AirHogs Waste Chances, Winning Streak Ends
After scoring 15 runs the night before, the run well went dry for the Grand Prairie AirHogs on Tuesday night, as were unable to score despite nine hits, a walk and two errors, leaving 10 men on base as they were shut out 3-0 by the Shreveport-Bossier Captains at Fair Grounds Field.
The AirHogs (27-11) had runners at the corners with one out in the first, but Greg Porter bounced into an impressively-turned 6-4-3 double play to end the inning. After wasting a leadoff single in the second and a one-out walk in the third against Aaron Cunningham (2-4), Grand Prairie wasted a glorious chance in the fourth.
Cesar Nicolas, Greg Porter and Tyler Henley all singled to start the inning, but with the bases loaded Tyler Henley popped out to second, Chris McMurray struck out and Guillermo Martinez hit into a fielder's choice to keep the game scoreless.
The AirHogs had two more on in the sixth and stranded them, while the Captains (20-17) finally broke through in the sixth against Josh Rainwater (6-2). After the righty's first walk, leading off the inning to Bryan Sabatella, Palmer Karr lined a one-out double just inside the leftfield line to score Sabatella from first.
After a pop-up and an infield single put runners at the corners with two down, pinch-runner Joe Urtuzuastegui broke for second, and AirHogs catcher Chris McMurray threw down, but David Espinosa cut the ball off short and tried to throw home to get Karr breaking for the plate. But Espinosa's throw bounced and Karr slid in safely for the second run of the game.
Shreveport-Bossier's bullpen then shut Grand Prairie down the rest of the way, with Mark Haynes getting four outs, Jameson Maj two and Dan Griffin the final three for his 11th save of the year while ending the Grand Prairie seven-game winning streak, while the Captains got an inherited run off the AirHogs bullpen in the bottom of the eighth on Urtuzuastegui's two-out, two-strike single.
