Vailes Shines In Hard-Luck Loss
SAUGET – The Gateway Grizzlies lost another close ballgame on their home stand on Wednesday night, dropping a 2-1 decision to the Mississippi Mud Monsters at Arsenal BG Ballpark that evened up the three-game midweek series.
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The biggest part of the story for the Grizzlies was Gage Vailes (4-2), as the right-hander was able to manage early traffic on the bases thanks to his sinker, which generated 11 outs on ground balls in the first five innings. The second-year hurler then settled into a groove, retiring eight batters in a row to complete the seventh inning for the first time in his career and keep the Mud Monsters off the board.
But in the top of the eighth, Ryan Cash hit a fly ball into center field that ordinarily would have been an easy catch for Cole Brannen that got lost in the twilight sky and ended up being a double. After a subsequent single, Jack Holman brought Cash home with a sacrifice fly that made it 1-0 Mud Monsters. In the next at-bat, third base umpire Taka Matsuda called Vailes for his first career balk, leading to a Travis Holt RBI single and a 2-0 deficit for the Grizzlies.
In the bottom of the inning, Gateway would rally. With two outs and a runner on first base, Victor Castillo and Dale Thomas worked walks to load the bases, putting the tying run in scoring position against Sergio Sanchez.
Edwin Mateo then placed a ground ball deep in the shortstop hole to plate a run, making the score 2-1, and keeping the inning going on the RBI infield hit, but Brannen grounded out to Holt at second base to strand the tying run at third. Sanchez then retired the side in order in the ninth for the save as the Grizzlies dropped to 2-7 on the home stand.
Vailes ended up with a “quality start,” tossing a career-high seven and one-third innings and allowing two runs with one walk and five strikeouts, but suffering only his second loss of the year in the defeat as the Grizzlies’ offense went just 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
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