The Kansas City T-Bones did all the high-flying Tuesday night at the “birdcage,” launching three home runs in a 13-hit attack in a 8-4 win over the Sioux Falls Canaries at Sioux Falls (South Dakota) Stadium.
Lucas Irvine tossed six workman-like innings to get the win in the first game of the six-game road swing.
The last day of July saw a first for Alay Lago with his first multi RBI game as a T-Bone. He was not alone as Mason Davis added three RBIs in the win.
The T-Bones jumped on Miles Nordgren in the first inning. Dylan Tice reached base on an error by second baseman Patrick Fiala to start the game.
The T-Bones then loaded the bases and got a pair of fielder’s choice RBIs from Mason Davis and Adrian Nieto. Lago then drove in his first run of the game with a single to left to make the score 3-0 KC.
The Canaries answered with a single run off Irvine in the home half of the first, but KC again got rolling in the second. Mason Davis hit a two-run homer to right to make it 5-0, and then Colin Walsh hit a solo blast out of the “cage” to the parking lot to make it 6-1.
The Canaries did answer again in the bottom of the second to make it 6-2, but Kansas City chased Nordgren in the top of the third. With two outs, Mason Davis hit a sacrifice fly to center to bring home Logan Moon, who singled to start the inning, extending the lead to 7-2.
Reliever Luis Pollorena was able to get out of the inning without the T-Bones doing any more damage. Irvine then retired the next six batters and nine of 10 to keep the momentum on the T-Bones’ side.
Sioux Falls did grab two more off Irvine with two outs in the sixth to cut the lead to 7-4, and the final high-flying ball was a solo shot by Lago to left off Pollorena to make it 8-4 in the seventh.
In the bottom of the inning, the Canaries loaded the bases with one out, but Marcus Crescentini struck out Mike Hart and David Bergin after a two-out walk to keep the Canaries from making a late run. Jackson Lowery worked a 1-2-3 ninth to close out the game.
Irvine (5-2) picked up the win while Nordgren dropped to (0-4). KC moved back to a franchise-high 21 games above .500 at 43-23 and remain a game and a half clear of Wichita in the Southern Division for second place and the wild card spot for post season play. The Canaries dropped to 26-41.
The teams will meet again at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday with Tommy Collier (6-3, 3.20) set to take the ball for KC. He will face fellow right-hander Dylan Thompson (4-6, 5.29) for the yellow birds. The game can be heard on the T-Bones Broadcast Network on MixLR at http://mixlr.com/t-bones-baseball/.
Season, group, mini-plans and nightly party suites are on sale and can be purchased by visiting the box office at T-Bones Stadium. Call the box office at 913-328-5618 or purchase and print at www.tbonesbaseball.com. Box office hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
– Story from T-Bones