Jackson, Tenn. - The Jackson Generals, the Double-A affiliate of Major League Baseball's Arizona Diamondbacks, doused the Montgomery Biscuits with some of their own late-inning magic on Friday, winning 6-4 at The Ballpark at Jackson.
Jackson, Tenn. - The Jackson Generals, the Double-A affiliate of Major League Baseball's Arizona Diamondbacks, doused the Montgomery Biscuits with some of their own late-inning magic on Friday, winning 6-4 at The Ballpark at Jackson.
The Generals (69-52) snapped a three-game skid against Montgomery (79-45) by posting their 26th comeback victory of the season.
Jeff Bain, the current California League leader in strikeouts, made his Double-A debut on Friday with mixed results. Bain completed six innings of work, allowing six hits to the Biscuits while collecting three strikeouts. Bain gave up four runs to Montgomery, including solo home runs off the bats of Tristan Gray and Taylor Walls to lead off the second and sixth innings, respectively. For Bain, those jacks were the fifth and sixth that has he allowed in his past eleven innings of work, as well as Montgomery's seventh and eighth dingers of the series. Nonetheless, he kept the damage minimal, not allowing Montgomery to score more than one run on any given play. Bain finished with 72 pitches thrown, inducing eight flyball outs.
Cole Stapler (4-0, 2.93 ERA) entered in the seventh inning and gave up a one-out triple to Carl Chester, but he knuckled down to induce a pair of groundball outs to keep the deficit at 4-2 at that moment. Stapler put the Biscuits down in order in the eighth, and in the ninth, with the Generals ahead 6-4, Miguel Aguilar (S, 4) came on and earned his fourth save by stranding a runner at first with a strikeout of Chester. Aguilar now has 11 combined holds and saves since June 1st, the most in the Southern League.
The Generals took a 1-0 lead in the first inning with an RBI double by Seth Beer, a preview of late-game action. But for the next six innings, Jackson managed just one run against left-hander Kenny Rosenberg (11-4, 3.28 ERA), who allowed a solo homer to Jeffrey Baez in the fifth to cut the Biscuits' lead to 4-2 at the time. Rosenberg got the first out in the eighth inning, but he faded quickly thereafter. Daulton Varsho singled and L.T. Tolbert doubled to put the tying run on base for Beer, and the 22-year-old delivered. Beer lofted a double perfectly into the right field corner that scored Varsho, and Renae Martinez followed with a double of his own that scored Tolbert and Beer for a 5-4 Jackson lead. Two batters later, Pavin Smith cracked a pinch-hit RBI double to give the Generals a larger edge at 6-4, capping the scoring.
Beer's two hits and two RBI led the way on Friday, with Martinez collecting two RBI and Varsho scoring twice. The Jackson offense went 4-for-11 with men in scoring position, putting up six doubles, including four in the fateful eighth inning.
The Jackson Generals, a West Tennessee franchise since 1998, are the Double-A minor league affiliate of Major League Baseball's Arizona Diamondbacks. The Generals play at The Ballpark at Jackson, Tennessee's 2017 & 2018 Pro Sports Field of the Year. Next June, The Ballpark at Jackson will host the 2020 Southern League All-Star Game, and you can purchase 2020 season tickets today by calling 731.988.5299 or visiting JacksonGeneralsBaseball.com!
