Amarillo Lets Late Lead Slip Away

Amarillo, Texas (August 9, 2024) – Spencer Giesting's quality start and a five-run third inning were not enough for the Sod Poodles to hold off a late charge by the Naturals. Amarillo dropped the extra-inning game on Friday night 7-6, leaving the tying run on third in the bottom of the 11th.

After allowing the first run of the game in the top of the third inning, the Soddies provided Giesting a lead to work with the next half. Wilderd Patiño began the rally with a one-out single. The speedster then moved himself over to third with a couple of stolen bases. Jean Walters knotted the game up at 1-1 with a deep sac fly that pushed Diego Hernandez just shy of the warning track in dead center field. Jancarlos Cintron continued the rally with a two-out single and was followed aboard by Tim Tawa who drew a walk. Caleb Roberts gave Amarillo their first lead with a RBI single. A.J. Vukovich capped a five-run frame with a no-doubter to left field for his second home run in as many days.

Giesting, the D-backs' no. 25-rated prospect spun two straight 1-2-3 innings in the fourth and fifth. Luca Tresh ended the run at 10 straight Naturals sat down by the southpaw with a two-out single in the sixth. Cater Jensen made it two straight hits allowed as he doubled home Tresh to cut the Sod Poodles lead to 5-2. Giesting was back to his efficient ways, ending his night with a three-up, three-down top of the seventh.

Amarillo left Roberts stranded in scoring position after he drew a leadoff walk in the sixth. They then left the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh as they were unable to extend their lead any further.

Will Mabrey took over on the mound for Amarillo in the top of the eighth and sent the Naturals back to their dugout in the same order they came out. The left-hander induced a pair of ground outs and a flyout before turning things over to Zach Barnes who looked to clean up the save as he headed to the mound for the top of the ninth and Amarillo clinging to a three-run lead.

With a full count, Tresh cut into the lead with a leadoff home run. Barnes got a flyball to center for his first out of the inning ahead of a walk and a wild pitch that had Dillan Shrum standing in the batter's box serving as the tying run. Barnes got Shrum to strike out but Hernandez brought things level with a game-tying, two-out home run.

Patiño was plunked to get on base and serve as the potential game-winning run with one out in the bottom of the ninth. Walters and Cintron weren't able to get him past first base with Jack Pineda robbing Cintron of a bloop hit to send the game to extras.

The Naturals executed small ball to move the runner to third, sacrificing their first out of the inning. A four-pitch walk sent Tresh to the plate to face Gerardo Gutierrez. The right-hander got him to fly out to shallow right field and Vukovich fired a rocket to the plate to nab the runner and send the game to the bottom of the 10th still tied at 5-5.

NW Arkansas decided to intentionally walk Vukovich after Beck Way got Tawa and Roberts out of the way. Way's wild pitch advanced both runners into scoring position and his walk loaded the bases for the Sod Poodles and Kevin Graham. Way escaped the jam as a grounder sent the game to the 11th.

Jensen continued his big night, hitting the first pitch he saw from Gutierrez over the left-field wall to give the Naturals a 7-5 lead. Gutierrez responded by getting his first strikeout. A single and consecutive walks loaded the bases for the Naturals. He got out of the inning with an infield pop-up to send his offense to the plate needing at least two runs.

Way was back out for the bottom of the 11th. The second wild pitch of his outing allowed Graham to move to third. He scored and J.J. D'Orazio reached base safely despite striking out with the pitch getting to the backstop on the play. Patiño used his speed to get himself to second and once again serve as the potential game-winning run on a ball that chopped through the middle of the infield.

With nobody out and two in scoring position, Way escaped his second jam by getting each of the top three in the Sod Poodles batting order out.

With the series tied, the Amarillo Sod Poodles will turn to D-backs' no. 4-rated prospect Yu-Min Lin (2-4, 4.95 ERA) on Saturday night. He will face LHP Tyson Guerrero (3-5, 4.30 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

NOTES:

HE'S ON X-GAMES MODE: A.J. Vukovich made it back-to-back games with a three-run home run after adding to Amarillo's lead in the bottom of the third inning Friday night. It was the first time this season that the D-backs' no. 14-rated prospect homered in consecutive games and his fifth time overall since joining Amarillo. The last time he homered in back-to-back games came on July 21-22, 2023 at HODGETOWN against Wichita. It was the 14th time an Amarillo player hit a home run in consecutive games. Ivan Melendez leads the way in that category this year, doing so four times. His three-run home run gave him 169 career RBI with Amarillo to extend his all-time lead in team history.

NO SU-SPENCE: Spencer Giesting turned in his fifth seven-inning outing of the year and his first in nine starts at Double-A. The D-backs' no. 25-rated prospect collected his second quality start with Amarillo and first since his debut with the Soddies back on June 19th when he went 6.2 IP with two earned runs which was his most innings in a start with Amarillo until Friday night. Over his last 24 minor league starts dating back to August 16, 2023, with Hillsboro Giesting has turned in 12 quality ones and owns a 12-8 record.

BACK ON TRACK: After being held hitless over the last two games, Jancarlos Cintron was back to his hitting ways. Cintron was one of two Sod Poodles to have a multi-hit performance on Friday night, ending the game 2-for-5 with a walk and run scored. It was his 14th multi-hit game of the year and second of the series after matching his career-high with a four-hit game in the series opener Tuesday night. For the series, Cintron is 6-for-16 with a double, two walks, four runs, and a strikeout.

EXTRA, EXTRA: With the loss, the Sod Poodles fall to 5-5 in extra-inning games this year. Friday night was just the second loss Amarillo had suffered when holding a lead after the 8th inning and now owns a 38-2 record when leading after the eighth.