Bees Drop Series-Opener to Space Cowboys

The Salt Lake Bees dropped the first game of their homestand against the Sugar Land Space Cowboys on Tuesday evening, falling short in a low-scoring affair by a final of 4-2.

After hanging 11 runs on the board in the finale against the Reno Aces on Sunday, the Bees offense could not carry that momentum into the opening game of their home series, notching just a pair of runs on five hits against Sugar Land pitching. Colton Gordon got things started on the mound for the Space Cowboys and turned in a solid effort, working five full innings while surrendering just four hits and two earned runs on a two-out base hit by Chad Wallach in the fourth inning. The arms tasked with following Gordon performed even better, with the quartet of Logan VanWey, Bryan King, Luis Contreras and Wander Suero combining to toss four shutout innings to wrap things up while allowing just a lone hit. The closest Salt Lake came to closing their deficit in the latter innings came in the sixth, when Pedro León robbed Wallach of extra bases with the tying run on first on an excellent leaping catch at the wall in right field.

Chad Wallach puts us on the board in the fourth with a two-RBI knock 💪 pic.twitter.com/l0hrGQcglz

— Salt Lake Bees (@SaltLakeBees) June 5, 2024

Brett Kerry took the ball for the Bees on the other side of things, and his outing was spoiled by one big Sugar Land inning in the second. The Space Cowboys pushed three runs across in the frame against the righty, with the first coming on an RBI fielder’s choice by Jacob Amaya – who also got Kerry for a solo homer in the fourth – and the next two coming on a two-run single off the bat of Jesús Bastidas. Kerry settled down after this, completing five innings to end his day while allowing four earned runs and striking out four. The bright spot on the mound for Salt Lake came from the bullpen, with Ryan Miller, Tyler Thomas and Hans Crouse keeping the game close with four scoreless frames in relief after Kerry’s departure.

The Bees will now try to bounce back and even up the series against the Space Cowboys in the second game on Wednesday, with Kenny Rosenberg currently set to toe the slab for first pitch at 6:35 p.m.