After holding on for a 7-5 victory in game 2 of the series on a drizzly Wednesday afternoon with a significant contribution from newcomer Yeison Morrobel (2-4, 4 RBI), Hub City entered Thursday night looking to secure at least a split of the 6-game series. The task of continuing to subdue the Greensboro offense to try and make that happen fell on left hander Josh Trentadue (1-1, 0.60 ERA) facing righty Hung-Leng Chang (1-1, 5.49 ERA).
Trentadue did a good job of getting out of trouble, working around a double in three of the 4 innings he pitched. He racked up 6 strikeouts, didn’t walk a single batter, and only gave up three hits. But as the old adage goes, when you play with fire, you eventually get burned.
Trentadue was taken down for righty Kolton Curtis who issued back to back one out walks to Left Fielder PJ Hilson and Catcher Geovanny Planchart. Hilson later swiped third and came home on an RBI single from Center Fielder Lonnie White Jr. A liner to right and a strikeout got him out of the inning, but Hub City would trail by a run heading to the bottom of the 5th.
But, as the old baseball adage goes, answer runs with runs. Another adage also proved itself true – put the ball in play and good things can happen. With one out, Casey Cook broke an 0-5 streak dating back to his last start on Tuesday night. All 5 of those plate appearances ended in a strikeout. But on a 2-2 count, his bat snapped in 2, sending the head flying out towards 1st base. The ball was nubbed back to the mound on a slow roller, but the first baseman dove out of the way of the bat head, which left nobody covering the base when the pitcher threw over, leading to a base hit and an error on the throw and Cook standing in scoring position. Catcher Julian Brock later delivered a clutch game-tying double with 2 out and come home himself after a passed ball and a wild pitch back to back to give Hub City a 2-1 lead heading to the 6th inning.
Unfortunately for the Burgers, Greensboro is apparently familiar with those old adages as well. They managed to sting the ball at infielders for singles and fielder’s choice plays, and it all paid off. Third Baseman Javier Rivas led off the top of the frame with a single and Keiner Delgado was hit by a pitch to follow. After a strikeout, shortstop Jesus Castillo grounded into a fielder’s choice, forcing Delgado 5-4 for the 2nd out, but the tying run scored on the play. Hilson grounded to short, but it was botched for an error, allowing the go-ahead run to score from first. Curtis finally got out of it when Planchart popped out to 1st in foul ground. But once again, the Spartanburgers would come to the dish down a run.
After both sides traded three up three down innings in the 6th and 7th, Greensboro added some insurance in the 8th, once again taking advantage of a leadoff knock and HBP back to back with a 2 out run-scoring single from Hilson, and one more in the 9th when Delgado was beaned for the third straight time in the game, in this instance with the bases loaded, forcing home Planchart.
Hub City played into the old Braves mantra – “Don’t quit with Snit” as they have so often this season, rallying in the 9th inning with back to back 1 out singles from Yeison Morrobel and Keith Jones II, coupled with a fielding error on the center fielder. That brought Arturo Disla to the plate as the tying run. But a wild pitch turned into a rally killer. The ball ricocheted off the brick backstop and came right back to the catcher with Morrobel over halfway up the 3rd base line. He ended up getting tagged out 2-5 in the ensuing rundown for the 2nd out. Disla would later fly out to right to end the game as the Spartanburgers fell 5-2 to drop to 17-13 on the season and 2-1 in the series.
Kolton Curtis took the loss after his simultaneously worst and most tough luck appearance of the season to date. He managed to grind out 3 innings and struck out 4, but he walked 2 and surrendered 4 runs, only 2 of which were earned on 3 hits. Eric Loomis surrendered 1 more earned run in his inning and two-thirds pitched.
The Spartanburgers will take another crack at securing at least a split in the series on Friday night as ace David Davalillo (1-0, 1.33 ERA) faces off against left hander Connor Oliver (2-1, 3.50 ERA). First pitch for the third fireworks Friday of the season at Fifth Third Park is set for 7:05 PM.
