KODAK - The Tennessee Smokies (52-78, 19-42) had no answer for the Birmingham Barons (59-68, 32-26) in a 9-3 route at Smokies Stadium on Friday night.Two batters into the game, the Barons jumped out to a 1-0 lead thanks to a Luis Basabe solo blast to right center field. In the second,
KODAK - The Tennessee Smokies (52-78, 19-42) had no answer for the Birmingham Barons (59-68, 32-26) in a 9-3 route at Smokies Stadium on Friday night.
Two batters into the game, the Barons jumped out to a 1-0 lead thanks to a Luis Basabe solo blast to right center field. In the second, Birmingham tacked on three more runs courtesy of Joel Booker and Luis González RBI-singles.
In the third, Smokies' shortstop Zack Short struggled committing a pair of errors on the first two pitches which scored the leadoff man Ti'Quan Forbes and stretched the advantage to 5-0. Then, Alfredo González joined the marathon adding another run on a single to score Laz Rivera as Birmingham finished the inning scoring three runs.
In his Smokies debut, RHP Chih-Wei Hu (L, 0-1) had a rough go, allowing seven runs (four earned) over three innings. The Barons opted to spread the bulk of the work across their pitching staff, and LHP Kodi Medeiros (W, 4-8) allowed one run in three innings to pick up the win.
RHP Jake Stinnett settled things down for Tennessee tossing three scoreless innings of relief, his longest scoreless outing of the season.
After five scoreless frames, Jared Young delivered the first Smokies run with an RBI-single. In the seventh, the Smokies scored a pair of runs thanks to Vimael Machin's double and a throwing error to push the score to 7-3.
The late rally attempt was disarmed by a pair of Barons' runs in the top of the ninth to re-stretch their lead to a six run cushion.
The Smokies look to rebound with LHP Luis Lugo (5-0, 3.33) on the mound against Barons' LHP Bernardo Flores (3-7, 3.12) at 7:00 pm EDT Saturday from Smokies Stadium. Fans should be sure to arrive to the stadium early as the first 1,000 will receive a Kris Bryant bobblehead sponsored by Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance.
