Trash Pandas Defeated By Barons 17-4
The Rocket City Trash Pandas suffered a 17-4 loss to the Birmingham Barons to end their first series with their interstate foes on Sunday afternoon in front of a crowd of 6,588 at Toyota Field. Making his Trash Pandas debut after being signed by the Angels earlier in the month,
The Rocket City Trash Pandas suffered a 17-4 loss to the Birmingham Barons to end their first series with their interstate foes on Sunday afternoon in front of a crowd of 6,588 at Toyota Field.
Making his Trash Pandas debut after being signed by the Angels earlier in the month, leadoff hitter Dalton Pompey began the bottom of the first with a single to right and came around to score on a sacrifice fly from Gavin Cecchini for a 1-0 Trash Pandas advantage.
The advantage was short lived as the Barons took the lead in the second on Laz Rivera’s two-run single and Zack Granite’s sacrifice fly. Another run scored for the visitors in the third, ending the outing for Rocket City starter Reid Detmers (L, 0-2).
Over 2.2 innings, Detmers gave up four runs, three earned, on four hits with three walks and three strikeouts to suffer his second loss of the season.
Birmingham added on with two runs in the fourth and four more in the fifth to extend the lead to 10-1. Kyle Molnar pitched a scoreless sixth for the Trash Pandas, but the Barons scored seven more runs in the seventh, capped by Granite’s two-run home run to make it 17-1.
Making his Rocket City debut, reliever Ryan Clark gave up two runs over 1.1 innings. Birmingham scored eight runs off Kyle Molnar in his 2.0 innings of work. Nathan Bates surrendered three runs in the top of the seventh. Kieran Lovegrove pitched 2.0 scoreless innings to end the game on the mound.
Mitch Nay launched a solo home run, his fourth of the season, to lead off the bottom of the ninth and get the Trash Pandas a second run. Torii Hunter Jr. doubled the Rocket City run total with a two-run blast to left later in the inning, his third career home run at the Double-A level.
Hunter Jr. and Ibandel Isabel each went 2-for-4 at the plate as Rocket City dropped four out of six to Birmingham in the first home series loss at Toyota Field.
After an off day for Memorial Day on Monday, the Trash Pandas (10-14) continue their homestand with a six-game series against the Chattanooga Lookouts (15-9) beginning on Tuesday night. First pitch at Toyota Field is set for 6:35 p.m. Josh Caray will be on the call for 103.9 FM THE UMP and 730 AM SportsRadio. The game will also be televised locally on WAAY-31.6, This TV.