Salt Lake Bees Trounce Fresno Grizzlies 11-4

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MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com - FRESNO , CA - The Salt Lake Bees put crooked numbers on the scoreboard in four different innings on their way to an 11-4 win in their series opener against the Grizzlies at Chukchansi Park. Travis Ishikawa and Matt Downs both homered for Fresno in the loss.

The Grizzlies got on the board in the bottom of the second inning against Salt Lake starter Nick Green. With two outs, Travis Denker and Jake Wald hit back-to-back singles. Steve Holm followed with a single to score Denker, and Dave Roberts ripped a ground-rule double to right-center that scored Wald for a 2-0 Grizzlies lead.

Salt Lake roared back in the top of the fifth inning against Matt Palmer, pushing three runs across to take a 3-2 lead. The Grizzlies answered in the bottom half of the inning when Travis Ishikawa led off with a home run to center field that tied the game at three.

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But the Bees rallied for four runs in the top of the sixth inning against Palmer and reliever Scott Munter. Palmer allowed singles to three of the four batters he faced before being replaced, and Munter surrendered a three-run home run to Adam Pavkovich on the first pitch of his outing that put the visitors on top 7-3. Pavkovich scored two runs and drove in five for Salt Lake in the game.

Palmer was charged with six runs (five earned) in 5.1 innings of work, but also struck out five. The right-hander now has 117 strikeouts in 2008, a new single-season high, and took sole possession of third place on Fresno's career strikeout list.

Leading off the bottom of the seventh, with reliever Jeff Kennard on the mound, Matt Downs launched a 1-0 pitch onto the grass berm in left-center to cut the deficit to three runs. But the visitors added two more runs in the eighth inning, and another pair in the ninth to take the series opener 11-4.

Fresno and Salt Lake will meet for a doubleheader (two seven-inning games) on Saturday night at Chukchansi Park, with the first pitch of Game 1 scheduled for 6:05pm. The first 2,500 fans through the gates will receive a Tim Lincecum Bobblehead. Right-hander Victor Santos takes on Bees' righty Dustin Mosely in the first game, while Brad Hennessey looks for his seventh win in the second game, for which Salt Lake's starter has yet to be determined.

TOMORROW'S MATCHUP

Chukchansi Park - 6:05pm PDT

Game1: RHP Victor Santos vs. RHP Dustin Mosely

Game2: RHP Brad Hennessey vs. TBA

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