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(photo courtesy oroyals.com)
At some point, Omaha’s late inning rallies are going to lead to dramatic victories. So far, they’ve been more of a tease.
Luke Hochevar’s much anticipated return to Omaha was probably not what he or his team was hoping it would be either. The Omaha’s offense struggled mightily until the eighth inning, and while Hochevar wasn’t terrible, he wasn’t the dominating pitcher he had been in his first stint in town.
The two teams were scoreless in the top of the third until John Bowker doubled to left field, driving home Eugenio Velez, who had singled and stole second. Bowker then stole third base, and was able to scamper home as J.R. House’s throw sailed into the outfield. A second error, this time by third baseman Travis Metcalf allowed Ryan Rohlinger to score from first after he had singled a batter earlier.
Hochevar settled down after the horrific third, and three shutout innings until he was lifted after the sixth. Hochevar’s final line was six innings, eight hits, one walk, three runs (two earned) and six strikeouts. Hochevar’s ERA rose from 0.90 to 1.17
Fresno scored what would eventually be the winning run when John Bowker hit a solo home run off of reliever Tim Hamulack in the seventh. Hamulack was able to limit the damage by striking out Adam Witter to end the inning.
In the bottom of the eighth, Omaha’s slumbering offense finally woke when J.R. House drove Scott Thorman with a double off former major league 15 game winner Ramon Ortiz. Ortiz was able to end the threat by getting Travis Metcalf to ground to third, and striking out Mario Lisson.
For the second straight game, the Royals brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth. Grizzlies’ closer Geno Espinelli struggled, giving up three hits and two runs before getting pinch hitter Brian Buchanan to fly out to right.
Jose Duarte started the rally by singling, and after Irving Falu flew out, Brayan Pena drove Duarte in with a double over the right fielder’s head. Scott Thorman drove Pena in with a single, but was stranded on first as the game ended.
Fresno’s Kevin Pucetas continued his successful campaign, improving to 5-1, and lowering his ERA to 3.47 thanks to his six shutout innings.
The loss topped off a disappointing 2-6 home stand for the Royals, who begin a short three day, four game road trip to Nashville before returning home on June 2nd for another eight game stand.
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