Dixon Homers Again, Mobile Still Beats The Wahoos

June 4, 2016

Pensacola second baseman Brandon Dixon keeps sending pitches out of the ballpark and Friday his solo shot in the sixth inning into the left field berm at Hank Aaron Stadium tied the game, 3-3.

However, Mobile BayBears’ relief corps shutout Pensacola over the last 3.1 innings, which allowed right fielder Gabriel Guerrero to hit a one-out, bases-loaded, walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th inning to give Mobile a 4-3 victory.

Pensacola stayed in first place, although its loss dropped them to 32-22 in the Southern League South Division. The BayBears improved to 24-30. The Blue Wahoos and Mobile are now tied, 2-2, in the five game series.

Dixon’s blast saved Nick Travieso, who simply struggled through four innings. Travieso, the Cincinnati Reds No. 7 prospect, walked a career-high seven batters. Of his 92 pitches, he threw 44 for strikes. A hit batter and error meant half of the 24 batters he faced reached base.

“It’s amazing he held them to three runs,” Pensacola manager Pat Kelly said after the game. “He never got into a rhythm but he battled.”

Remarkably, Travieso left the game down just one run, 3-2, to Mobile. The BayBears had trouble scoring leaving 11 base runners stranded through the first five innings, including leaving the bases loaded in the first and fourth innings. They got its leadoff hitter on base in eight of the 10 innings Friday.

Dixon went 2-4 with a homer, single and walk and is now 13-20 (.650) in his five-game hitting streak. He has six home runs and 15 RBIs during that span. His slugging percentage on the year is .583, and since May 1, Dixon leads all of minor league baseball with a .779 slugging percentage.

“That (homer) was nice,” Kelly said. “It got Travieso off the hook and gave us a chance.”

Dixon now has nine homers on the year, which is third in the Southern League. He has driven in 34 runs, good for fourth in the Southern League. He is batting .319, which ranks third in the league.

The utility player hit two homers in back-to-back games May 29 against the Birmingham Barons and May 31 against Mobile and now has homers in the past two games against the Mobile BayBears.

Pensacola left fielder Tony Renda, 2-5 with one run scored Friday night, put Pensacola on top, 1-0, when he led off the game with a line drive single to left field and crossed home plate when Pensacola catcher Kyle Skipworth hit a deep sacrifice fly to center field. Blue Wahoos center fielder Phillip Ervin, who walked, scored to make the game, 2-0, when shortstop Alex Blandino knocked a single through the left side of the infield.

However, Mobile came right back with two runs of its own when BayBears center fielder Evan Marzilli singled and scored to pull the team within, 2-1. Dixon likely saved two runs from coming in by making a diving stop of a hard hit grounder by catcher Michael Perez and making a heads up play by turning to get the lead runner, Guerrero, forced out at second base.

Mobile first baseman Kevin Cron then doubled in the bottom of the first inning to score shortstop Ildemaro Vargas to tie the game, 2-2.

But it Dixon’s misplay in the bottom of the 10th on a high pop up to shallow center field just behind second base that allowed Mobile shortstop Ildermaro Vargas to reach first base. Instead of going after the catch, he headed to second base to wait for a throw from Ervin from center fielder and the ball fell between them.

Mitchell hit the next batter and then Guerrero hit his walk-off single to left.

The BayBears had gone ahead, 3-2, in the third inning when Guerrero walked, stole second base and took third on a sacrifice fly. Cron then hit a deep fly ball that scored Guerrero, who has hit two solo home runs off Blue Wahoos’ pitching this series.

“The last two years, (Guerrero) has hit .200 in this league,” Kelly said. “He has hit .500 off of us. Obviously, we haven’t pitched him well.”

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News, Sports, TOP sports