offense failed to take advantage of key opportunities, falling 6-2 against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders on Wednesday.
The Bats left eight men on base and went 0-6 with runners in scoring position, leading to their ninth consecutive loss. It’s Louisville’s second nine-game losing streak of the season.
After the Bats went away quietly in the top of the first, the RailRiders wasted no time jumping out in front vs. Louisville starter Grant Gavin. Jasson Domínguez worked a walk and Jorvit Vivas singled to set up Oswald Peraza, and the shortstop launched a three-run home run just over the right field wall to give Scranton/Wilkes-Barre an early 3-0 lead.
The Bats woke up in the third against RailRiders starter Josh Maciejewski. Tony Kemp walked and Erik González followed with his 20th double of the season to put runners on second and third for Ivan Johnson, who recorded an RBI groundout to score Kemp and get Louisville on the board at 3-1. Luke Mailie and Rece Hinds tallied consecutive walks to load the bases, but reliever Oddanier Mosqueda (W, 6-0) replaced Maciejewski and struck out Edwin Ríos to end the threat.
Gavin (L, 0-3) tallied two outs in the fourth and was then replaced by Reiver Sanmartin with one on and two outs, finishing his day with just the three first inning runs allowed in 3.2 innings pitched with two strikeouts. Sanmartin closed out the fourth and pitched a scoreless fifth in his third Bats outing this season.
Still down 3-1, the Bats eyed a comeback vs. Railriders lefty Victor González in the sixth. Hinds, Ríos, and P.J. Higgins all earned walks to load the bases with no outs, but Michael Trautwein came up next and struck out. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre went to the bullpen after the first out, calling on Yerry De Los Santos to get the RailRiders out of the jam. Kemp looked to take advantage of the bases loaded opportunity and the second baseman lifted a deep fly ball that right fielder Taylor Trammell had to catch against the wall for the second out, allowing Hinds to score on the sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to 3-2. González worked yet another walk to load the bases again, but Ivan Johnson struck out to leave the Bats wanting more.
Spencer Stockton replaced Sanmartin in the bottom of the sixth and pitched a scoreless frame. The righty remained in the game for the seventh after the Bats failed to score in the top half, but quickly found himself in trouble. After a walk and stolen base by Josh VanMeter, Vivas came through with a single to score VanMeter and increase the Bats deficit to 4-2.
Louisville was again unsuccessful in getting anything going in the eighth, and Pat Kelly called on Brooks Crawford to make his Triple-A debut in the bottom half. The RailRiders tacked on two more with a Trammell two-run home run to give the home team plenty of breathing room heading into the ninth at 6-2, and the Bats went down in order in their final chance at the plate to finalize the loss.
The Bats (49-53, 11-17 second half) and RailRiders (58-45, 15-14 second half) will continue their series on Thursday, August 1st. First pitch is set for 1:05 p.m. at PNC Field, with Nick Curran on the call for 1450/96.1 WXVW.