The Rebels, led by their retooled bench, came up big in an extra-inning affair at home in Lexington as former Moabs Jhonny Peralta, Curtis Granderson and Benji Molina all contributed to a critical 6-5 win over visiting Yuma.
Granderson, inserted into the leadoff spot, singled in each of his first two at-bats, stole second and scored his club’s second run against Matt Cain (8 IP, 4 ER), but the Rebels were unable to deliver a knockout blow. Leading 3-0 in the top of the sixth with Johann Santana on the mound, the Rebels allowed the Firebirds to tie the game when Ryan Braun doubled with the bases loaded and Carlos Lee overthrew the cutoff man, allowing another run to score.
Each club traded a run after that, but when Nick Markakis hit a one-out solo homer in the top of the eighth, it appeared that the visiting Firebirds might well move back within a half-game of first in the West. But, pinch-hitter Jeremy Hermida doubled off Manny Corpas to open the bottom of the ninth, and with two out the Firebirds elected to walk the hot-hitting (and lefty-swinging) Granderson to pitch to Benji Molina, who had come on in a double switch. But Molina doubled to score pinch-runner David Eckstein, and the game would go into extra innings.
Markakis would draw a walk to lead off the top of the tenth, but would be stranded by new Rebels reliever David Riske. Former Brooklyn SS Jhonny Peralta led off the bottom of the tenth with a pinch-single, but Yuma lefty C.J. Wilson fanned both A.J. Pyrzinski and Carlos Delgado with two runners on.
Rebels closer Huston Street was able to pitch around a Russell Martin single leading off the top of the eleventh, and so that set up the winning inning for Lexington, as Molina doubled off Rafael Perez (3-2, 1.520 with one out and scored two batters later on an RBI single by Perez, atoning for his earlier error! This made a winner out of Street (4-1, 2.89), and gave the Rebels (59-44) their fifth straight victory, and a two-and-a-half game lead in the West.
In other BARB action:
DARWIN 8, POTTSYLVANIA 0
WP: Randy Johnson (6-4, 3.40)
LP: Pedro Martinez (0-1, 12.71)
Rick Ankiel, batting from the leadoff spot, spoiled Pedro Martinez’s long-awaited return from the disabled, hitting a pair of homers off the Creepers star in his first two at-bats, and 44-year-old Randy Johnson needed only 98 pitches through eight frames to combine with Kevin Gregg on a five-hitter as the Finches (61-39) maintained their lead in the East.
FROSTBITE FALLS 5, LAS VEGAS 1
WP: Ben Sheets (6-7, 3.78)
LP: Brett Myers (5-6, 4.70)
Ben Sheets fanned eight and took a shutout bid into the ninth before needing relief help, and Carlos Pena hit his 18th round-tripper of the year as the Squirrels’ winning streak reached seven games. Frostbite Falls (59-40) has won nine of their last ten and has pulled within one-and-a-half games of Eastern-leading Darwin.
WORCESTER 11, S-MART 2
WP: Jon Lester (3-1, 3.16)
LP: Garret Olson (3-12, 6.61)
The Eliminators took advantage of a wild (6 BB) Garrett Olson in batting around in each of the first two innings, Derek Lee and Joe Mauer both homering, and given a 9-0 lead after two frames, Jon Lester simply started every batter with ‘strike one’ and ended up with his first complete game of the season. Worcester (55-44) thus pulled a half-game ahead of Yuma in the lead for the wild card.
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