Biscuits Halt Birmingham's Win Streak at Four

Wednesday's matchup between the Biscuits and Barons swallowed the souls of those watching, especially for Birmingham's faithful. Neither team showcased poor effort in any regard, but the pace of play was extraordinarily slow. Specifically, not even three full innings into the night, both sides combined for nine full counts. Consequently, the game reached the midway point after a whopping 110 minutes.

Furthermore, Montgomery utilized the opener, thereby leading to a pitching change after just 1.2 innings of pretty solid pitching from Josh Roberson. Conversely, the Barons fielded Emilio Vargas on Wednesday as he looked to ride the momentum he built from his fantastic start last time around. However, for the second straight day, the Biscuits jumped out to an early lead thanks to a hard-hit two-run double by Greg Jones, another top prospect in the Rays' system. Ultimately, Montgomery posted a three spot in the second inning and never looked back.

By the fourth inning, Birmingham successfully put base runners into scoring position every single inning but failed to bring any of them in. While the Barons added to their league-leading runners left on base column, the Biscuits added more runs. In the fifth, the Biscuits bounced Emilio Vargas after two singles and a walk that created Montgomery's fourth run of the night. In his place, Sam Peralta entered with runners on the corners and allowed a bases-clearing double, which narrowly cleared D.J. Burt's stretched-out glove.

Then again, in the very next inning, the Biscuits heightened their lead to nine after their third inning of scoring three runs. Montgomery forced another Barons' pitching change by putting five of their first six hitters on base, with the lone batter not doing so earning an RBI via a sacrifice fly. From there, the night crawled along without much action until the ninth.

Montgomery added two additional runs on a ninth-inning wall-scraper against position player J.J. Muno. In the bottom half, though, the Barons' bats finally woke up and scraped together some runs. With a leadoff walk followed by three consecutive singles, Birmingham scored their second and third runs before recording an out in the frame. Lastly, Raudy Read killed a ball, but it fell just short of the wall and served as a sacrifice flyout.

The night dragged along like no other this year, and it shows in the 3-hour, 18-minute game length. Also, by the night's end, the full count total reached an unbelievable twenty-one. Ultimately, the Biscuits dominated game two, winning by a score of 11-4. Tomorrow is a new day for Birmingham, though, as they hope to take game three and inch even closer to first place in the Southern League's second half. On the hill for Birmingham is their 24-year-old right-handed pitcher, Jason Bilous.