Suns' Barnes comes through in clutch

Austin Barnes did most of his damage late this year, so why should the playoffs be any different?

The Marlins' No. 16 prospect slugged a go-ahead homer with two outs in the ninth inning as Double-A Jacksonville rallied past Mobile, 5-4, in Game 1 of their Southern League semifinal series Thursday.

Barnes got the Suns' rally started, doubling home a run in the third inning to cut the deficit to 4-1. After scoring on J.T. Realmuto's groundout to make it a 4-3 game in the fifth, the 24-year-old second baseman launched a two-run homer in the final frame to give the Suns their first lead of the game.

"[Ryan] Rieger got a big hit in front of me," Barnes said. "He [Kaleb Fleck] got behind me, 2-0, and I didn't think he'd want to walk me. I thought he'd come with the fastball and I was lucky enough to get the barrel on it. It's one of the biggest home runs I've ever hit." 

Winning a tight game is nothing new to the Suns, who had the Southern League's best record in one-run games at 35-17, a fact not lost on Barnes.

"We've had a lot of close games this year, I think we're well prepared and battle-tested," the California native said. "We had a lot of tough ones to get to the playoffs. I think we're real confident late in the game."

For Barnes, Thursday's three-hit game continued a red-hot second half. After hitting one homer through the first three months of the season, the Arizona State University product slugged 13 long balls after July 1, batting .305 with a .947 OPS in the second half. 

"You know how baseball goes, it's a weird game," he said. "Sometimes you're feeling good, sometimes you're not. Just try to stay as even-keeled as long as you can during the year and hopefully it works out for you."

After giving up four runs through the game's first two innings, Jose Urena kept the BayBears from doing further damage, allowing just two hits over the next four innings. All told the Marlins' No. 9 prospect allowed four runs on seven hits while fanning seven over six innings for the Suns.

"It's great," Barnes said of Urena's effort. "He gave us a chance to win, that's all you can really ask for. He settled in after the first couple of innings and looked really good."

The Suns bullpen continued Urena's strong work, tossing three hitless frames. Blake Logan was credited with the win after a perfect eighth and Matt Ramsey tossed a 1-2-3 ninth to earn the save.

Archie Bradley, the D-backs' top prospect, did not figure into the decision after allowing three runs on eight hits with eight strikeouts over six innings for Mobile, which hosts Game 2 of the best-of-5 series on Friday.

In other Southern League action

Chattanooga 4, Huntsville 3

Andres Santiago gave up two runs on four hits over six innings as the visiting Lookouts took Game 1. Chris O'Brien and O'Koyea Dickson slugged back-to-back homers while Daniel Mayora was 4-for-4 with an RBI. Hector Gimenez hit a solo homer for the Stars. Gameday box score