Bats Use Two Out Hits to Top Yankees 5-4
All five of the Bats' runs in the victory were scored with two outs, and Brian Peacock's go-ahead RBI single in the sixth inning broke a 4-4 tie to spur Louisville to a second straight victory to begin the series on the final leg of their nine-game road trip.
Peacock's clutch RBI in the sixth proved to be enough offense for the win, as Wirfin Obispo and Donnie Joseph combined for four innings of scoreless relief to keep the Bats in front, helping the team to their first back-to-back wins in almost three weeks.
The win was especially sweet for Joseph, who was making his triple-A debut. The young left-hander didn't allow a base runner over the final two innings, earning the save in his first appearance with the Bats since getting called up from Pensacola, where he had 13 saves and a 0.89 ERA to start the 2012 campaign.
For the fourth consecutive game, Louisville got on the board first, and this time in a big way, as Neftali Soto lifted a two-run bomb in the first inning to put the Bats up 2-0. Soto's home run was his team-leading eighth of the year.
After a Ronnier Mustelier homer in the bottom of the first had tightened it to 2-1, Louisville got the run back in the second when Joey Gathright followed back-to-back walks with an RBI single that scored Cody Puckett, pushing the lead back to two.
Gathright had a part in Louisville's next run, as well, when he scored on Soto's RBI single up the middle in the fifth to make it a 4-2 contest. Gathright's 2-for-4 performance was his third multi-hit game in his last four contests. Soto's three RBIs were the most since he knocked in a season-high four on May 20th in Lehigh Valley. Scranton pushed a pair of runs across in the fifth to tie the game, but Bats' starting pitcher Tim Gustafson (1-1, 6.00) still got the win despite not coming out for the sixth. In his second start with the Bats, Gustafson went five innings, giving up nine hits and four runs, three of which were earned. The right-hander walked three and struck out four.
Louisville did all of their damage against Yankees' starter D.J. Mitchell (5-3, 5.43), who was hit for five earned runs, six hits, and four walks in six innings. He fanned five before giving way to a pair of relievers. Game three of this four-game series will take place on Monday evening at 7:05PM in Rochester, with RHP Pedro Villarreal (2-2, 3.50) starting for Louisville against RHP Ramon Ortiz (4-3, 3.52) for the Yankees.