Walk-off homer hands Fresno their third straight one-run loss
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - Fresno reliever Brett Bochy (L, 0-1) had tossed 2.1 scoreless innings of one hit baseball until surrendering a walk-off homer to Salt Lake first baseman CJ Cron with one out in the bottom of the 12th inning. The game-ending homer gave the Bees (4-2) a 6-5 win over the Grizzlies (1-5) in front of 3,014 fans at Smith's Ballpark Tuesday night.
The Grizzlies squandered two separate leads during the night. A solo homer by Tony Abreu put them up 1-0 in the second, but Salt Lake countered with single runs in the second and third to take a 2-1 lead.
Darren Ford ignited a two-out rally for Fresno in the fifth by singling through the hole at shortstop. He advanced to second when Gary Brown reached on an error and would score on Joe Panik's single to center. A batter later, Javier Herrera's triple to right scored two and he'd come around to score on an Andrew Susac RBI single to center.
But the offense would hibernate from then on, leaving a runner on second in the seventh and eighth, and a runner on third in the ninth and 12th. Fresno finished the night 3-for-11 with runners in scoring position and are now 4-for-23 over the last two games.
Andrew Susac went 2-5 with a two-out RBI to give him a .476 batting average (10-21) and five RBI to begin the year. Infielder Joe Panik went 2-5 with a two-out RBI and run scored to give him three straight multihit efforts and extend his overall on-base streak to six games.
Gary Brown went 1-6 with a run scored to extend his on-base streak to six games. The centerfielder was called out on strikes in the 12th with no outs and Darren Ford on second.
Starter Mike Kickham earned a no decision after being in line for the victory. The lefty allowed four runs (three earned) on seven hits over 5.2 IP. The Grizzlies' ace has only allowed three earned runs (six runs total) over his first two starts of 2014 and is 4-1 with a 1.66 ERA (7 ER/38.0 IP) over his last six Triple-A starts.
Fresno turns to Mitch Lively (0-0, 9.82 ERA) tomorrow night, as he'll make his first start and second appearance of the 2014 season. He'll be matched up against lefty Jose Alvarez (0-0, 7.71 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 5:35 p.m. PST in Salt Lake.