After winning four of six games versus the Pensacola Blue Wahoos to close out the first half of the Barons’ twelve-game homestand, Birmingham opened its next six-game home series versus the Chattanooga Lookouts on June 29. Entering this series, the Barons held a 27-20 record, which led the Double-A South North Division. The Lookouts (26-21) trailed the Barons by only one game.
Despite Birmingham holding the division lead over Chattanooga, the Lookouts would dominate the Barons in the opening game of this series. Birmingham failed to find a rhythm on offense for the entire night, which resulted in an ugly 4-0 loss. Blake Battenfield took the loss in game one, while the Barons bats mustered just four hits and struck out 11 times.
It was more of the same for the Barons in game two of the series. Only two players would record hits for Birmingham (Zack Granite, Ti’Quan Forbes), while starting pitcher John Parke would allow four earned runs across five innings in a 4-1 loss. Due to inclement weather, the game concluded after only five innings.
With two unpleasant losses under their belts, the Barons came together in game three and mustered up their best performance of the series. Birmingham would record eight hits while only allowing one run on three hits in a well-rounded 4-1 victory over Chattanooga.
Starting with Birmingham’s offense, White Sox No. 6 prospect Micker Adolfo led the charge, batting 2-for-4 for the game. Second baseman Ti’Quan Forbes also sparked Birmingham’s offense, finishing 2-for-4 at the plate with a three-run home run and a single. Zack Granite, Jameson Fisher, and Laz Rivera would also record hits for the Barons.
Jason Bilous started on the mound for Birmingham, and only allowed one hit across five innings, striking out six batters in the process. Bilous would record his first win of the season, while relievers Andrew Perez and Lane Ramsey would also shine, combining to strike out three batters and allow only two hits over the final three innings.
In game three, the Barons finally gave us flashes of the team that began this season with an impressive 20-9 record.
To begin game four, the Barons received another strong performance from a starting pitcher. Kade McClure would pitch the first five innings for Birmingham, striking out eight batters while holding the Lookouts scoreless across this stretch.
With the game scoreless entering the seventh inning, it appeared to be anybody’s contest to win. However, the Lookouts would strike first, scoring four runs in the seventh inning alone to take a commanding 4-0 lead over Birmingham by the end of the frame.
Birmingham would score two runs in the final two innings, but this wouldn’t be enough, as for the third time this series, the Lookouts topped the Barons, this time by a score of 5-2. The main culprit for this collapse was Barons’ reliever J.B. Olson, who would allow six hits and four earned runs in the seventh inning.
Sadly for the Barons, game five of the series was more of the same. Even though Birmingham would score four runs, which tied their highest scoring total of the series, the pitching staff would allow ten runs. Starter Konnor Pilkington would allow six of these ten runs across the first 3.2 innings alone, while reliever Peter Tago would allow three more runs over the next 1.1 innings.
The Barons, down 9-2 through five-and-a-half innings, wouldn’t recover, losing their fourth game in five nights by a score of 10-4. Eight different Barons would record hits, with Carlos Perez and Laz Rivera both recording doubles. Perez and J.J. Muno would also record two RBIs each.
The final game of this series was played on Sunday, July 4. The Barons wouldn’t give us any fireworks though, losing once again to the Lookouts by a score of 3-1.
Starting pitcher Blake Battenfield would allow three earned runs on six hits across the first five innings to put the Barons into an early three-run deficit. Third baseman J.J. Muno would score on a solo homer in the eighth to trim Chattanooga’s lead to two runs, but Birmingham wouldn’t score for the remainder of the game.
Although it was a shaky week for the Birmingham Barons, there are still a few individual player performances worth highlighting.
Ti’Quan Forbes was a pleasant surprise for Birmingham. The 24-year-old second baseman recorded a hit in all six games of this series, and finished the series 7-for-19 at the plate. On Sunday, Forbes made his Triple-A debut in Charlotte.
Romy Gonzalez would also make a strong offensive contribution for the Barons. Despite batting 0-for-7 in the first three games of this series, Gonzalez would bat 5-for-11 over the final three games, finishing the series 5-for-18 at the plate with an RBI.
Other notable performers for Birmingham include Micker Adolfo, who would finish the series 4-for-21 at the plate, Laz Rivera, who finished 3-for-14, and Jameson Fisher, who finished 4-for-19.
It was a tough week for this Barons ball club, especially on offense. Birmingham only managed to score 11 runs for the entire series, and was held at bay for the majority of the series, due to impressive pitching by Chattanooga.
Birmingham’s pitching was streaky, in comparison. Notable pitching performances for the Barons include Kade McClure, who struck out eight batters across five innings in game four of the series. Jason Bilous also shined in game three, recording his first win of the season. However, Blake Battenfield had a disappointing week, recording two losses after beginning the season with an impressive 5-1 record through 11 starts.
Inconsistency on both ends of the ball is what plagued the Barons over the final six games of this homestand. The team has fallen to second place in the Double-A South North Division with a record of 28-25.
The Barons will travel to Biloxi, Mississippi to play their next six games versus the Biloxi Shuckers, who are currently sitting in last place in the Double-A South South Division with an impressively awful 16-37 record.
Game one of Barons-Shuckers will be played on July 6 at 6:35 PM CT, as Birmingham looks to right the ship after a shoddy 5-7 homestand.
Photo credit: Caleb Probst/FutureSox
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