Biscuits Fall 6-3 to Barons
Another game, another tough loss for the Biscuits (69-56) against the Birmingham Barons (50-73). Montgomery had their chances, and a three-run lead entering the eighth inning, but it was not to be, as their North Division Rivals scored six-runs in the eighth frame to earn a 6-3 victory.
Jose Mujica got the start for the Butter and Blue and had his best performance of the year in a no-decision. The right-hander dominated the Barons hitting staff, throwing seven shutout innings while allowing no runs on three hits and striking out four. After Michael Russell scored on a wild pitch by Jordan Guerrero in the top of the third, Brandon Lowe would add another on a sac fly to give the Biscuits an early 2-0 advantage.
Over the next two frames, Mujica gave up just one walk and a hit to keep their shutout hopes alive. In the top half of the fifth inning, Joe McCarthy swatted an RBI-single, his 49th RBI of the year, to give the Venezuelan a 3-0 lead. Birmingham couldn’t jump-start their offense through the sixth or seventh frames, as the 21-year-old righty retired six of the seven Barons hitters he faced to maintain the shutout through seven.
That would change in the eighth, when Jonny Venters entered the game for Mujica and issued a walk to Danny Mendick. After Jose Vinicio swatted a line-drive single to left fielder McCarthy, Venters would throw a wild pitch that got past catcher Nick Ciuffo and allowed Mendick to score the Barons first run. Skipper Brady Williams had seen enough and chose to bring in the Texan Native Mike Franco. He punched out Mason Robbins in the next at-bat, but then was not the same from that point forward.
Eloy Jimenez drew a walk off Franco, and Nick Basto swatted a game tying two-run double to make it 3-3. Zack Collins and Courtney Hawkins kept it going, each drawing walks to load the bases. That’s when Hunter Jones became the hero, swatting a bases clearing triple to put the Barons up for good 6-3. Franco (5-2) was dealt a loss after going just two-thirds of an inning, allowing three runs (all earned), in his worst relief outing of the season. It was the first time in over 11.2 innings as a reliever that he had allowed a run.
For only the second time this year, The Biscuits bullpen lost after inheriting a lead after seven innings, but are still an impressive 30-2 on the year. The Butter and Blue dropped four out of five to lose their second and final series of the season against the Barons. They finished 9-11 against the Barons squad on the year.
