
The BayBears scored six times in the final three innings, erasing a 4-0 deficit for a 6-4 win over the Suns at the Baseball Grounds August 11, 2012. Photo Courtesy: Jacksonville Suns
By Steve Kolbe
The BayBears scored six times in the final three innings, erasing a 4-0 deficit for a 6-4 win over the Suns at the Baseball Grounds August 11, 2012. Photo Courtesy: Jacksonville Suns
By Steve Kolbe
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve, Southern League News
The Mobile BayBears defeated the Suns 6-2 at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville. The loss ended the Suns nine-game home winning streak. Photo Courtesy: Jacksonville Suns
By Steve Kolbe
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve, Southern League News
David Holmberg and two relievers combined on the Mobile BayBears (Double-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks)1-0 win over the Jacksonville Suns at Hank Aaron Stadium August 2, 2012. Photo Courtesy: Mobile BayBears
By Steve Kolbe
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve, Southern League News
Danny Pertusati and Kyle Skipworth each hit a home run in the Suns 9-1 win over the Mobile BayBears at Hank Aaron Stadium August 1, 2012. Photo Courtesy: Jacksonville Suns
By Steve Kolbe
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve, Southern League News
The BayBears increased their lead in the South Division by scoring two times in the ninth inning for a 4-2 win over the Suns June 1, 2012 at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville. Photo Courtesy: Mobile BayBears
By Steve Kolbe
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve, Southern League News
Suns right fielder Kyle Jensen smashed a three-run home run that hit the scoreboard at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville May 31, 2012 in 5-3 win over the Mobile BayBears. Photo Courtesy: Jacksonville Suns
By Steve Kolbe
A towering three-run home run by Kyle Jensen helped the Jacksonville Suns to a 5-3 win over the Mobile BayBears on Thursday night at the Baseball Grounds. After losing both games of a double header on Tuesday, the Suns have now won two straight to even the series and more importantly gain ground on the BayBears in the South Division.
Mobile took the lead in the third against Suns starter Graham Taylor when Wladimir Sutil led off the inning with his seventh double of the season. After a sacrifice bunt by the pitcher Gaby Hernandez pushed Sutil to third, Alfredo Marte drove him in with a sacrifice fly to put Mobile on top 1-0. Marte is tied for third in the Southern League with 33 RBI.
The Suns drew even in the fifth, when Kyle Skipworth was hit by BayBears pitcher Gaby Hernandez to lead off the inning. Kyle Jensen then hit a ground ball to third baseman Matt Davidson, but instead of starting a double play, the ball rolled under his glove and into left field with Skipworth going all the way to third and Jensen to second. It was the third error committed by Davidson in the last two games. Jeff Dominguez stepped in and sent a sacrifice fly to center for his tenth RBI of the season, with Skipworth scoring to tie the game 1-1.
In the sixth, the Suns broke the game open scoring four runs on four hits against Hernandez. Chris Gutierrez led off with a walk, and was sacrificed to second by Paul Gran. Jake Smolinski scratched out an infield single to put runners on the corners with one out. Shawn Bowman delivered with his 25th RBI of the season, a line drive single to center field with Gutierrez scoring to put the Suns in front 2-1. Kyle Jensen cleared the bases with a manager’s best friend, the three-run home run. Jensen turned on a Hernandez pitch and smashed a mammoth blast that hit the scoreboard in left field to make the score 5-1. Jensen leads the Suns with seven home runs.
Brent Clevlen hit a solo home run off of Taylor in the seventh to cut the Suns lead to 5-2, and Alfredo Marte hit a solo home run off of Evan Reed in the eighth to edge the BayBears closer but that would be all for the Mobile offense. Reed struck out the side in the eighth. The home run by Marte is the first round tripper that Reed has given up this season. Mobile tied the Jackson Generals for the most home runs in the league with 40. The Generals are at the Baseball Grounds next week for a five game series.
Five different players had one hit for the Suns, with Jensen hitting Jacksonville’s second three-run home run in as many days against Mobile. For the BayBears, Matt Davidson finished 2-for-4 with a single and a double. Alfredo Marte hit his 11th home run of the season and drove in two of the BayBears three runs. Marte and Davidson are now tied for the league lead with 11 homers each.
The BayBears have been held to three runs or fewer in seven straight games and eight of their last 10, but have managed to win six times. The Suns have scored at least five runs in two straight games for the first time in 13 games.
After snapping their eight-game losing streak to the BayBears with a 9-0 victory on Wednesday, the Suns have won two straight over Mobile for just second time this season. Jacksonville is now 5-24 when allowing their opponent to score first, while the BayBears fell to 23-8 when taking the lead.
Suns starting pitcher Graham Taylor won for the first time in over a month (April 28th vs. Pensacola) and improved his record to 3-4 with two of the wins against Mobile. He allowed two runs on six hits over his seven innings of work, throwing 77 pitches, 55 for strikes. Against Mobile this season Taylor has allowed just three earned runs on 11 hits over 20.2 innings pitched. Taylor has allowed two earned runs or fewer in six of his 11 starts. Evan Reed fanned three batters in the eighth inning. A.J. Ramos was overpowering in the ninth, striking out the side for his second save of the season. BayBears starter Gaby Hernandez allowed five runs on five hits, and has now lost his first two starts with the BayBears after signing with the Arizona Diamondbacks two weeks ago.
The series is up for grabs on Friday at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville with the first pitch scheduled for 7:05p.m. RHP Matthew Neil (0-0, 8.38) will start his third game for the Suns. LHP Tyler Skaggs (3-3, 2.72) is set to start his tenth game of the season for Mobile.
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve, Southern League News
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve, Southern League News
The Mobile BayBears won for the third staight game at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville to extend their division lead to three games over the Suns. Photo Courtesy: Mobile BayBears
By Steve Kolbe
The Mobile BayBears increased their lead in the South Division over Jacksonville to three games with a 6-1 win on Tuesday night. Mobile has won the first three games of the series, outscoring the Suns 19-2.
The BayBears started quickly against Suns pitcher Zach Neal sending nine men to the plate in the first inning. The first four batters of the game singled to put Mobile in front 2-0. Brent Clevlen and Marc Krauss each drove in a run. Before the inning was over Alfredo Marte had driven in a run with a single, and Wladimir Sutil knocked in a run with a double for a 4-0 BayBears lead. It was the second time this season that the Suns allowed four runs in the first inning.
In the second inning, David Nick led off with a single and Clevlen drove in his second run of the night with a ground out to make the score 5-0 BayBears. Zach Neal allowed five runs on seven hits in two innings on the night. The BayBears are the second team in the Southern League to reach 20 wins.
The Suns scored their only run of the game in the fourth inning when Kyle Skipworth walked with one out and Kyle Jensen doubled behind him. Dallas Poulk then drove in his second run of the year with a sacrifice fly to center.
Mobile added a run in the sixth inning when Sutil tripled to left and came in to score on a Rossmel Perez sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 6-1. Wladimir Sutil finished the game 3-for-4, drove in a run and also scored. All three of his hits were for extra bases with two doubles and a triple. David Nick, Kyle Greene, and Marc Krauss each finished with two hits, and Brent Clevlen drove in two of the six runs for Mobile. Krauss, who was named the Southern League player of the week, has now hit safely in 17 of his last 19 games.
Derek Eitel improved his record to 3-2 with the win. He pitched six innings allowing five hits and one run. It was the first earned run that a BayBears starting pitcher has allowed in three games in this series. In the first eight games of the season series against Mobile, the Suns have scored just nine runs against BayBears starting pitchers. Suns starter Zach Neal pitched two innings, allowing seven hits and five runs to fall to 2-4.
The BayBears have won nine of their last 12 games and scored at least six runs in six of the wins. The Suns have lost five of their last six and have been outscored 32-18.
Game four of the series is Wednesday afternoon with the first pitch scheduled for 1:05PM at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville. LHP Graham Taylor (2-2, 5.23) will make his seventh start of the season for the Suns. The BayBears counter with RHP Chase Anderson (1-0, 2.63) as he starts his fifth game of the year.
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve, Southern League News
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve, Southern League News
Mobile BayBears starter Trevor Bauer allowed just one hit in seven innings against the Suns to improve to a league-leading 6-1 on the season. Photo Courtesy: Mobile BayBears
By Steve Kolbe
When the night began, the Jacksonville Suns and Mobile BayBears were tied for the top spot in the South Division with identical 17-13 records. By the end of the night, the BayBears had hit their way to an 11-0 win and handed the Suns their worst loss of the season. The game was called in the eighth inning due to heavy rain and lightning.
A day after scoring 11 runs on 11 hits in the series finale in Birmingham, the Suns managed only one hit off of Mobile starter Trevor Bauer. Jake Smolinski’s leadoff single in the first inning was the only hit surrendered by Bauer in the game.
Mobile took the lead for good in the fourth inning when Matt Davidson doubled for the first hit against Suns starter Jose Alvarez. After a Brent Clevlen walk the stage was set for Marc Krauss. He jumped on the first pitch that he saw from Alvarez and hit a three-run home run into the right field stands to put the BayBears in front 3-0. Krauss now has five home runs and 22 runs batted in this season. He has collected 14 hits in his last 11 games. Mobile improved to 16-5 when scoring the game’s first run, while the Suns dropped to 3-13 when they allow their opponent to strike first.
In the sixth, Matt Davidson led off the inning with a walk and Clevlen followed with a single to put two on with no outs. Marc Krauss drove in Davidson with a single, and Clevlen scored on a fielder’s choice to increase the BayBears lead to 5-0.
Mobile sent 10 men to the plate in the seventh inning against Suns reliever Wade Korpi. Three straight singles by Archie Gilbert, David Nick, and Matt Davidson started the rally with Gilbert scoring the first run of the inning to push the lead to 6-0. After scoring two runs earlier in the game, Clevlen drove in Mobile’s seventh run with a sacrifice fly to left and it was 7-0. Later in the inning, Ed Easley drove in Davidson with a single to center and the lead was 8-0. The BayBears scored three more runs in the inning when Yazy Arbelo doubled to drive in a pair, and Wladimir Sutel singled to drive in Arbelo to make it 11-0. The BayBears scored six runs on six hits in the inning. It was the second time this season that the Suns allowed six runs in an inning, with the last coming in a 10-5 loss at home to Chattagnooga April 11th.
Trevor Bauer, the Arizona Diamondbacks first round pick in 2011, one-hit the Suns over his seven innings of work to improve his record to 6-1. He leads the league in wins and is among the leaders in earned run average. In his two starts against the Suns this season, Bauer has allowed only 5 hits in 14 innings. Jose Alvarez pitched five and a-third innings allowing five runs on five hits and falls to 1-1 on the season. Wade Korpi pitched one and a-third innings, giving up six runs on six hits. Chris Squires also pitched and inning and a-third allowing one hit before the game was stopped.
Game two of the series is Monday morning at 11:00AM at the Baseball Grounds with the Suns looking to even the series. Bryan Evans (0-2, 5.26) will take the mound for Jacksonville against Mobile’s Tyler Skaggs (0-2, 3.91).
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve, Southern League News