by Luke Schrock
The Kansas City T-Bones’ (47-38) bats went cold Monday night, allowing the Sioux City Explorers to creep back to a half game behind the T-Bones and give Kansas City its first shutout loss of the season, 5-0.
Christian Binford (4-3) got the loss after four innings pitched and a total of nine hits let up. Sioux City took Binford down the left field line twice to account for three runs in the bottom of the second.
Binford ended the night with a positive note of only throwing one walk, which was his 12th since signing with the T-Bones on June 16.
Winning pitcher Sam Held (2-0) for the Explorers threw his first start since last season after being a long reliever for Sioux City. The experiment worked well with Held’s final line being eight hits, no runs and six punchouts in five innings.
The T-Bones had 11 hits, almost tying Sioux City, which had 12. Kansas City had a total of 14 left on base with seven in the first three innings alone.
Sioux City was efficient with moving runners, using big hits to left field, going down the left field line, and singles to threaten the KCK defense. Six of the nine innings started with the lead-off man aboard with either a walk or a single.
The Explorers saw the ball out of Christian Binford’s hand in the second inning, giving Sebastian Zawada one RBI, Kyle Wren a 2-RBI double, and Nate Samson an RBI double.
Andrew DiPiazza got his professional debut, starting his first inning in the fifth by loading the bases with no outs, but he found a way to get three straight outs to end the threat. His next inning would be smooth, going three up, three down in the sixth. Smith and Korson slowed the Explorer offense by only letting in one run to keep Sioux City at five runs.
Kansas City continues to hold the second-place spot for another day, despite the loss. KC is now four games behind Cleburne in the playoff race, and the Explorers continue to nip at the heels of the T-Bones going into Tuesday’s rubber match. The game will be on the T-Bones Broadcast Network, http://mixlr.com/t-bones-baseball/.
Tickets to all T-Bones home games are on sale online or by calling 913-328-5618 or by visiting the Saint Luke’s Box Office between the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Group ticket sales are also on sale.
- Story from T-Bones