The Kansas City T-Bones followed up their Friday night win 8-0 over the Gary SouthShore RailCats with another win by the identical score of 8-0 Saturday night at U.S. Steel Yard in Gary, Indiana.
Just like Friday night, the script was the same with a starting pitcher setting the tone with a quality start– this time Matt Sergey and the offense producing, and the pen doing the rest.
Sergey (5-3) went seven shutout innings, striking out six and walking three to get the win. Two of the walks came in the first that seemed to set a tone for the right-hander.
With one out he walked Reggie Wilson and Cameron Newell of the RailCats. Sergey then got Wilfredo Gimnez to pop out to third and picked Wilson off second base and never looked back. Every time Gary got a runner on, Sergey seemed to buckle down and avoid any damage.
The two teams were scoreless after one inning, but in the top of the second the T-Bones got rolling. Niko Vasquez hit a two-run home run off Kevin McKenzie to make it 2-0.
The T-Bones added to it the lead in the top of the third when Cedric Hunter and Marcus Lemon each singled and Kevin Keyes walked to load the bases off McKenzie. A passed ball charged to the catcher Gimenez scored Hunter, and a throwing error over the head of Andy DeJesus at third by Gimenez scored two more T-Bones, and the lead was 5-0.
Kansas City grabbed a fifth-inning run on a sacrifice fly from Paul Hendrix, who delivered again in the seventh with another sacrifice fly to increase the lead to 7-0. In the seventh, Chantz Mack added an RBI single to make it 8-0 Kansas City.
Sergey was done after seven, so the bullpen repeated the Friday performance with Myles Smith working a 1-2-3 eighth and Jeff Walters tossing a scoreless ninth. The win was the 900th win for manager Joe Calfapietra, and with 52 wins the team reached the second highest win total in franchise history.
The win pushed Kansas City a game ahead of Gary and Fargo in the American Association Wild Card race. The two teams will play Sunday afternoon at 2:10 p.m. in Gary with left-handed pitcher Billy Waltrip (0-2, 19.64) going for Kansas City and left-handed pitcher Alex Gunn (7-5, 3.54) taking the ball for Gary. The game can be heard on the T-Bones Broadcast Network.
Tickets for home games are available online, by calling 913-328-5618 or by visiting in person the Providence Medical Center Box Office.
– Story from T-Bones