Strieby, Eldred power Mud Hens over Bats
On Thursday night at Louisville Slugger Field, Brackman again had difficulty in the first inning, as Eldred homered for the third time in two games following a two-run blast by Ryan Strieby as the Mud Hens cruised to a 10-4 victory.
West Division leader Toledo (9-5) won its fifth straight game, including three in a row over the Bats (5-10). The Mud Hens have piled up 41 runs in their last four outings, scoring nine or more each occasion. Toledo led 8-0 before the Bats broke up the shutout in the seventh.
The red-hot Eldred didn't waste any time extending his league-best hitting streak to 14 games after hitting his eighth homer in the first inning. His lined shot to left center directly followed Strieby's two-run smash. Eldred stroked two homers in the preceding game and came into the contest leading the league in homers, RBIs, extra-base hits, runs and slugging percentage.
After failing to make it out of the first inning in his previous start, Brackman surrendered three runs in the opening inning on the back-to-back homers before inducing an ending-inning double play by Audy Ciriaco. He then worked three scoreless innings before exiting after hitting Eldred and allowing a bloop single to Danny Worth starting the fifth. Brackman (1-2) allowed six hits and five earned runs in four-plus innings. He walked five, issuing three free passes in the first.
Worth's hit was the first of three soft singles for Toledo in its four-run fifth. Ciriaco flicked a single to left, and Bryan Holaday drove in two runs with a jam shot into short left center. Eric Patterson, who went 5-for-6 the previous night, singled sharply to left in boosting the Mud Hens' lead to 7-0. Patterson had two hits and two walks.
Louisville failed to score through the first six innings despite having at least one runner on base in every frame. The Bats ended the shutout bid in the seventh when Kristopher Negron walked, advanced to third on a Chris Valaika double and scored on a Denis Phipps sacrifice fly. Neftali Soto added an RBI single in the inning.
With two outs in the ninth, Phipps cracked a two-run homer to left center. It was the second round-tripper of the season for Phipps. He collected three RBIs.
Negron and recent call-up Mike Costanzo stood out for Louisville. Negron was 2-for-4 with two runs and a walk. After crushing a three-run homer in his Wednesday debut with the Bats, Costanzo singled in his first two plate appearances and lined out in his third. He finished 2-for-4.
Toledo starter Brooks Brown pitched four shutout innings before reliever Rob Waite (1-0) earned the win. Louisville used four relievers after Brackman, with Nick Christiani taking over in the fifth.
Toledo's Casey Crosby (0-2, 9.00 ERA) and Louisville's Brett Tomko (0-1, 3.86) are scheduled to start on the mound in Friday night's series finale starting at 6:35 at Slugger Field.