Season Low in Hits Result in 5-1 Barons' Loss

Saturday night's showcase between the Barons and Trash Pandas furthered the narrative the night before illustrated. Although Birmingham's enjoying a solid second half, the genuine better team reigns from Huntsville, Alabama, and not Birmingham. Specifically, the apparent deciding factor between these two teams is pitching prowess. Offensively speaking, Birmingham not only leads the matchup but the entire Southern League. However, a good offense is easily triumphed by good pitching, which is especially true in this series.

Yesterday, Birmingham posted a measly two runs on five hits, but with the return of the Angels' top prospect, Sam Bachman, they struggled even more. Over his three innings, Magic City recorded just one base hit while striking out four times and drawing no walks. On the other side of the hill, the Barons' 22-year-old prospect, Sean Burke, battled hard but struggled to finish innings off. Specifically, after setting down the first two batters of the game, Burke surrendered a seemingly menial single. Of course, though, extra opportunities in baseball tend to bite pitchers in the butt, and Rocket City capitalized on the extended inning by launching a two-run home run.

Even so, Burke recovered to strike out five batters through two innings. In the third, the Pandas strung together two singles and a walk to load the bases with one out. Then, a slow grounder scored their third run, as it moved well too slow to turn two. Birmingham immediately responded, as, ironically enough, when Rocket City brought in Jimmy Herget, an MLB player on a rehab assignment, they scored their only run of the night. Oscar Colas showed off his muscles by pouncing on a hanging curveball and sending it to the moon for his first home run with the Barons.

Of course, Rocket City immediately followed that up with a solo home run of their own, thanks to Bryce Teodosio's second long ball of the series. As a result, the Trash Pandas took a 4-1 lead and never looked back. Yet again, the Barons' bullpen held their own by allowing just one run on two hits, all of which came at the hands of Sam Peralta's two innings, over the course of four complete innings. Nonetheless, you cannot win without runs, and the bats of Birmingham failed to provide any run support.

Ultimately, they matched their season low for hits with just three of them and lost this quick game by a score of 5-1. Consequently, Birmingham fell to third place in the standings, as Rocket City and Tennessee are tired atop the northern division standings.