Mud Hens easily win seventh straight

8/7/2009

About the only thing missing for Mud Hens manager Larry Parrish last night was a rocking chair.

His team's offense batted around in the fourth inning, scoring eight times. His starting pitcher, Nate Bump, threw eight innings of four-hit shutout ball.

It all added up to an easy 10-3 win over Gwinnett, the Mud Hens' seventh straight victory.

Any complaints?

"Nope," Parrish said with a smile. "We got a great outing from Bump. We left a lot of runners on base early in the game, but when we got the offense rolling, we put up another big number."

Toledo sent 12 batters to the plate in the fourth, collecting seven hits while benefiting from a pair of walks by Gwinnett starter Jonny Venters. The two biggest blows in the rally were a three-run homer to right by Brent Clevlen, his 13th this season, and a bases-loaded triple by Donny Kelly.

Wilkin Ramirez had a sacrifice fly, and Jeff Frazier - whose one-out double got the rally started - added an RBI double.

Toledo added a pair of runs in the eighth on a two-out, two-run double by Ramirez.

The Hens finished with 14 hits, the eighth time in the last 11 contests that the team posted double-digit hits. Everyone except Mike Hessman had at least one hit, and all nine starters except Ramirez scored.

"You're seeing a more confident club right now," Parrish said. "When we get it rolling, every guy goes up there with the idea that we can do this - and it's my turn."

That was more than enough run support for Bump, who retired the first nine Braves he faced. Gwinnett's Reid Gorecki led off the fourth by lining a hot-shot to third. Hessman dove for the ball, which tipped off the edge of his glove and rolled into shallow left. Gorecki tried to take second on the hit but was thrown out easily by Brent Dlugach.

Bump then retired the next nine Braves he faced until Gregor Blanco rolled a single up the middle with one out in the seventh.

"My sinker has been good. I've been lucky to have that every game I've pitched here," said Bump, who improved to 5-0 and lowered his ERA to 2.40 in his sixth start for the Hens.

"And I've been mixing in the off-speed pitches so that, when I'm up in the zone with the sinker, they're not right on it. They have some other things in their heads."

In the eighth, the Braves threatened to score when Clint Sam-mons singled with one out, then moved to second on Van Pope's two-out infield hit. But Bump got Antonio Perez to ground out.

The only blot on the scorecard for the Hens was the inning thrown by Jeremy Bonderman in his second rehab appearance. He allowed a bad-hop single to Gorecki, a hard single to Brooks Conrad and a long homer to Brandon Jones.

Bonderman threw 19 of his 21 pitches for strikes, reaching 92 miles per hour on two of them.

"He had a bad-hop single, and I think the two other hits were on 'splits' - a pitch he's working on," Parrish said.

NOTE: The Mud Hens' roster has changed in the two days since Tuesday's game. Detroit demoted C Dusty Ryan, OF Wilkin Ramirez, and RHP Casey Fien to the Mud Hens that day. RHP Chris Lambert was promoted to the Tigers, while C Max St-Pierre and RHP Zach Simons were sent to Double-A Erie.