Bats Stumble In 10-5 Loss To Knights
The Louisville Bats lost 10-5 in the series opener vs. the Charlotte Knights on Tuesday night at Louisville Slugger Field, falling five games under .500 with their third straight defeat. Rece Hinds and Edwin Ríos both homered to highlight the offensive effort. On the mound, Emilio Pagán had an impressive
The Louisville Bats lost 10-5 in the series opener vs. the Charlotte Knights on Tuesday night at Louisville Slugger Field, falling five games under .500 with their third straight defeat.
Rece Hinds and Edwin Ríos both homered to highlight the offensive effort. On the mound, Emilio Pagán had an impressive second rehab outing with a scoreless frame in relief while Brooks Crawford pitched the final 1.2 innings and allowed one unearned run in a solid Louisville Slugger Field debut.
Bats starter Grant Gavin got off to a strong start with back-to-back strikeouts to begin his day, but the righty stumbled from there. Edgar Quero singled on the first pitch he saw and Zach DeLoach followed with a triple to score Quero and give the Knights an early 1-0 lead.
Louisville was quick to respond in the home half of the first, as Jacob Hurtubise worked a walk and stole second to set up the Bats lineup against Knights starter Sean Burke. After Blake Dunn struck out, Hinds picked him up by launching his 14th home run of the season off the right-field foul pole to put Louisville in front at 2-1.
After Gavin (L, 0-4) struck out two more in the second, Charlotte jumped on him again in the third. Michael Chavis and Mark Payton recorded consecutive singles and Quero later tallied a sacrifice fly that scored Chavis and tied the game at two. DeLoach came up next and took a changeup over the wall in right-center field, giving the advantage back to the Knights at 4-2.
Pagán came on for his second rehab appearance in the fourth and set the Knights down in order with a strikeout and two groundouts. In the bottom half, the Bats had a two-out rally with two singles and a walk to load the bases but could only get one run across on a wild pitch to cut their deficit to 4-3.
Connor Overton was called on to pitch the fifth in his first Bats appearance this season and allowed a two-run home run to Quero that increased the Knights lead to 6-3.
Overton stayed in to pitch the next two frames as well and posted two zeros, but the Bats offense could not get anything going. In the top of the eighth, Reiver Sanmartin replaced Overton and hit DeLoach to begin his night. The lefty then gave up a single to Tim Elko and a three-run home run to Colson Montgomery to double the Knights lead at 9-3, and the Knights would go on to add one more as the Knights headed into the bottom half with a 10-3 lead.
The home team earned two back in the bottom of the eighth with Ríos launching his 12th home run of the season over the right field wall, but that was as close as Louisville would get as the Bats were defeated 10-5.
The Bats (51-56, 13-20 second half) and Knights (50-56, 17-15 second half) continue the six-game set on Wednesday, August 7 at Louisville Slugger Field. First pitch is set for 6:35 p.m. with Nick Curran and Jim Kelch on the call for 1450/96.1 WXVW.