Redbirds Open Road Trip With Extra-Inning Victory

TACOMA, Wash. - Brock Peterson hit an RBI double in the top of the 10th inning to give the Memphis Redbirds a 6-5 victory over the Tacoma Rainiers on Thursday night at Cheney Stadium in the opener of a four-game series.

Memphis jumped out to a 5-0 advantage in the game, but surrendered four runs over the final two frames for their PCL-leading eighth extra-inning affair.

Kolten Wong and Ryan Jackson each had two hits to extend their respective hitting streaks to a season-high nine games.

Lost in the excitement, starting pitcher Michael Wacha threw his best pitching performance of the season for the Redbirds to lower his ERA to 1.89. The 21-year-old right-hander allowed two hits over seven dominating innings while striking out a career-high eight batters.

Chad Huffman gave the Redbirds a 1-0 lead in the top of third with a solo home run over the left field wall. The homer was Huffman's fifth of the season and extended his hitting streak to a season-high six games.

Memphis added another run in the next frame as Wong worked an inning-opening walk, stole second, moved to third on a Jackson base hit, and scored on the first of two Jermaine Curtis sacrifice flies.

In the fifth with one out, catcher J.R. Towles tripled for the 12th time in his career in the first since 2009 to reach. He would score on the ensuing sacrifice fly from Adron Chambers.

Wong smoked his second homer of the season to lead off the sixth inning, followed by a Jackson double. Curtis would later score Jackson on his second sacrifice fly of the game.

Wacha retired the first 13 straight batters and 15 of the first 16 before serving up a solo home run to Rich Poythress to lead off the sixth inning. The long ball was Poythress' fifth of the season and also the fifth given up by Wacha (all solo).

Tacoma put something together against reliever Mitchell Boggs in the bottom of the eighth, scoring three runs to come within one run at 5-4. Boggs loaded the bases with three walks, and then yielded a pair of RBI base hits from Franklin Gutierrez and Alex Liddi to remove him from the game. Sam Freeman entered with the bases juiced and induced a run-scoring groundout for the final run of the frame.

Tacoma tied it at 5-5 to send the game to extras with a run in the bottom of the ninth against Victor Marte, who allowed a two-out walk to Poythress. During the next at-bat to Corey Patterson, Marte would fire a wild pitch to allow pinch runner Abraham Almonte to move to second base. Two pitches later, Patterson lined the game-tying single to center.

Boggs was charged with three runs in 1/3 of an inning. Freeman retired his only batter faced. Marte (1-0) blew his third save and backed into the win. Eduardo Sanchez worked around a couple of two-out singles to convert his first save.

The Redbirds and Rainiers continue their series at 9:05 pm CT on Friday night at Cheney Stadium. Left-hander Tyler Lyons (2-1, 4.29) will start against Tacoma righty Andrew Carraway (4-1, 3.09).