EVERETT – Oh, how quickly things can change for a minor-league baseball team.
A night after surrendering 18 runs, the Everett AquaSox put together a solid pitching performance in a 5-3 victory over Spokane on Tuesday night in front of 2,291 fans at Everett Memorial Stadium.
“You’ve just got to push it behind you and forget it,” said AquaSox third baseman Brandon Green, who drove in Everett’s final run with a seventh-inning triple, of the Monday night mess.
Spokane’s Brandon Cashman, who tortured the Frogs on Monday with four home runs and nine RBI, crashed back to earth on Tuesday. He went 0-for-4 in a game that featured 10 hits by the Indians and 11 by the AquaSox, who improved to 8-4. When the hits came proved to be the difference. The Indians (7-5) left 11 runners on base, three of them after a bases-loaded one-out situation in the fourth.
Kevin Mahar led off the fourth with a solo home run that put the Indians up 2-1. AquaSox starter Kendall Bergdall proceeded to load the bases with a walk and a pair of singles that found holes through the infield.
Everett reliever Mumba Rivera entered a precarious situation – bases loaded with only one out and the four-homer man from Monday’s game waiting at the plate. Rivera struck out Cashman and induced a groundout from Travis Metcalf to prevent the Indians from tacking on more runs.
“That was big,” Green said. “You can’t ask for anything more than that. He came in, got focused and did a heck of a job.”
After a 1-2-3 inning from Rivera in top of the fifth, the Frogs made him a winner in the bottom of the inning.
Elvis Cruz reached when he hit a ball that was deflected by Spokane starter Justin Lensch and then bobbled by shortstop Bobby LeNoir for what was ruled an error. Rob Johnson bounced a base hit up the middle and both baserunners advanced on Lensch’s wild pitch. Asdrubal Cabrera, back in the lineup after missing four games with a back injury, drove a double off the scoreboard to score both runners for a 3-2 AquaSox edge.
Yung Chi Chen gave the Frogs a 4-2 lead when he hit a towering fly ball that popped out of left fielder Billy Susdorf’s glove for what was initially ruled an error but was later changed to a double.
Rivera, a 6-foot-5 right-hander who was selected by the Mariners in the 21st round of the draft earlier this month, struck out three in 32/3 scoreless innings to improve his record to 1-1.
Bergdall allowed six hits and two runs in 31/3 innings, throwing 82 pitches before leaving with the bases loaded. Brandon Perry, a left-hander, pitched the final two innings to pick up his first save of the season.
Mike Wilson and Luis Soto each had two hits for the Frogs.
Johnson, who went 3-for-4, drove in the game’s first run with a hard-hit double down the left-field line in the first inning. He also scored twice.
Mahar tied the game at 1-1 by driving in Susdorf in the second.
” (Monday) was like a shootout – a boat race,” Green said. “18-9 is pretty self-explanatory. (Tuesday) was more of a pitcher’s dual. It was a well-played game.”
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