Behind an offensive eruption, the Fresno Grizzlies (60-43) vanquished the Iowa Cubs (37-65) 9-1 Wednesday night from Chukchansi Park. With 12 hits and three longballs, the Grizzlies improved to 12-4 versus the American conference. Starter Cy Sneed (9-5) enjoyed the support en route to the victory. He tossed six scoreless
Behind an offensive eruption, the Fresno Grizzlies (60-43) vanquished the Iowa Cubs (37-65) 9-1 Wednesday night from Chukchansi Park. With 12 hits and three longballs, the Grizzlies improved to 12-4 versus the American conference. Starter Cy Sneed (9-5) enjoyed the support en route to the victory. He tossed six scoreless innings, scattering three hits, a pair of walks and four punchouts. Sneed's nine wins are tied for second in the PCL.
In the bottom of the second, Fresno sent 11 batters to the plate, exploding for six runs. Myles Straw started the scoring with a single to left, adding Jack Mayfield. Then, Garrett Stubbs followed Straw with a three-run bomb off the right field foul pole. It was his third big fly of the season. Finally, Derek Fisher (3-for-5, triple shy of the cycle) destroyed a pitch to center field. The two-run dinger was his ninth in Triple-A.
That would end the evening for former Grizzly starter Casey Coleman (2-2, loss). He lasted one and one-third frames, allowing five hits, six runs (earned), walking three and fanning one.
Fresno expanded the advantage to 9-0 in the home half of the fourth. Tyler White yanked a double down the left field line, plating Fisher. White extended the current team-high hit streak to 11 games. In that span, he is 14-for-40 (.350), with six extra-base knocks, 14 RBI, 12 runs and eight free passes. Then, Mayfield jacked a two-run wallop to left field. It was his 10th homer of the year.
The Cubs broke the shutout in the top of the ninth when Jacob Hannemann singled in Ryan Court. With a leadoff double in the inning, Court increased his hit streak to 19 games. That would only prolong the inevitable as Kent Emanuel closed the door on a 9-1 victory. He secured his first save of the year, punching out four.
Straw stole one base on the evening, giving him a professional baseball best 53. In 34 Triple-A games, he has swiped 18 of 19 bags successfully. AJ Reed and Yordan Alvarez each recorded multi-hit affairs. The pitching staff notched eight strikeouts on the night, lengthening their season-total to 1,001 (tops in the PCL by 121). Memphis is second with 880 whiffs. The win also extended Fresno's division lead to nine games over Tacoma with the magic number set at 29.
Both squads finish the series Thursday night from Chukchansi Park with the Grizzlies looking to bring out the brooms for the third time in 2018. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 PT. Fresno righty Mike Hauschild (7-6, 4.91) and Iowa RHP Jen-Ho Tseng (2-10, 6.84) are the probable matchup.
