The last time we were in Fifth Third Park, Hub City’s offense went into its worst slump of the season. Paired with pitching that struggled to hold their opposition off the scoreboard, it made for the longest losing streak of the year so far at 7 games. But, the Burgers responded by cooking up a 3 game win streak to salvage a split in the 2nd round of the I-85 Rivalry Series with Greenville, pushing the record in the season series with the Drive to 7-5 in favor of Hub City.
On the strength of that 3 game win streak, the Spartanburgers ran their overall record to 20-19, which put them within a game of first place despite being third in the South Atlantic League South standings behind the Rome Emperors, who Hub City is welcoming to town this week for a 6-game series. The first game featured a matchup of Leandro Lopez (2-2, 2.13 ERA) going against Rome’s Adam Maier (2-2, 5.25).
The trend of starters not giving up a first inning run continued for Lopez, as he worked a 3 up 3 down frame. But he would not manage another one until the 5th. Hub City continued another positive trend in their half of the first by drawing first blood. Keith Jones II and Anthony Gutierrez drew back to back walks to start the inning. After Dylan Dreiling moved them both into scoring position on a ground ball to short, Arturo Disla laced a sac fly to center to score Jones and put the Burgers on top early.
After Rome answered immediately, tying the game with a 1 out solo homer into Chaser’s Corner from 2nd baseman EJ Exposito, Hub City threatened with Burgers on the grill in the home half of the 2nd. Gleider Figuereo got it started, reaching on a fielding error on Exposito. Julian Brock followed with a single. With 2 out, Jones II drew a walk, however it was all for naught as Anthony Gutierrez grounded out to third to leave them loaded.
That empty threat came back to bite as the Emperors struck again in the top of the 3rd. After getting 2 quick outs, Lopez gave up a single to Lizandro Espinoza followed by an RBI double to Patrick Clohisy for a 2-1 lead. From there, Maier and right handed reliever Giomar Diaz combined to allow just one base runner over the next 5 innings. At one point in that stretch, Hub City had gone 0-10 at the plate with three straight three up three down innings.
Lopez ended up going 6 innings, striking out 4 with just the 2 earned runs on 5 hits with 2 walks. Dylan McLean picked up where Leandro left off, working one inning and working around 2 walks to hang a goose egg. Things went sideways quickly in the 8th inning when Anthony Susac started the inning and gave up 4 earned on 3 hits with a walk, the biggest blow of which was a no doubt 3-run shot into Chaser’s Corner from Rome Shortstop Ambioris Tavarez. Susac was yanked after the 2 out blast, giving way to Seth Clark, who would finish out the game for Hub City with an inning and a third scoreless, notching a pair of strikeouts to escape a jam after a leadoff walk and a single back to back in the ninth.
Hub City’s bats broke out of the 6-inning scoreless skid in loud fashion in the bottom of the 8th when Dreiling connected for a 2-run rocket to the grassy hill above the bullpen in the right field corner, cutting the deficit to 6-3. Unfortunately for the Spartanburgers, that is where the excitement stopped. The usual propensity for a ninth-inning rally did not show in this game as Rome’s LJ McDonough sat the Burgers in order for the 5th time in the game to ice the victory.
With the loss, Hub City falls to .500 on the season. But, with 5 more chances this series, the chances are still there for the Burgers to leapfrog into 2nd and get in position to get back atop the standings. Their next chance comes at 6:35 Wednesday night as Aidan Curry (1-1, 8.15 ERA) faces off against Rome’s Herick Hernandez (0-3, 6.67).
