Bats Woes Continue In Toledo With 10-5 Loss
A difficult road week for the Louisville Bats came to an end with a 10-5 loss to the Toledo Mud Hens on Sunday afternoon at Fifth Third Field. The defeat extends the Bats’ losing streak to seven games. Bats righty Randy Wynne was able to escape a bases-loaded jam for
A difficult road week for the Louisville Bats came to an end with a 10-5 loss to the Toledo Mud Hens on Sunday afternoon at Fifth Third Field. The defeat extends the Bats’ losing streak to seven games.
Bats righty Randy Wynne was able to escape a bases-loaded jam for a scoreless first inning. He couldn’t do the same in the second. A walk and a pair of singles loaded the bases with nobody out. A walk to Parker Meadows allowed the first run to come in and score. The next hitter, Spencer Torkelson, broke the game open for the Mud Hens with a 429-foot grand slam to left, his seventh homer of the year to make it 5-0. Toledo plated another run in the third, extending the lead to 6-0 before the Bats went to the bullpen.
Wynne (L, 1-1) lasted just 2.1 innings, allowing six runs for the second straight start while walking two and striking out four to suffer his first loss of the season.
The Bats couldn’t get much going offensively early against Mud Hens starter Ty Madden (W, 2-4). The breakthrough finally came for the visitors in the top of the fifth. Conner Capel began the frame with a walk and Erik Gonzalez doubled off the left field wall to put runners on second and third with nobody out. Ivan Johnson got the Bats on the board with a double that one-hopped the right field wall, scoring both runners to make it 6-2.
Christian Roa was first out of the Louisville bullpen and was stellar for 2.2 relief innings, keeping the Mud Hens off the board while striking out five to give the offense a chance to get back into it.
Louisville continued to fight back into the game in the sixth. Hernan Perez got it started with a single. Michael Trautwein followed with a double to the gap in right-center, bringing Perez all the way around to make it 6-3. Following a ground out, the Mud Hens turned to reliever Sean Guenther. He struggled out of the gate, allowing a Gonzalez RBI single to score Trautwein. Johnson then made it a one-run game with a double to deep left, bringing Gonzalez all the way home from first and making it 6-5.
Reiver Sanmartin held the deficit at one with a scoreless bottom of the sixth. After the Bats couldn’t complete the comeback in the seventh, the Mud Hens pulled away again in the bottom of the seventh. Grant Gavin came on and walked the first two hitters he faced before a sacrifice bunt moved the runners over. The first hitter Brooks Kriske faced, Torkelson, delivered the final nail in the Louisville coffin with a three-run homer to left-center, his second of the day, to make it 9-5. The Mud Hens plated one more against Alan Busenitz in the eighth, doubling the score to 10-5.
Andrew Vasquez finished the win and the series sweep with two scoreless innings for the Mud Hens.
In his third Triple-A game, Ivan Johnson led the way for the Bats, going 3-for-4 with two doubles and three RBI. Gonzalez also went 3-for-4, driving in a run and scoring twice.
The Bats (49-51, 11-15 second half) will have Monday off before the road trip shifts to Pennsylvania on Tuesday night. The series opener between the Bats and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (56-45, 13-14 second half) is set for 6:35 p.m. at PNC Field. Nick Curran will be on the call for 1450/96.1 WXVW.