CLEARWATER, Fla. - Jason Lopez and Pablo Olivares both homered, and the Tampa Tarpons led, 3-2, in the fifth, but the Clearwater Threshers rallied for eight unanswered runs to run away with a 10-3 win in the series-opener on Thursday night at Spectrum Field.Lopez crushed a home run (his second)
CLEARWATER, Fla. - Jason Lopez and Pablo Olivares both homered, and the Tampa Tarpons led, 3-2, in the fifth, but the Clearwater Threshers rallied for eight unanswered runs to run away with a 10-3 win in the series-opener on Thursday night at Spectrum Field.
Lopez crushed a home run (his second) on the first pitch he saw from RHP Alejandro Requena while leading off the second inning. Olivares followed up in the third by lining a leadoff homer (his first) just over the wall in left-center, giving Tampa (5-10) a 2-0 lead.
RHP Glenn Otto retired the first seven batters he faced before Clearwater (5-10) strung together four-straight hits in the third. Colby Fitch line a one-out double to left, followed by three-straight singles by Daniel Brito, Nick Maton and Simon Muzziotti, tying the game at 2-2.
Olivares drew a leadoff walk in the fifth and advanced to third on a base hit by Diego Castillo before scoring on a sacrifice fly by Oswaldo Cabrera , putting the Tarpons back ahead, 3-2.
Requena allowed three earned runs on six hits in four and two-third innings, walking three and striking out six, throwing 58 of 96 pitches for strikes in his shortest outing of the season.
Following Mizziotti's single in the third, Otto retired nine-straight Threshers until Matt Vierling grounded a double into left with one out in the sixth. One out later, Jhailyn Ortiz tied the score with an RBI double to left.
The inning continued when Jake Scheiner hit a pop-up foul of first base that fell to the ground, alluding first-baseman Dermis Garcia . Later in the at-bat, Scheiner popped a ball up foul of third base, and Cabrera had the ball fall inches behind his outstretched glove.
Scheiner took advantage and singled to left, scoring Ortiz to give Clearwater a 4-3 lead. Scheiner then stole second and scored on a throwing error by Cabrera following an infield single by Rodolfo Duran.
RHP Jefry Valdez relived Otto and got Fitch to ground out to end the frame. Otto (L, 1-1) tallied a career-high eight strikeouts without issuing a walk but allowed five runs (four earned) on eight hits in five and two-third innings, throwing 61 of 92 pitches for strikes.
Clearwater scored five runs while batting around in the seventh against Valdez, getting a two-run double by Madison Stokes, a sacrifice fly by Scheiner and an RBI single by Duran.
RHP Gustavo Armas (W, 1-0) and RHP Ismael Cabrera combined to retire nine-straight Tarpons between the sixth and eighth innings. Chris Hess greeted RHP Seth McGarry with a single in the ninth, but McGarry got a double play and a strikeout to end the game.
Olivares (1-for-3, HR, BB, RBI, 2R) owns a seven-game hit streak and has reached base safely in nine-straight games. Castillo (1-for-3, BB) and Steven Sensley (1-for-4) each extended their hitting streaks to five games. Lopez (2-for-4, HR, 2B, RBI, R) logged his second multi-hit game.
RHP Miguel Yajure (0-2. 4.00) will get the nod against LHP Kyle Young (0-2, 2.70) in the middle game of the series on Friday at 6:30 p.m. Live play-by-play audio will be available on the Tampa Tarpons Baseball Network.
