Birmingham Drops Narrow 5-4 Contest to Rocket City
The Birmingham Barons cut their win streak at three games in 5-4 extra-innings defeat to the Rocket City Trash Pandas in Game 4. In the loss, the Barons collected six hits and used a total of five pitchers. From the plate, Yoelqui Cespedes was the most efficient as he finished
The Birmingham Barons cut their win streak at three games in 5-4 extra-innings defeat to the Rocket City Trash Pandas in Game 4. In the loss, the Barons collected six hits and used a total of five pitchers.
From the plate, Yoelqui Cespedes was the most efficient as he finished the night 1-4 with a run, two RBI and a home run. Other Barons with success at the plate were Tim Elko and Alsander Womack. Elko finished the night 2-4 from the plate with two runs. Womack finished the night also 2-4 from the plate but only accounted for one run. The lone other Baron with a hit on the night was Wilfred Veras, who finished 1-5 from the dish.
The Barons scored their runs between two innings: One in the top of the second and three in the top of the fourth. In the second, Birmingham collected their first run on a sacrifice fly by Luis Mieses to score Elko. In the fourth, Mieses again hit a sac fly to score Elko and Cespedes smacked his two-run homer to score Womack. Birmingham at the end of the fourth sat with a 4-1 lead, but Rocket City would climb all the way back to win the game in the tenth inning.
From the mound, starting RHP Matt Thompson managed 5.0 innings pitched in a stellar 23rd start for the Barons this season. Thompson finished the night allowing two hits, one earned run and three walks to go with his seven strikeouts. Thompson has strung together some impressive starts; however, his record does not display the season he has been putting together.
The Barons in the sixth called LHP Jonah Scolaro out of the bullpen for his lone inning of work. Scolaro finished the night allowing one hit, zero runs and one walk. After Scolaro, RHP Chase Plymell came out of the pen next. Plymell allowed the Trash Pandas to tie the ballgame up by allowing two hits, three runs, one earned run and two walks to go with his two strikeouts.
Birmingham could not respond on the offensive side of the ball, nevertheless, LHP Haylen Green took the mound to continue his dominance in Double-A. Green finished his 2.1 IP allowing one hit and zero runs to go with his two strikeouts. The left-hander now sits with a 3.90 ERA and 32 strikeouts in his 27.2 innings pitched for the Barons.
Green extended the Barons into extra-innings and handed the mound over to RHP Jared Kelley in the 10th. In the bottom of the 10th, Kelley did not record an out as he walked Mac McCroskey with the bases loaded to hand the opposition the win. The right-hander finished the night with one hit, one run, zero earned runs, two walks and his second loss of the year.
Birmingham now turns their efforts to the final two games of the series as they will try not replicate what happened the past two series. The Barons have started the past series with three consecutive wins and have ended up losing the final three games to split the series. The Chicago White Sox No. 7 prospect, LHP Ky Bush, in his fifth start with the Barons takes the bump for Game 5.