Louisville, KY (April 20, 2018) - The Syracuse Chiefs scored four runs in the eighth inning in a 7-1 win over the Louisville Bats Friday night at Louisville Slugger Field. Syracuse extended its scoreless innings streak to 23 and one-third innings before the Bats got on the board in the ninth. The Chiefs have
Louisville, KY (April 20, 2018) - The Syracuse Chiefs scored four runs in the eighth inning in a 7-1 win over the Louisville Bats Friday night at Louisville Slugger Field. Syracuse extended its scoreless innings streak to 23 and one-third innings before the Bats got on the board in the ninth. The Chiefs have now outscored their opponents 19-1 over the last three games, and out hit them 32-11 over those three.
Syracuse (9-4) started the scoring in the first inning for the third game in a row. Rafael Bautista led off the game with a single to right field to extend his hitting streak to six. Bats' starter Robert Stephenson then made consecutive throwing errors on pickoff attempts at first and then at second, and Bautista was on third for a sacrifice fly by Adrían Sanchez to give the Chiefs a 1-0 lead.
In the fourth, the Chiefs tacked on another run on Spencer Kieboom's first home run of the season over the fence in left.
Erick Fedde helped his own cause in the fifth. The Chiefs' starting pitcher led off the fifth with a single, the third hit of the season by a Syracuse pitcher in its first four National League games. Fedde moved to second on a wild pitch. Two batters later, Fedde took off for third to steal the base, and on the play, a third throwing error by Stephenson allowed Fedde to come around and score for a 3-0 lead.
Louisville (4-7) was held to one run by another great performance from the Chiefs staff. Fedde, John Simms, Trevor Gott and Christopher Smith combined for 12 strikeouts and didn't allow an earned run.
The Chiefs broke the game open in the eighth. David Hernandez hit Sanchez with a pitch and José Marmolejos singled to put runners on first and third. Two batters later, Alejandro De Aza extended his hitting streak to a league-high 10 games with a double to center to score Sanchez and push Marmolejos to third. Kieboom followed with his second RBI of the game, a single to center to plate the Chiefs fifth run of the game. After a pitching change and Irving Falu walk, Michael Almanzar singled to left field to bring home De Aza and keep the bases loaded. Pinch hitter Tuffy Gosewisch then hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Kieboom and push the lead to seven.
The Bats' lone run came in the bottom of the ninth. With one out, Brandon Dixon doubled. Stuart Turner then grounded a ball towards third base that got past Almanzar for an error that allowed Dixon to score to make it 7-1.
Syracuse and Louisville continue this three-game series Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. RHP Edwin Jackson is scheduled to start for the Chiefs opposite RHP Jackson Stephens for the Bats.
