A night after having its five-game winning streak snapped by the Memphis Redbirds, Reno was sent to its second straight defeat by the Triple-A affiliate for the St. Louis Cardinals.
In a rehab start, Kyle Lohse was stellar on the mound, leading the Redbirds to a 5-2 victory in front of the 5,180 in attendance Tuesday night at Aces Ballpark.
Reno erased the goose egg from the scoreboard first, but it was the only lead of the game for the home team.
To start the bottom of the second, Ed Rogers singled to left field and Mark Hallberg drew a walk. Both runners moved up a base on a groundout.
Rogers scored the first run of the game when Reno pitcher Kevin Mulvey hit a grounder to second base.
The score remained 1-0 until the top of the fourth frame. The Redbirds tied it up at 1-1 on a Matt Pagnozzi fielder’s choice. Joe Mather laced a one-out single to center field and moved all the way to the other corner bag on Donovan Solano’s groundball single to right field. Pagnozzi then drove in the game-tying run.
Memphis (64-54) took the lead for good in the fifth. Two straight walks to Ruben Gotay and Daniel Descalso set the stage for a busted rundown play. Descalso stayed in a pickle long enough to let Gotay score all the way from second despite the Aces getting a double play.
The Redbirds picked up a little insurance in the eighth when Descalso lifted a shot just high enough to get into the jet stream and carry over the right-field fence for a solo home run, giving the visitors a 3-1 lead.
Reno answered right back though once Lohse was lifted from the game. Lohse went seven strong innings, allowing just one run on three hits, while striking out nine and walking two. He also had a string of 14 consecutive outs.
The Aces had much better luck against reliever Chuckie Fick in the bottom of the eighth.
Pinch hitter Chris Rahl opened the inning with a single up the middle. Rahl swiped second base with one out after the throw to second pegged him and deflected away.
Ryan Roberts’ grounder to second led to the second out but also enabled Rahl to take third.
Cole Gillespie came through in the clutch with a soft grounder through the middle of the infield, plating Rahl and cutting the deficit to 3-2. That was as good as it got for the Aces as the bullpen couldn’t keep the Redbirds close.
Pagnozzi singled to center to lead off the top of the ninth and moved up to second on a sacrifice bunt. Pagnozzi then trotted to third on a passed ball and made it a 4-2 game on Adron Chambers’ RBI single to right field.
Gotay’s third walk of the game put runners on first and second with one out. Chambers stole third, leaving runners on the corners for Descalso, who dropped in an RBI single to left field for the final 5-2 margin and his second RBI of the night.
Descalso and Nick Stavinoha both had a pair of hits to lead the Redbirds’ 10-hit attack. Reno only managed five base knocks with Gillespie getting two of them.
Josh Kinney made quick work of the Aces in the ninth, needing just 10 pitches to pick up the save.
Mulvey was the hard-luck loser after scattering five hits and giving up two runs over seven innings.
The four-game set concludes with an afternoon game today. First pitch is slated for 1:05 p.m. and Reno (53-65) will be looking to salvage a split.
Post a Comment
