Damien Magnifio notched his 3rd save of the series and 17th of the season with a scoreless ninth in the Sox 4-1 win. He’s turned in eight scoreless outings in a row. (Bobby Stevens/MiLB.com)
The Sky Sox entered the four-game set with the worst road record in the PCL, but took 3-of-4 from the Storm Chasers at Werner Park and depart with a 22-35 record away from Security Service Field. The series culminated with a 4-1 win thanks to a great pitching performance by Wei-Chung Wang in his return to Triple-A and some timely hitting by the Sox offense. Colorado Springs trailed 1-0 heading to the sixth, but scored a run on a Lewis Brinson sac fly to tie it in the frame and Brandon Macias broke the tie an inning later with a two-run double and the Sox never looked back. Michael Reed capped off the scoring with a solo homer in the ninth and extended the team’s streak to 13 games with a blast…oddly enough, they have hit just one homer per game during that stretch.
Hitting Notes –
The Sox notched four runs on five hits and were outhit 10-5, but that didn’t matter as they took the series finale by the three-run margin.
Yadiel Rivera delivered the Sox lone 2-hit game from the top spot in the lineup. He scored one of the four runs and has his average back up to .235 following the two knocks.
Michael Reed was the lone other Sky Sox to reach twice as he homered, walked and scored two runs. The homer was his seventh of the season and again, Colorado Springs has now homered in 13 straight games, but no multiple homer games have occurred during that time.
Brandon Macias was given a gift double on a fly ball to shallow center which plated two runs and gave the Sox the lead for good just before the stretch. The corner infielder has collected 6 RBI with the Sox this season.
Garin Cecchini collected the other hit for the Sox.
Lewis Brinson’s 11-game hitting streak (8 with COS) came to a close with an 0-for-3 performance, BUT he did deliver a sacrifice fly in the 6th the got the Sox on the board and tied the game 1-1. He now has 9 RBI in 9 games with the Sox.
Pitching Notes –
Wei-Chung Wang tossed six scoreless in his Triple-A debut in September 2015 and backed that up with five strong innings last night. He allowed 1 unearned run over 5 innings, on 6 hits, didn’t walk anyone and struck out 5 Storm Chasers. He threw 94 pitches, 64 for strikes, but did not record a decision.
Rick Sweet LOVES to use his bullpen, especially prior to off days and that was no different as he dipped to the relievers FIVE times over the final four innings of the game.
Sam Freeman was the first called upon and the lefty worked out of a jam in the sixth. The Chasers loaded the bases on two hits and a walk, but Freeman induced a 1-2-3 double play to end the inning and kept the Sox in front 3-1. He earned the win for his efforts.
David Goforth returned from the Brewers and tossed a scoreless inning, striking out one.
Michael Kirkman allowed the only man he faced to reach.
Ben Rowan appeared for the second straight day and worked an inning in scoreless fashion.
Damien Magnifico was the sixth and final arm used by Colorado Springs and he locked down his 17th save with a scoreless ninth. He allowed one hit and struck out the final batter of the game. Magnifico is now 6-6 with a 3.23 ERA and has recorded 17 saves in 20 chances, including one in each of the three wins on the road trip. He has turned in 8 scoreless outings in a row and is 2-0-5 during that stretch spanning 10 1/3 innings.
Play of the Game –
Yadiel Rivera made an OUTSTANDING barehanded play in the fourth inning, check it out below:
Pregame Interview with Dan Karcher and Andrew Susac, Part 2 –
Thanks for reading – See you on the radio,
Dan
Colorado Springs Sky Sox Official Team Blog 