Thursday, August 02, 2007

Tigers blast past Bombers in 11

STATEN ISLAND, NY- The Tigers turned on the power switch late to blast past the Baby Bombers 4-2 in 11 innings before 2,302 at Richmond County Bank Ballpark Wednesday night. The game took three hours and 39-minutes.

It prevented Staten Island (23-18) from getting a sweep against one of the two teams they're battling with for the wildcard, falling half a game behind Oneonta (24-18) and dropping a full game behind Lowell who defeated Cyclones last night.

"For some reason, we can't get a sweep in. It would be nice to get one but it was just one of those games. Just baseball," said middle reliever Phil Bartleski.

All tied at two in extras, the Tigers' bats swung into action against losing Staten Island reliever Jeff Livek (1-2) who was predictably a little rusty after having not worked in 14 days.

"It's tough to do in that situation. A lot of this bullpen is starters. That's tough to do. I haven't been in that situation a lot," Bartleski noted.

Casper Wells greeted him rudely by driving a pitch a few feet over the left field wall to put Oneonta in front to stay. Kody Kaiser then stepped up to the plate and made it back-to-back dingers when he lined one out to right which doubled their lead.

"I don't know if that was the plan to go up there and take big swings. I think we were just trying to put good swings on the ball and get some runners on base. But sometimes good swings turn into home runs," a pleased Kaiser noted afterwards in the winning dugout.

"Mine wasn't as impressive as Casper's. Casper's got a little pressure on him in a tie game going to extra innings. So his home run took a little pressure off of me. But my drive right there I felt was something in play and just kind of ran into one."

The biggest reason though which allowed the Tigers to comeback and tie the game on a two out seventh inning RBI single from Ron Bourquin was splendid relief work from the combination of Jacob Ramos, Rudy Darrow, Erik Crichton and closer Noah Krohl who worked the final five-plus without allowing another run.

"Our pitchers have done a great job all week and we didn't really pick them up the first two games. But we did tonight and it's important that they know that we got the ability to really help them out in a jam and vice versa. But yeah. we complemented each other well this game," Kaiser added after his team was able to salvage the final game of the series.

After Staten Island reliever Kyle Hollander worked a 1-2-3 eighth, they had a possible opportunity to go ahead when centerfielder Taylor Holiday lined a sharp single down the right field line. But he was nailed at second by a perfect throw by Kaiser to shortstop Jorge Patino which ended the inning.

Neither team was able to threaten in the ninth which pushed it to extras.

"Losing that in the bottom of the ninth inning is pretty tough," third baseman Brian Chavez pointed out after failing to score with a chance to win it. "We just got to bounce back tomorrow and keep playing."

"They had a little momentum going in there after the ninth. You just got to tip your hats off to them and we'll be back tomorrow."

Kind of overlooked in the tough defeat was some stellar infield defense turned in by the Bombers which included a few sparkling double plays to get out of trouble including a nice 5-4-3 twin killing in the fifth by Ryan Wehrle and Damon Sublett who later left with an injury.

"Defensively, we're really solid right now but tonight like I said wasn't our night. So we're back tomorrow."


Notes: Unable to get anything against Oneonta starter Alfredo Figaro who worked the first five scoreless while striking out five, the Bombers rallied for two runs in the home sixth off reliever Jose Fracaso. Catcher Jose Gil went yard to left to leadoff the frame and tie it for his fourth homer of the season (third at home). Austin Krum followed with a triple and then came into score from third when Fracaso balked him in. ... Though he didn't have his best stuff, SP Zach McAllister allowed just a run in four innings of work despite giving up five hits while walking one and fanning four.

Leadoff man Justin Snyder finally cooled off going hitless in five at bats to drop his average to .367. ... Before leaving the game with an injury, Sublett continued to stay hot with two more hits making it nine out of 10 with at least one hit. The versatile Snyder who started the game at short replaced him at second while Ryan Wehrle moved from third to short and Chavez took over at the hot corner. ... Corner infielder Braedyn Pruitt remained sizzling with another multi-hit night. ... Baby Bombers host Lowell in the start of a three-game set tonight with first pitch scheduled for 7:10 PM.


Bombers to honor Robinson Cano Saturday Night: Staten Island will honor current Yankee second baseman Robinson Cano this Saturday night on the final game of the homestand during Robby Cano Night where they will retire his number.