Biscuits Fall to Barons 9-4, Snap 8-Game Win Streak

The Biscuits (68-53) eight-game winning streak was snapped on Wednesday night when they fell to the Birmingham Barons (47-72) 9-4 at Regions Field. Montgomery has now won just eight of their last 16 meetings against the Barons, but still lead the Wild Card by 5.5 games over the Tennessee Smokies and are still 15 games above five hundred.

Anthony Misiewicz (1-1) made his second start for the Butter and Blue, but the left-hander didn’t have the same stuff that helped him secure a win in his debut last week as Eloy Jimenez took the first pitch he saw from Misiewicz and smashed it over the right center field wall in his Double-A debut to give the Barons an early 1-0 lead and give the lefty his first loss of the year. Tanner Banks (3-5) had a decent outing in his eighth start allowing just three runs on seven hits through 5.2 innings and striking out three in the win. Banks has now won his last three-straight starts.

In the second, Justin Williams would swat an RBI-Double to record his seventh straight game with a RBI this year and Michael Russell an RBI-single to left field to put the Biscuits up, 2-1. Birmingham quickly erased that advantage by putting up a five-spot in the bottom half, scoring all their runs with two outs recorded. Courtney Hawkins drew a walk to begin the inning, then Misiewicz struck out both Trey Michalczewski and Keon Barnum. With two outs Danny Mendick swatted a single to left before Jose Vinicio drove in a pair on a two-run double to center field that made it 3-2 Barons.

The dreadful second continued when Tito Polo swatted an RBI-single, allowing Jose Vinicio to score and make it 5-2 Birmingham. A few hitters later Nick Basto capped off the inning with a run scoring double, as the Barons led 6-2 after two.

The Biscuits responded by putting up one in the third thanks to an RBI-single from Grant Kay to cut it to 6-3, but that is as close as they would get. Birmingham scored two runs in the bottom half on a pair of errors, and in the fourth, Zack Collins homered in his Double-A Debut off reliever Edwin Fierro to put the home team up, 9-3. Fierro kept the Biscuits within six by retiring eight-straight Barons hitters before issuing a walk to Keon Barnum in the eighth. Mendick then grounded out to end the inning. Nick Ciuffo tacked on one more and that is where the scoring would end for Montgomery down by a score of 9-4.

Barons Reliever Kyle Kubat took care of business going 3.1 innings while allowing just one run (none of them earned) and striking out three to earn his first save and secure a win for Birmingham.

The Biscuits are now just 1-7 in games where they have committed three or more errors, but have still won 21 of their last 31 games, and will look to increase their Wild Card lead on Thursday night when Genesis Cabrera (5-2) goes toe to toe with Jordan Stephens (2-5) at 7:05 PM at Regions Field.