On Saturday night, the Birmingham Barons won a pair of contests versus the Rocket City Trash Pandas. Both games were played across seven innings, and game two was a suspended affair from Friday evening due to lightning.
GAME ONE
Thanks to a huge seventh inning that saw four different Barons hit home runs, Birmingham coasted to an 11-1 victory in game one of Saturday night’s action versus the Trash Pandas.
The Barons’ offense started strong in the first inning, thanks to a two-run homer from Tyler Nelsony that gave Birmingham a 2-0 lead.
In the bottom of the third, Rocket City catcher Michael Cruz drove in a solo home run of his own to cut the Barons’ lead to 2-1. Sadly for the Trash Pandas, they wouldn’t score again for the remainder of the contest.
Birmingham added two more runs to their lead in the fifth inning, thanks to a solo homer from Joel Booker and an RBI single from Xavier Fernandez.
At the end of six innings, the Barons held a solid 4-1 lead over the Trash Pandas. In the top of the seventh, Birmingham would put this game completely out of reach.
To lead off the seventh inning, Carlos Perez smashed a solo homer to left field, extending the Barons’ lead to 5-1. In the very next at-bat, Xavier Fernandez joined in on the fun with another solo home run, pushing Birmingham’s lead to 6-1.
In the next three at-bats, Tyler Nelsony doubled on a line drive to center field, Yolbert Sanchez singled in Nelsony to score another run for the Barons, and Joe DeCarlo drew a walk.
Ian Dawkins stepped to the plate next, and clobbered in a three-run homer to stretch Birmingham’s lead to 10-1. To put the cherry on top of this explosive seventh inning, Joel Booker drove in one final home run to give the Barons a double-digit victory, 11-1.
Birmingham’s offense was lethal in this contest, but the Barons’ pitching staff also dominated. Emilio Vargas earned the win for Birmingham, as he pitched five innings and allowed only two hits. Zach Muckenhirn and Luis Ledo each played one inning, and combined to strike out all six batters they faced.
Five different Barons homered in the victory and the pitching staff impressively held the Trash Pandas to only two hits.
GAME TWO
Starting pitcher Jason Bilous would lead the charge for Birmingham in game two versus Rocket City, striking out eight batters in five innings and allowing only three hits en route to a 2-1 victory.
Despite scoring 11 runs in game one, the Barons’ offense was held in check for the majority of game two.
Birmingham wouldn’t get on the board until the third inning. To lead off the third, Mitch Roman would triple on a line drive to right field. JJ Muno would single in the next at-bat, scoring Mitch Roman and giving the Barons a 1-0 lead.
Rocket City would answer back in the bottom of the fourth. Rocket City second baseman Luis Aviles Jr. stepped to the plate and drove in a solo home run to tie the score at 1-1.
The Barons would score once more in the top of the sixth inning, thanks to a sacrifice fly from Xavier Hernandez that scored Jameson Fisher and extended Birmingham’s lead to 2-1.
Neither team would score for the rest of the game, as Barons reliever Anderson Severino would pitch the final two innings and effectively ruin the Trash Pandas’ comeback hopes. The 26-year old left hander recorded the save, and didn’t allow a single hit or run in the process.
Game two may not have been as high scoring as game one, but I believe that both victories were equally impressive. In game one, Birmingham’s offense shined, and in game two, it was the Barons’ pitchers who saved the day when the offense couldn’t seem to find a rhythm.
Birmingham lost the first three games of the series versus the Trash Pandas, but thanks to these two victories, they have a chance to tie this series 3-3 on Sunday evening.
With the pair of victories, the Barons improve to 41-35, and will look to end this series strong on Sunday night at 6:35 pm CT in Toyota Field.
Photo credit: Caleb Probst/FutureSox
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