Kansas City dropped its fourth straight game Tuesday night in the second game of a three-game series against the Gary SouthShore RailCats, 10-7.
For the second night in a row the two clubs had to wait an hour to get started with rain moving back the first pitch to just past 8 p.m. The division rivals both put up a big first inning in what became a back-and-forth affair all night long.
Colin Willis had a bases clearing triple off Scott Carroll, and Alex Crosby added a fielder’s choice RBI for a 3-0 lead for Gary.
The T-Bones came right back with two runs of their own in the bottom of the first off RailCats starter Alex Gunn. Omar Garcia and Marcus Lemon had back-to-back singles and then both executed a double steal to move to second and third. Kevin Keyes drove in Garcia on a sacrifice fly to center and Chase McDonald followed with a double to score Lemon to cut the lead to 3-2.
Each team’s starting pitchers kept the ballgame fairly even; Gary’s Alex Gunn threw 4 and two-thirds innings, allowing nine hits but only four runs, while Kansas City’s Scott Carroll tossed five innings, allowing three hits and five runs.
In the third inning, Frank Martinez hit a two-run homerun for Gary to make the score 5-2. The T-Bones answered in the fifth, with McDonald knocking in two more for Kansas City, cutting the lead again, 5-4.
After Gary added three more runs in the top of the seventh, the T-Bones came back in the eighth with a three-run homerun from Patrick Brady to cut the RailCats’ lead to 8-7. The T-Bones could never get any closer with Gary scoring two more runs in the ninth inning.
The RailCats’ Drasen Johnson got his second save of the series in Tuesday’s game, with Ryan Fritze securing the win.
The T-Bones will conclude this series against the RailCats Wednesday night at 7:05 p.m. at CommunityAmerica Ballpark in Kansas City, Kansas. Stick around for a post-game of catch following the final pitch.
Following the series with Gary, the T-Bones will hit the road for a three city 10 game road trip to St. Paul, Gary and Sioux Falls before returning home on June 5 against Wichita.
Tickets are available online, by calling 913-328-5618 or by visiting in person the Providence Medical Center Box Office.
– Story from T-Bones