After falling just short of yet another late-innings come-from-behind victory on Thursday night in a 6-5 decision to fall to 7-5 on the season and 2-1 in the series with the Bowling Green Hot Rods, Hub City looked to get off to a better start in game 4 and save its bullpen. The 2-game win streak was not the only thing broken last night as the no-doubt overworked bullpen also saw its streak of what became 18 straight scoreless innings snapped with a 2 spot in the top of the 6th inning.
The Spartanburgers would have that opportunity with their ace right hander David Davalillo (0-0, 1.42 ERA) on the bump. As a matter of fact, this matchup would be, at least on paper, a good old-fashioned battle of aces as the Hot Rods would send righty Gary Gill Hill (0-0, 2.00 ERA) to the mound.
Things could not have started more ideally for Davalillo as he struck out the side in the top of the first despite Emilien Pitre reaching on a wild pitch he swung at for strike three. Gill Hill matched the speed of the top of the frame, also getting the Burgers in order, but doing so by pitching to contact. He recorded a pair of grounders and a strikeout to send the game to the 2nd scoreless.
Both aces traded 1-2-3 frames until the Spartanburgers finally broke through in the bottom of the third with a 1 out double to center by Catcher Julian Brock. That 2-bagger was followed with the first-ever home run hit to left field at Fifth Third Park – a 2 run shot down the line from Left Fielder Marcus Smith that just stayed fair into Chaser’s Corner. Fortunately for Gill Hill, he rebounded with a fly ball to left and a K to send the game to the third without further damage.
Davalillo continued to mow down Bowling Green’s hitters in the 4th and 5th, once again sitting the Hot Rods in order, exiting the game after the fifth with 8 strikeouts, no walks, and most impressively – no hits.
He would be replaced by lefty Seth Clark, who saw the no-no end immediately on a leadoff single from Catcher Bryan Broecker. Things snowballed on him after 2 quick outs as Emilien Pitre drew the first walk of the game for a Hot Rods hitter. Mac Horvath popped one up into the Bermuda Triangle in shallow left that dropped for an RBI single. A second run came home on the play thanks to a throwing error on Marcus Smith to tie the game. After that, Tony Santa Maria was hit by a pitch and Hunter Haas drew a walk to load the bases, setting up a grand slam off the scoreboard in right center by First Baseman Blake Robertson that blew the game open at 7-2 and prompted a call to the bullpen.
Florencio Serrano, who joined the team on Friday from Low-A Hickory came in to relieve and managed to strike out Broecker to retire the side. But the damage was done as the Burgers found themselves in a 5 run deficit heading to the bottom of the 6th, where two run runners managed to reach, but a fielder’s choice and a caught stealing lead to another strange 3 up 3 down frame.
The remaining three innings saw no shortage of runners reaching on both sides. A leadoff single in the top of the 7th was erased on a lineout to 1st where he was doubled off to send the game to the stretch with Hub City still down 7-2. The Burgers had an interesting bottom half, with a leadoff walk to Disla. He was eliminated on the first of back to back force outs at 2nd. In the end, Gleider Figuereo would end up being left on after Brock struck out to end the inning.
Bowling Green left a man on after a 1 out single from Santa Maria in the top of the 8th only for the Spartanburgers to face Bowling Green righty reliever Hayden Snelsire, who made quick work of Hub City in both the 8th and 9th innings to seal the 7-2 victory and even the series at 2-2.
Despite the loss, the obvious positives are that the team seems to have a true ace in David Davalillo, who can rack up strikeouts but also showed that he is capable of pitching to contact. Seth Clark, who started the season with the potential to be Hub City’s closer, had 1 rough inning and that was the difference. But the biggest story to come from this game was definitely the effort of the newcomer Serrano. He came in with a 13 point ERA, but got it down nicely with 3.1 scoreless innings in which he struck out 2 with just 2 hits and no walks.
The ‘Burgers will look to get back on track Saturday afternoon as the train rolls on with righty DJ McCarty (0-1. 9.95 ERA) is expected to face Bowling Green’s Santiago Suarez (0-0, 3.68 ERA). First pitch is set for 4:35 PM.
