JACKSON, Tenn. - The Jackson Generals, the Double-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks, solved yet another riddle on Monday, rallying past the Mobile BayBears for a 6-4 win at The Ballpark at Jackson.
JACKSON, Tenn. - The Jackson Generals, the Double-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks, solved yet another riddle on Monday, rallying past the Mobile BayBears for a 6-4 win at The Ballpark at Jackson.
The five-game sweep for the Generals (51-43, 12-13 Second Half) was Jackson's third of the year, and it came on the strength of a four-run seventh-inning rally to upend Mobile (48-44, 11-13).
Held without a hit through the first three innings by Mobile right-hander Joe Gatto, the G-Men started up the hill with a 4-0 deficit in front of them. An RBI single from Jamie Westbrook scored Ben DeLuzio in the fourth inning to give Jackson a pulse, and the Generals would draw closer two innings later. Rudy Flores narrowly missed a two-run shot in the sixth inning, settling for an RBI double off the wall in right-center that scored DeLuzio to bring Jackson within 4-2. Gatto departed the game after six frames with a 5-2 lead, but his replacement, Adrian Almeida (2-4, 4.85 ERA), proved to be fresh meat for the Generals.
Almeida---whom the Generals had tagged for four runs in last Thursday's comeback win---gave up a leadoff solo home run to Daniel Robertson on the first pitch of the seventh inning, allowing Jackson the spark they needed to get going. With two outs, a walk by DeLuzio put men on first and third, drawing Domingo Leyba to the plate.
On the first pitch to Leyba, DeLuzio broke for second base, drawing Mobile second baseman Jahmai Jones to the base with him. Leyba rapped the pitch into the hole on the right side of the infield where Jones had been, scoring Tyler Ladendorf to bring the Generals within a run at 5-4. Westbrook, batting with the game on the line against Almeida for the second time in five days, singled up the middle, bringing home Leyba and DeLuzio to catapult the Generals into the lead. Westbrook finished with three RBI on two hits, the only General to record multiple hits. Jackson went 4-for-9 with men in scoring position, ending the series 25-for-56 (.446) in that category.
Ryan Atkinson gritted his teeth through six innings despite giving up four runs (two earned) in the first three frames. Atkinson threw 55% of his pitches for strikes, getting outs from nine of the final ten men he faced, including a pickoff of Brennon Lund to end the fourth inning. Kirby Bellow used eight pitches to get one out in the seventh, and he left a man aboard for Brian Ellington (2-0, 31.50 ERA), who continued his improvement from earlier outings. Despite allowing his inherited runner to score, Ellington induced a pair of groundball outs and threw half of his pitches for strikes. Daniel Gibson and Brad Goldberg (S, 4) finished the game with consecutive scoreless frames to complete the sweep.
