On a sunny and windy Mother’s Day the Winnipeg Goldeyes beat the Kansas City T-Bones 7-4 at CommunityAmerica Ballpark in Kansas City, Kansas.
The T-Bones continued a spring trend by grabbing the early lead in the first three innings for the fourth time in five exhibition games.
In the home half of the first, Omar Garcia led off with a walk off of Winnipeg starter Kevin McGovern. Garcia moved to second on a wild pitch and to third on fielder’s choice off the bat of Marcus Lemon. Kevin Keyes then singled to left to bring home Garcia for a 1-0 lead for Kansas City.
The lead lasted until the top of the second, when Shawn Pleffner hit a two-run homerun to left off of starter Gabe Perez to erase the T-Bones lead and make it 2-1 Goldeyes.
With a 21-mph south wind, both teams saw the gust make defense a challenge during the game. In the top of the third with the bases loaded, Reggie Abercrombie hit a high fly just on the edge of the grass at second base that was ruled an infield fly to retire Abercrombie.
T-Bones second baseman Brett Wiley had a tough time in the wind and could not make the play as it bounced away from him, allowing the Alixon Suarez to score from third and making it 3-1.
Kansas City got a run back in the home half of the fifth on a solo homerun from Daniel Rockett off Mikey O’Brien that cleared the “mini monster” in left and landed out into the parking lot to cut the lead to 3-2.
The T-Bones tied it in the sixth after Omar Garcia was hit by an O’Brien pitch and was followed by a single from Eddie Newton.
With runners at first and second, Garcia was caught stealing third, but Newton was able to reach second on the play. Kevin Keyes then followed by hustling out a shallow flare to center for a double, putting runners at second and third. Donald Lutz then hit a sac fly to left to tie the game at three.
The Goldeyes took the lead for good in the top of the seventh. Facing Kamakani Usui of Kansas City, Casio Grider reached on an error by T-Bones shortstop Eddie Newton.
Grider stole second and, a wild pitch moved him over to third. Devan Ahart bounced into a fielder’s choice at second to score Grider and give Winnipeg the lead once again. The Goldeyes took advantage of another T-Bones error to manufacture another run and held a 5-3 advantage into the eighth.
The visitors scored two more runs, highlighted by a double from Wes Darvill to make it 7-3 after eight.
The T-Bones got another run back in the bottom of the ninth. Chase McDonald singled off Ryan Chaffee and Brady Patrick hit a ground rule double to left center to put runners at second and third and one out. Joe Jackson knocked McDonald in from third on a fielder’s choice ground out to first, but the T-Bones could not get any closer than 7-4.
The T-Bones will play host to Winnipeg in the final exhibition game Monday at 7:05 at CommunityAmercia Ballpark. Tickets are available online or by calling 913-328-5618 or by visiting in person the Providence Medical Center Box Office.
The T-Bones will open the 2017 regular season at home on May 19 against Lincoln.
– Story from T-Bones