EVERETT – This time the Everett AquaSox got the pitching. Unfortunately, their offense abandoned them.
An improved Everett pitching performance was squandered when the AquaSox failed to produce any offense, and the Sox lost their fifth straight by falling 6-1 to the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes on Saturday night at Everett Memorial Stadium.
Doug Salinas gave Everett its first quality start in four games. However, some bad luck – a pair of balks that factored in scoring, a fly ball lost in the night sky – gave Salem-Keizer more runs than they earned.
But that was small consequence as Everett (9-10) did little offensively beyond Matt Mangini’s solo home run, totaling just six hits.
“We just didn’t produce any offense,” Mangini said. “Our starter did a good job getting us some innings, we’d like to get him some better run support. We’ve got to try and get the offense going somehow.”
Andrew Davis hit an inside-the-park home run and he and Garrett Baker each drove in two runs for Salem-Keizer (16-3), which ran its winning streak to seven games.
Meanwhile for Everett it was a frustrating reversal of fortune. The Sox just returned from a five-game road trip to Boise where they hit the ball well, but were unable to get the pitching to go along with it. Saturday saw both those trends reversed, but not the final result.
“We have a young club and you can’t expect the guys to put everything together every game of the year,” Everett manager Mike Tosar said. “This is going to happen, it’s OK if it happens at this time of the year. Hopefully our pitching and offense come together some time soon, but there’s going to be games like this.”
Salinas had one bad inning, but otherwise pitched well. Using a floating breaking ball that mesmerized Salem-Keizer’s batters, Salinas struck out nine in six innings. However, the right-hander got knocked around for three runs in the third and ended up surrendering four runs on four hits and four walks. He took the loss to fall to 1-2.
Salinas’ performance was a relief for the Sox, who hadn’t had a starter last more than four innings since Nolan Gallagher went five in Tuesday’s 11-1 loss at Boise.
But it couldn’t match Salem-Keizer starter T.J. Brewer. the righty was sharp, giving up just one run on five hits in five innings. He walked one and struck out five to earn the win and improve to 2-0.
Relievers Andy De La Garza and Adam Paul finished out the game with four scoreless innings, surrendering just one hit in the process.
“They started a very good young pitcher who changed speeds well and was tough for us to figure out,” Salem-Keizer manager Steve Decker said. “One big inning made the difference. Then we got a solid effort from our starter and the bullpen held them in check.”
Edilio Colina and Jairo Hernandez each had two hits for the Sox.
Salem-Keizer struck first in the top of the first. Shane Jordan led off the game with a walk, went to second on a groundout, was balked to third and scored on another groundout, making it 1-0.
The Volcanoes then made it 4-0 in the third. Another Salinas balk brought home the first run. That was followed by an RBI single by Matt Downs and a run-scoring double by Baker.
Everett got on the board in the fourth when Mangini led off by blasting a shot over the screen in right-center cutting the deficit to 4-1.
The homer was Mangini’s second of the season.
Then a little misfortune allowed the Volcanoes to pad their lead in the eighth. With two out, Davis lofted a fly to left that looked like the final out. However, left fielder Joe Dunigan lost the ball in the dusky sky and it fell behind him. Davis, motoring the whole way, slid home ahead of the tag for a two-run, inside-the-park homer to make the score 6-1. The homer was Davis’ second of the season.
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