FRESNO, Calif. – July has been a fantastic month for the Tacoma Rainiers, but it’s ending on a down note.
The Fresno Grizzlies had no difficulty hitting Tacoma starting pitcher Ian Snell, and they defeated the Rainiers for the third game in a row on Friday night, 9-3.
Tacoma lost a series for the first time since the end of June, and the Rainiers have lost three straight games for the first time since they dropped four in a row, June 25-28.
Still, Tacoma is 18-9 in July with one game remaining. The Rainiers maintained their five-game division lead over second-place Salt Lake, which lost a 14-10 slugfest at home against Portland.
Despite the three-game skid, Tacoma manager Daren Brown remains happy with the team’s play.
“I think it’s a good run,” said Brown. “We’ve had a pretty good month, and we’ve put ourselves in a good position.”
The Rainiers thought they were in a good position on Friday, when they jumped to a 2-0 lead in the top of the second inning against Fresno starter Kevin Pucetas.
Mike Carp lifted his 17th home run of the season to right field for the first run, and with two outs Dustin Ackley tripled and scored on Mike Wilson’s single.
But Fresno rallied for six runs on seven hits in the bottom of the second inning against Snell.
“The last couple of games when we score, we’ve had some problems shutting them down in the bottom of the inning,” said Brown.
Matt Downs drove a two-run homer to the opposite field to give Fresno a 3-2 lead, and later, Tyler Graham and Jesus Guzman had two-out, run-scoring doubles in the big inning.
Snell (3-3) kept Fresno from scoring more runs until the sixth inning, when he allowed three. All told, he gave up nine runs on 12 hits in 52/3 innings.
“I thought Snell was up in the zone,” Brown said. “He made some mistakes and didn’t get by with them.”
Tacoma hitters drew seven walks, but they had only seven hits.
First baseman Matt Mangini went 0-for-4, ending his hitting streak at 18 games, a team-high this season.
SHORT HOPS
Starting pitcher Ryan Feierabend was placed on the seven-day disabled list with a pulled rib-cage muscle. The loss of Feierabend means that the Rainiers have two starting rotation spots to fill – after Luke French was called up to Seattle this week. … Ackley went 2-for-3 with a walk, raising his average to .296. Ackley has five multihit games in 16 games with Tacoma.
ON TAP
The Rainiers return home for a four-game series with the Reno Aces, with the first game tonight at 7 at Cheney Stadium. Tacoma’s starter is unannounced, while Reno’s starting pitcher will be Kevin Mulvey (5-6, 5.11 ERA). The game will be televised on Comcast Sportsnet with the simulcast airing on 850-AM.
Mike Curto is the radio broadcaster for the Tacoma Rainiers.
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