Biscuits Continue Build Wild Card Lead Over Smokies

The Biscuits (56-46) won another nail-biter of a game on Wednesday night against the Tennessee Smokies (53-48), taking a second-straight one-run affair from their North Division rivals by a score of 5-4 at Smokies Stadium. Montgomery is now 10 games above .500 for the first time all season, and currently lead Tennessee in the Wild Card standings by two-and-a-half games.

Benton Moss (back) was activated from the Disabled List before the game, and the right-hander made his first start since Independence Day a good one, retiring the first 10 Smokies he saw in four shutout innings. The 24-year-old got some offensive help from his catcher, too, when Nick Ciuffo delivered a two-out, two-run single in the second to put the Biscuits in front, 2-0.

In the fourth, Dalton Kelly swatted an RBI-double to increase that lead to three. Kelly now has 23 RBI in his first 25 games at the Double-A level.  A few batters later, Ciuffo was at it again, this time with a two-run double to put the Biscuits up, 5-0. The four RBI was a season-high for Ciuffo, and outfielder Cade Gotta, who scored two of the team’s five runs, would end the night with four singles-his first four-hit performance of the season.

It continued to be smooth sailing for the Biscuits after Kyle Bird worked a scoreless fifth and sixth, until Yoel Espinal allowed an RBI-single to Daniel Spingola to lose the shutout and make it 5-1. Jordan Harrison would then load the bases in the eighth, but Mike Broadway came on and got Yasiel Balaguert to fly out to right to end the threat.

Broadway was back on in the bottom of the ninth, but David Bote took him deep for an opposite field solo shot to right to make it a three-run game. After Spingola singled again in the next at-bat, Carlos Penalver hit a towering two-run blast to left to make it a 5-4 game before an out had been recorded. That’s when Biscuits skipper Brady Williams turned the ball over to Ian Gibaut, who got Kevin Cornelius to groundout, and then rung up Trey Martin and Charcer Burks to end the game.

The Biscuits are now 11-5 against the Smokies this season, and will be aiming for win number twelve on Thursday when Logan Darnell (2-1) clashes with Trevor Clifton (5-5) at 6:00 PM CT.