Homers Don't Help Fightins in 9-4 Loss

(READING, PA) - Needing just one more win to clinch their long weekend series against the Fisher Cats, the Fightin Phils flashed their power on Saturday night in a 9-4 loss. For the first time in his 125th career game, third baseman Alec Bohm hit two home runs, joining Luke Williams and Josh Stephen. But the Fisher Cats snapped their four-game losing streak with a display of patience and doubles, racking up seven walks and four two-baggers to get out with a win before a crowd of 7,790 at FirstEnergy Stadium.
For the first time in the series, the visitors struck first when they scored against David Parkinson in the top of the thiird. Two walks in the inning hurt the lefthander, who surrendered the first double to Nash Knight for the game's first run and a sacrifice fly off the bat of designated hitter Riley Adams that made it 2-0.
Bohm's first homer came on a deep drive to right that cleared the pool in the bottom of the fourth inning, giving the Fightins their second and final hit against starter Joey Murphy. He departed after four innings, and let Justin Dillon finish out the last five.
Parkinson (6-7) finished his five innings with the two runs in on just the one hit, totaling seven strikeouts along the way. Neither side scored again until the seventh, when the Fisher Cats scratched two runs across against Aaron Brown on three straight two out hits from Vinny Capra, Josh Palacios, and Nash Knight.
For the second time, Bohm cut the deficit in half again in the bottom of the inning when a ripped a leadoff bullet over the center field wall to make it a 4-2 ballgame. The Fightins later had a chance with the tying runs on base after Cornelius Randolph and Arquimedes Gamboa worked walks, but Jose Gomez struck out to end the threat in the Fightins final hope of the night.
New Hampshire put the game out of reach with three runs in the eighth and two in the ninth. Initially, Adams opened then eighth with a double and scored on Chad Spanberger's single. On the very next pitch, Kevin Smith drilled a two-run homer to left center to push the lead to 7-2. In the ninth, Adams' single brought in his second run, and Spanberger came through with his second RBI in as many innings for the ninth and final run.
Williams' homer in the eighth was his seventh, and also extended his season-high hitting streak to seven straight. The last shot was fired by Stephen with a two out rip near the pool in right in the ninth inning, but that was all she wrote. The Fightin Phils tied a season-high with four home runs for the second time, but also saw their season-best five-game winning streak come to an end ahead of Sunday's series finale.