EVERETT – Perhaps Luis Valbuena should trade in his jersey for one with horizontal black and white stripes.
He’s so locked in right now he might as well be serving a life sentence.
Valbuena continued to scorch the ball Sunday afternoon, hitting his third home run in two days and driving in four runs, leading the Everett AquaSox to a 6-5 victory over the Yakima Bears in a Northwest League baseball game.
Starting pitcher Jeff Gilmore overcame three long balls to improve to 4-0 and Steve Kahn survived a scare in the ninth to record his seventh save in seven chances for Everett (31-22), which won its fourth straight.
Yakima fell to 22-31.
For the second straight night Valbuena, Everett’s mini-mite of a second baseman, carried the big stick. His two-run homer in the bottom of the second inning gave the AquaSox their first lead, and his two-run double in the fourth gave Everett the lead for good.
Sunday’s performance came on the heels of a two-homer, five-RBI night Saturday in Everett’s 12-3 victory over the Bears. In the past four games Valbuena is batting .529 (9-for-17) with three doubles, three homers and 11 RBI. He now has a team-high nine homers this season.
“Valbuena is a strong kid who’s ready for the grind of this league,” Everett manager Pedro Grifol said. “He’s feeling good at the plate right now. Hopefully he can continue it because he’s carrying us right now.”
While Valbuena was providing the thunder for Everett’s offense, Gilmore was making sure Yakima’s thunder was as quiet as possible. Though the right-hander gave up three homers, he made sure there was almost no one on base at the time – two were solo shots and one was a two-run shot.
As a result Gilmore, who was working on extended rest after being given three additional days off between starts, made it through seven innings. He gave up eight hits, no walks and struck out four. All four runs he gave up came on the home runs.
“Solo home runs are not going to beat you,” Grifol said. “When you walk guys and give up three-run homers, that’s what beats you. When you give up solo shots, you give your team a chance to win because you stay within reach.”
Kahn extended his string of successful saves for Everett, but he made the AquaSox sweat it out. Entering the game in the ninth with Everett leading 6-4, he gave up a single to Trey Hendricks, a double to Ramon Downing and an RBI groundout to Leyson Septimo. But with runners on the corners and two out he struck out pinch hitter Chris Rahl to end the game.
Mike Saunders also homered and Jeff Flaig was 3-for-4 with two runs for Everett.
Septimo, Brandon Burgess and Jaen Centeno homered for Yakima.
“I thought we should have won the game,” Yakima manager Jay Gainer said. “It just didn’t happen that way. We just didn’t execute when we needed to. I thought we had three or four guys come up with a chance to do something, but they weren’t able to come through.”
Yakima struck first in the top of the second inning when Septimo crushed a ball to dead center field for a solo homer, giving the Bears a 1-0 lead with his second of the season.
But Everett made quick work of Yakima’s lead. In the bottom of the second Valbuena and Saunders smashed back-to-back home runs high over the fence in right-center on consecutive pitches from Yakima starter Angel Rocha, giving the AquaSox a 3-1 lead. Saunders’ homer was his fourth of the season.
Yakima tied the game in the third on yet another homer. This time Burgess skied a ball out to right for a two-run shot. His second of the season made it 3-3.
Everett then retook the lead in the fourth, Valbuena bouncing a two-run double down the right-field line past a drawn-in infield, giving the AquaSox a 5-3 advantage.
Yakima cut that lead in half in the fifth, Centeno lining a shot to left that just cleared the fence. Centeno’s sixth homer of the season cut the lead to 5-4.
Everett then got an insurance run in the eighth, Flaig coming around to score from second when Yakima first baseman Hendricks was unable to handle Valbuena’s two-out grounder, making it 6-4.
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