Montgomery Gifted Birmingham a Loss for Christmas in July

Christmas came early this year in Birmingham, Alabama, as the Barons debuted their Elf-inspired uniforms. For the Barons, playing the role of Buddy, also known as the starter, was Garrett Davila. The team's lone southpaw entered Friday enjoying a two-game win streak but endured a rough outing for the first time in quite a while. In the first, the Biscuits put four base runners on, two of which came with two outs. The breaking point arrived with the bases loaded, as two Biscuits scored thanks to a single and subsequent throwing error by D.J. Burt.

The Barons answered with a run of their own in second, though, thanks to a moonshot big fly by Yoelqui Cespedes that traveled 435 feet. Over the next handful of innings, Davila settled down and looked to be on path for another quality outing. Specifically, the lefty's first five outs all came via the punchout. However, when the fifth rolled around, his control began slipping away. Two walks and a single in between forced the bases loaded with just one out in the frame. Yet again, Montgomery's Blake Hunt stepped up and delivered a clutch knock as he roped a double into left-center field to score two more Biscuits.

At this point, Birmingham finally started getting an arm ready in the pen. Nonetheless, Davila remained out there and suffered thanks to another error by the Southern League's best defense. In particular, Alex Destino blew an opportunity to cut down a runner at home by outright missing his catcher on a groundball. As a result, Davila's day ended, and Montgomery claimed a 5-1 lead. Montgomery, or as their specialty jerseys said last night, the Gump, added to their lead in sixth as well.

Despite getting the first two batters out, the Biscuits came storming back after a four-pitch walk allowed Niko Hulsizer to step in. With a home run already in the series, Hulszier smacked one further than most to ever play at Regions Field, traveling a monstrous 458 feet at a pace of 118 miles per hour. As a result, Montgomery gained a controlling 7-1 lead, albeit Birmingham cut it back to four by putting up two runs of their own in the bottom half.

Like their southern Alabama counterpart, Birmingham's two runs came after recording two outs. Craig Dedelow and Moises Castillo came around to score following two-out singles by Alex Destino and Yoelqui Cespedes. From there, though, the Barons' offense melted away in the summer heat. A lack of hits was not the issue, though, as the Barons racked up seven of them on the night, but, in their typical fashion, they failed to bring those baserunners home. In the end, Birmingham fell to Montgomery by a score of 8-3.