Wahoos Silenced by Carela, Barons in 4-1 Loss
Birmingham, Ala. - The Pensacola Blue Wahoos saw their newfound momentum halted on Thursday night, falling 4-1 to the Birmingham Barons in their first loss of the series. After 5-1 wins on Tuesday and Wednesday, Pensacola managed only one run on six hits as Juan Carela (W, 2-3) led a
Birmingham, Ala. - The Pensacola Blue Wahoos saw their newfound momentum halted on Thursday night, falling 4-1 to the Birmingham Barons in their first loss of the series.
After 5-1 wins on Tuesday and Wednesday, Pensacola managed only one run on six hits as Juan Carela (W, 2-3) led a dominant performance from the Birmingham pitching staff.
With the loss, the Blue Wahoos lost ground to the Biloxi Shuckers in the hunt for a wild card playoff spot. The Blue Wahoos trail the Shuckers by 3.5 games and the Mississippi Braves by 2.0 games with nine to play in the regular season.
Jacob Miller (L, 1-1) was perfect through two innings, but ran into trouble in the third. Five singles, including RBI knocks from Rikuu Nishida and Wilfred Veras, gave the Barons a 2-0 lead. All eight of Birmingham's hits in the game were singles.
The Blue Wahoos got a run back in the fourth when Nathan Martorella doubled off the top of the right field wall and scored on Graham Pauley's RBI single. That would be all the damage done against Carela, who worked 5.0 innings of four-hit, one-run ball.
Terrell Tatum added to the Birmingham lead with an RBI single in the fourth, and Jason Matthews scored on a wild pitch from reliever Nigel Belgrave in the seventh to bring the score to 4-1.
Caleb Freeman (S, 4) worked a 1-2-3 ninth to earn a save and lock down the Barons win.
The series continues Friday in Birmingham, with a 7:00 CT first pitch from Regions Field. Fans can watch a Barons-produced video broadcast on Bally Live or MLB.tv, or listed to a free audio broadcast on BlueWahoos.com/radio or the MiLB app.