The Salt Lake Bees brought out their big bats on Tuesday night, as they belted five home runs, spoiling El Paso's home opener with an 14-1 rout of the Chihuahuas.
The Salt Lake Bees brought out their big bats on Tuesday night, as they belted five home runs, spoiling El Paso's home opener with an 14-1 rout of the Chihuahuas.
Jabari Blash started the scoring, as the former Chihuahua ripped a two run homer to right field in the second inning. After El Paso plated a run in the fifth to make it a 2-1 ballgame, the Bees answered with two runs in the sixth. With one out, Jose Miguel Fernandez and Rymer Liriano drew bases on balls and both scored on a double off of the right field fence by Chris Carter. Salt Lake would break the game open in the seventh with a pair of three run homers, one by Zach Houchins, his first career Triple-A roundtripper, and the other by Carter. The Bees closed out the scoring with four more runs in the eighth on a solo shot by Josè Briceño and a three run blast by Liriano, who also once played for El Paso. This was the first five home run game for Salt Lake since April 19, 2014. In all, seven of the Bees' eleven hits went for extra bases.
Simon Mathews (1-0) earned the win in his Triple-A debut. Mathews pitched two and two-third innings in relief and allowed just one run on four hits with three strikeouts and no walks. Starter John Lamb tossed four scoreless innings and gave up just one hit and fanned three. Carter led the Bees with two hits and five runs batted in, while Liriano and Houchins each added two hits and three RBI.
