Infante again drives in winner
7/11/2003MOOSIC, Pa. - As his .156 batting average heading into last night's game with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre will attest, Omar Infante is not exactly tearing the cover off the baseball.
But Infante is certainly having a great deal of success in finding a way to beat the Red Barons. For the second consecutive night Infante delivered a ninth-inning, game-winning hit in Toledo's 2-1 victory at Lackawanna County Stadium.
On Wednesday night, Infante came through with a two-out single to left to lift the Mud Hens to victory.
Last night, he did the same exact thing.
With the score tied 1-1 entering the top of the ninth, Ernie Young started the inning with a leadoff walk against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre reliever Aaron Myette. Danny Klassen and Pat Lennon followed with groundouts to second that advanced Young to third.
Brandon Inge then walked and stole second. Infante followed with his base hit to left on a 1-2 offering from Myette to score Young with the game-winner.
Matt Anderson came on in the bottom of the ninth and worked out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam to earn his second save of the year.
Travis Chapman began the inning with a single to center and Kevin Sefcik walked. J.P. Roberge dropped down a sacrifice bunt to put runners on second and third. Eric Valent was intentionally walked to load the bases and set up a force at any base.
“You're either going to give it up or go home a winner,” Anderson said of the ninth-inning situation. “The last thing you want to do is tie the game.”
On his first pitch to Juan Sosa, Anderson came inside and just missed hitting him, which would have forced in the tying run. Anderson battled back to strike out Sosa, then fanned Jeremy Salazar to end the game.
“It was close. It turned out to be a pretty good purpose pitch,” Anderson said of the first delivery to Sosa.
“I mixed in some breaking balls with the fastball. In that situation you just want to maintain your confidence and keep pitching. Every pitch is important. You make one mistake and anybody can hurt you if they have a bat in their hands.”
Nate Robertson started for the Mud Hens and pitched six innings of four-hit ball. He gave up one unearned run, walked two and struck out two.
The Red Barons scored their only run in the fourth when Chapman doubled with two out and scored when Sefcik was safe on an Infante throwing error.
Red Barons starter Josh Hancock was equally impressive, working seven innings of four-hit ball and striking out seven.
Toledo's only run off Hancock came in the fifth when Inge hit his second home run of the year.
Danny Patterson tossed two innings of spotless relief to get the win.