De Leon Plates 4, O'Brien Strong as Bats Win Third Straight
TOLEDO, Ohio - The Louisville Bats scored early and often – driving in runs in four of the first five innings – and starter Riley O’Brien (1-1) turned in a quality start to take down the Toledo Mud Hens 9-3 on Tuesday night. The Bats have won three straight games
TOLEDO, Ohio - The Louisville Bats scored early and often – driving in runs in four of the first five innings – and starter Riley O’Brien (1-1) turned in a quality start to take down the Toledo Mud Hens 9-3 on Tuesday night. The Bats have won three straight games for the first time this season and are 7-4 over their last 11 games.
Bats’ starter O’Brien worked 6.0 innings, allowing two earned runs on two hits, while only walking a pair of batters and racking up eight strikeouts in his strong start. He picked up his first win of the season and improved his ERA to 3.03.
Louisville struck first in the series opener, plating two runs before Toledo registered the first out of the night. The inning opened with a leadoff walk before Aristides Aquino continued his scorching rehab stint, extending a four-game hitting streak with an RBI double to left field. One batter later, Dwight Smith Jr. lined a single to left field to score another and put the Bats in front, 2-0.
After back-to-back two-out walks followed a TJ Friedl triple in the second inning, Smith Jr. notched another timely base hit to score the runners in scoring position and extend the lead to four.
Toledo broke into the scoring column in the home half of the inning, as the Mud Hens used a pair of home runs to make it 4-2 after two full frames.
Michael De Leon helped Louisville keep the offensive momentum going, driving in two in both the third and fifth inning as part of a team season-high four RBI effort. He has now knocked each of his six hits for extra bases with four doubles and two home runs.
Louisville used a combination of four arms on the evening, as of trio of Edgar Garcia (1.0ip), Phillip Diehl (1.0ip) and Shane Carle (1.0ip) combined for 3.0 scoreless innings in relief of O’Brien.
The Bats will be back in action Wednesday afternoon for the second of the six-game series from Fifth Third Field. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. ET as RHP Bo Takahashi (1-1, 3.90) takes the ball to face RHP Matt Manning (0-3, 9.23).