Wahoos Lose To Jackson

August 23, 2017

The Pensacola Blue Wahoos let a game slip away when Jackson Generals left fielder Jamie Westbrook crushed a homer into Pensacola Bay in the eighth inning.

The game-winning home run gave the Generals a, 3-2, victory over Pensacola, which fell to 20-26 on the season in one-run games.

Pensacola had chances to add more runs Tuesday in the second, third and eighth innings but left six runners on base and went 0-6 with runners in scoring position.

After scoring 8.5 runs a game and hitting .294 during its five-game win streak, the Blue Wahoos have scored seven runs in its last four games.

“If I knew that I wouldn’t be managing in Double-A,” said Pensacola manager Pat Kelly when asked about the Blue Wahoos offense. “We jumped on them early but didn’t do anything after that.”

Pensacola third baseman Nick Senzel broke his 1-for-14 slump by hitting a high fly ball that barely sailed over the right field fence into Hill-Kelly Hill with second baseman Arismendy Alcantara on base to give the Blue Wahoos a 2-0 lead.

The 22-year-old, who was the second overall pick in the 2016 draft by the Cincinnati Reds, has belted 10 homers in the second half for the Blue Wahoos.

Pensacola drew 3,567 fans to Tuesday’s game at Blue Wahoos Stadium. The ballclub has 14 sellouts of 5,038 this season and has reached 267,230 total fans for the year.

To keep its streak alive of drawing more than 300,000 fans a season since its inaugural year in 2012, Pensacola must average about 4,100 fans in the last eight games of its current 10-game homestand.

Also in the crowd Tuesday was Hall of Fame coach Tony La Russa, the Arizona Diamondbacks chief baseball analyst. Jackson is the Diamondbacks Double-A affiliate. La Russa and Walt Jocketty, the Cincinnati Reds executive advisor to the CEO, took in the game together.

Kelly said he admires La Russa, the third winningest coach in baseball history, four-time manager of the year and three-time World Series champion. Kelly credits La Russa, then a White Sox manager, for advising him to take a pitching coach position with organization’s rookie league team in 1984.

“I’ve always looked up to him,” said Kelly, who has taken Pensacola to the playoffs three straight seasons. “I’ve read all his books and used some of his philosophies and incorporated them into my strategies.”

Kelly is trying to manage the Blue Wahoos to win its fifth straight half, which would be a Southern League record. Under Kelly, Pensacola is now tied with the Tennessee Smokies, which won four straight halves between 2009 and 2011.

The Blue Wahoos dropped to 27-30 in the second half and are 3.5 games out of first place in the Southern Division behind the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp. Jackson improved to 26-31 in the Northern Division

After the Blue Wahoos took the early lead, Jackson came right back to tie the game. Generals right fielder Kelly Dugan ripped a double over the center fielder’s head to drive in Jackson catcher Michael Perez to trail Pensacola, 2-1.

The Generals tied the game up, 2-2, in the fourth inning when shortstop Vladimir Frias smacked a hard liner into center field with two out to drive in Westbrook. Westbrook was 2-4 with two runs scored, a solo home run and RBI.

Meanwhile, in his last outing against the Mississippi Braves, Pensacola right-hander Keury Mella snapped a streak of 10 starts without a win. He failed to get his first win in 12 starts at home Tuesday but threw a season-high 103 pitches and gave the Blue Wahoos six strong innings. Mella, 3-10 with a 4.69 ERA, allowed two runs on five hits, three walks and tied his season-high with seven strikeouts — three Ks came in the fourth inning.

Comments

Comments are closed.

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