
The Mobile BayBears scored three runs in each of the first three innings, and then hung on for a 10-8 win over the Suns August 12, 2012 at the Baseball Grounds. Photo Courtesy: Jacksonville Suns
By Steve Kolbe
The Mobile BayBears scored three runs in each of the first three innings, and then hung on for a 10-8 win over the Suns August 12, 2012 at the Baseball Grounds. Photo Courtesy: Jacksonville Suns
By Steve Kolbe
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve, Southern League News
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
The Suns and BayBears began a double header on July 31st at 6:05PM central time. The final out of game two was recorded August 1st at 1:05AM central time. 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
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
BayBears ace Trevor Bauer improved his record to 4-0 with 8-1 win over the Suns on Saturday night. Photo Courtesy: Mobile BayBears
By Steve Kolbe
The Jacksonville Suns five-game winning streak came to an end on Saturday night with an 8-1 loss to Mobile at Hank Aaron Stadium. The BayBears became the first team in the South Division to reach 10 wins this season, and once again are alone in first place with a record of 10-7.
BayBears starter Trevor Bauer entered the game with a league-best 3-0 record and a 0.57 earned run average. Suns starter Bryan Evans came into the game looking for his first win of the year. Bauer, the third overall draft pick in 2011, was sharp throughout the game. And with his fastball reaching 97 miles per hour, he allowed only four hits in his seven innings of work. Evans matched Bauer pitch-for-pitch throughout the night, including getting the BayBears to hit into three double plays. Evans held Mobile hitless through the first five innings.
In was in the sixth inning that the BayBears finally broke though against Evans. Leadoff hitter Trevor Bauer drew a walk on four pitches. It was the fourth time in the game that Evans walked the leadoff batter in an inning, and this time he couldn’t pitch his way out. After Bauer advanced to second on a wild pitch, he then scored the game’s first run on a sacrifice fly by Wladimir Sutil to make it 1-0. Mobile scored four runs in the inning, with the big hit coming of the bat of the Southern League’s top hitter Matt Davidson, who blasted a two-run homer to left-center field. By the end of the inning Mobile had collected four hits and scored four runs.
Suns reliever Chris Squires took over for Evans in the sixth, and in his one-and-a-third innings of work allowed two runs on four hits. The BayBears tacked on two more runs in the seventh, when the first four batters in the inning reached base. Catcher Rossmel Perez led off the inning with his second double of the season. Pinch hitter Kyle Greene walked, and Raoul Torrez singled to load the bases. Wladimir Sutil then drove in his second run in as many innings to increase the lead to 5-0. Brent Clevlen added a run by lifting a sacrifice fly to center, and the Suns trailed 6-0.
It was more of the same in the home half of the eighth for Mobile hitters, when Alfredo Marte singled off of Suns lefty Wade Korpi to lead off the inning. That brought Marc Krauss to the plate, and after hitting a long foul ball to right he straightened a pitch out and hit a two-run home run over the right field fence for an 8-0 BayBears lead. The runs were the first that Korpi has allowed in his last three appearances.
Trevor Bauer improved to 4-0 with the win. He pitched seven innings and scattered four hits while striking out eight and walking only two. The only Suns batter to reach second base was Ryan Patterson, who doubled in the seventh. In the game, Jacksonville had just four runners in scoring position. Bryan Evans pitched five-and-a-third innings and lost his first game of the season (0-1). The BayBears nine hits and their eight runs all came from the sixth inning on. The Suns were limited to just four hits in the game, and scored their only run in the ninth inning on a sacrifice fly by Ryan Patterson. It was the first run that Jacksonville has scored in the ninth inning this season.
Game three of the series is 2:05PM on Sunday afternoon with Zach Neal scheduled to make the start for the Suns. He’s 1-1 with a 0.69 ERA in his two starts this season. Neal has allowed only one run in his 13 innings pitched. Charles Brewer takes the hill for the BayBears looking for his first win of the year. Brewer has already allowed two home runs in his first three starts this year, after giving up just two home runs all of last season.
Filed under CSNWashington.com Blogs, Southern League News