In Texas in August the mercury regularly pushes triple digits. On Wednesday night at the Depot at Cleburne Station, Texas, it was 79 degrees at first pitch. The unseasonably cool weather was in sharp contrast to the Kansas City T-Bones “red hot” bats, in an 8-3 win over the Cleburne Railroaders.
Kevin Keyes went deep twice and Cedric Hunter added a solo shot as the T-Bones took game three of the three-game series to claim the series win. Calvin Drummond was terrific for the T-Bones, notching his third straight quality start, working six solid innings and giving up three unearned runs.
Hunter gave Kansas City the lead off Railroaders starter Laetten Gailbraith with a solo homer in the top of the second. The Railroaders got three unearned runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 3-1 lead.
The T-Bones got an RBI from Chantz Mack in the top of the fourth to cut the lead to 3-2 and jumped ahead for good in the fifth, when Keyes took Onas Farfan deep to right to make it 5-3. Marcus Lemon added a sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth then Keyes launched another home run to make it 8-3 Kansas City.
Drummond (6-2) picked up his third straight win for Kansas City, while Farfan (3-4) was tagged with the loss. Kansas City (40-27) moved to a season-high 13 games above .500, while Cleburne dropped to (29-41).
The 10-game road trip continues for Kansas City with the first game of a four-game series at Lincoln on Thursday night. The game is set for 6:45 p.m. with right-handed pitcher Scott Carroll (6-3, 3.14) set to face RHP Carlos Pimentel (6-4, 4.74) in the opener. Lincoln leads Kansas City by three games in the American Association Central Division.
Tickets are available online, by calling 913-328-5618 or by visiting in person the Providence Medical Center Box Office.
– Story from T-Bones