Juan Graterol – Photo Rob Gray
The Salt Lake Bees win streak hits seven tonight as they complete the four game sweep of the Albuquerque Isotopes 8-6. Starting pitchers Chris O’Grady for the Bees and Ryan Carpenter for the Isotopes started the game off with a solid first three innings for both.
Bees Nick Buss hit a leadoff triple in the bottom of the fourth and scored on a Coward single to put the Bees up 1-0. Juan Graterol sent a long ball over the left field fence onto the berm for his first homer of the year and the Bees were up 2-0 after five innings.
Things turned around for the Isotopes during the top of the sixth inning. The inning started with a fly out to right field and then Albuquerque went off. Jeff Bianchi doubled to left followed by back to back walks. The Bees at this point switch out starting pitcher Ramon Ramirez with Neal Colts. The bleeding didn’t stop with the change as the first batter Colts faced walked scoring a run followed by a grand slam home run over the left field wall by Tom Murphy putting the Isotopes up 5-2 with one out. Ryan Casteel followed up with a triple and scored on a ground ball single by Patterson and the Bees fall further behind at 6-2. A ground out to the short stop creates the second out but Colts is taken out and replaced by Cody Satterwhite who was able to get the third out.
The Bees responded in the bottom of the sixth inning with a four runs to tie things up at 6-6. In the seventh Nick Buss took a 1-1 pitch off Rockies rehabber Miguel Castro well over the right field wall to break the tie. Jett Bandy would add a RBI double in the seventh to give the Bees an additional insurance run.
For the third time in four games we have Al Alburquerque looking for a save against Albuquerque
“At that point I was feeling pretty good because I had a couple hits before. So I was probably slightly more aggressive, but I was just looking for a good pitch to hit.” Buss said of his home run.
Buss and Kaleb Cowart led the Bees offense combing to go 7-for-8 with a home run, triple and two doubles while driving in three runs. Left-hander Chris O’Grady got the spot start on a bullpen day for the Bees, throwing three scoreless innings. Cody Statterwhite (3-1) picked up the win, going 2 1/3 innings without allowing a run. For the third time in four games Al Alburquerque picked up the save against Albuquerque, his sixth of the year. The Bees finished the homestand 7-0, the first undefeated homestand of more than four games since at least 2005.
The first-place Bees depart on an eight-game road trip starting Saturday night at Colorado Springs. The Bees return home on Monday, May 23 against the Memphis Redbirds to open up an eight-game homestand.