Knights rough up 4 Mud Hens pitchers

5/12/2008

FORT MILL, S.C. Call the Mud Hens 10-6 loss to the Charlotte Knights yesterday afternoon a total pitching breakdown. Toledo manager Larry Parrish sure did.

I don t think we had anyone throw good today, 0-for-4, said Parrish, noting the perfect storm of conditions that led to some dismaying results from four Mud Hens pitchers 12 hits given up, including five home runs, and six walks.

It was a good day to hit, and a tough day to pitch, he said. It s a small ballpark, and the wind was blowing out. A lot of the home run balls were not good pitches. We walked too many guys and just didn t keep the ball down.

The 10 runs given up matched the previous season high set by Louisville on April 20.

And it wasted what turned out to be a decent day at the plate for the Mud Hens, who got nine hits, including a two-run homer by Mike Hollimon and a solo shot by Brent Clevlen.

But we left a lot of guys out there, Parrish said of the nine stranded runners. Enough to have scored more than 10.

Despite the rough outing by Mud Hens starter Yormin Bazardo, who gave up four runs and seven hits in five innings, Toledo was still tied at 4 going to the bottom of the seventh.

But a two-run double by Charlotte s Chris Getz off reliever Ian Ostlund highlighted a four-run seventh, and the Knights never trailed after that. All four runs were charged to Anastacio Martinez (0-1), who took the loss.

Adam Russell (2-0), the second of four Knights pitchers, picked up the victory, pitching a scoreless seventh.

The Mud Hens scored first on an RBI single by Jackson Melian in the second, but the Knights matched it in the bottom of the inning on Getz two-out solo homer to right.

Clevlen clubbed a two-out homer just inside the right field foul pole to put Toledo up 2-1 in the third, but the Knights went in front in the fourth. Jeff Liefer hit a leadoff homer to right, and Fernando Cortez had an RBI single.

Dewayne Wise gave the Knights a 4-2 lead with a one-out solo homer in the fifth, his first of two in the game. But the Mud Hens tied the game on Hollimon s two-out, two-run home run to left in the sixth.

Rain delayed the start of the game for 58 minutes.

NOTES: Detroit Tigers left-hander Dontrelle Willis makes his second major league rehab start for the Mud Hens at 7:15 tonight. Right-hander Tomo Ohka (0-6, 6.03) will start for Charlotte.