The Kansas City T-Bones scored in just one inning Saturday night, but that’s all they needed with a 3-2 victory over Gary SouthShore at the U.S. Steel Yard.
For the fourth consecutive game, the RailCats scored first, this time with a solo home run from Cody Bishop in the fifth inning against Kansas City starting pitcher Andy Noga (2-3). That lone run was the only mistake by Noga, who got his second with of the season after allowing just one run on three hits through 6 dominating innings.
The T-Bones, trailing 1-0 in the seventh inning, had enough of RailCats starting pitcher Morgan Coombs (5-7), by scoring three runs and taking a 3-1 lead. With the bases loaded and one out, T.J. Mittelstaedt tied the game with a sacrifice fly to deep centerfield that scored Bryan Sabatella, who led off the inning with his second of three hits in the game. Two batters later, Danny Richar hit a towering one-hopper over the head of first baseman Craig Maddux, resulting in a two-out, two-RBI triple that scored Vladimir Frias and Robby Kuzdale.
After Gary SouthShore added a run in the eighth against reliever Pat Doyle, Kansas City’s All-Star closer Kris Regas picked up his 15th save of the season with two scoreless innings and four strikeouts.
The T-Bones split the four-game series with Gary, and ended the roadtrip with a 4-3 record after taking two out of three from Lincoln last weekend. With Saturday night’s win, Kansas City (35-37) pulled to within six games of first-place Gary SouthShore (41-31) with 27 games remaining.
The T-Bones returned home Sunday afternoon for a four-game homestand against the St. Paul Saints with Sunday’s first pitch slated at Community America Ballpark.
Box score: http://www.pointstreak.com/baseball/boxscoretext.html?gameid=178073
– Story from T-Bones