Captains Bullpen Shut Down AirHogs
Richard Salazar shut down the Grand Prairie AirHogs for six strong innings on Tuesday, as his Shreveport-Bossier Captains squeaked past the AirHogs 6-1 in front of 1,260 fans at QuikTrip Park.
Salazar (3-3) actually fell behind in the game, allowing an unearned run on a Guillermo Martinez RBI single in the second, but the Captains' lefty got some very good defensive plays behind him for the rest of his outing, allowing just one fly ball out and no more runs in his six innings of work.
After stranding three runners in the first two innings, the Captains (23-20) got to Grand Prairie starter David Nathanson (0-3) in the third, with Andres Rodriguez lining a two-out, two-run homer down the leftfield line to put Shreveport-Bossier on top.
Nathanson only allowed one more (unearned) run for the rest of his seven innings, but the Captains bullpen shut the AirHogs (30-14) down late, with Mark Haynes pitching a perfect 7th before being lifted with one out and one on in the eighth. Jameson Maj got a ground-out and allowed a double, but Jake Taylor popped out to end the inning.
The Captains tacked on three runs in the top of the ninth of Jon Fulton to make their lead more comfortable, but Jake McCarter walked three in the ninth around two hard-hit outs to force Shreveport-Bossier to bring in closer Dan Griffin with the bases juiced and two outs. Griffin then picked up perhaps the easiest save of his life, as Greg Porter popped the first pitch up to center to end the game.
