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| Jeff Suppan prepares to throw a pitch in the early innings tonight. (Photo: Lee Warren) |
Omaha took a 2-0 lead in the first inning when Johnny Giavotella blasted his fourth home run of the season to left field. The Chasers added single runs in the fourth and fifth innings on a Clint Robinson home run – his 15th – and a wild pitch by RedHawks starting pitcher Sergio Perez.
Jeff Suppan got the start for Omaha and looked strong early on. He sat down the first eight hitters he faced. He gave up a run in the fifth inning and made it to the seventh inning before running into real trouble. He walked the leadoff hitter Brandon Barnes setting the stage for a two-run home run by the RedHawks number nine hitter, Oswaldo Navarro – who had a big night, going 3-for-4 with 2 RBIs. Suppan went 6.1 innings, giving up three earned runs on seven hits and two walks. He struck out five.
“I thought he threw the ball real well tonight,” said Storm Chasers manager Mike Jirschele after the game. “And then he gave up the home run. That’s part of the game. You make one bad pitch and it ruins your night. Overall though I thought he mixed his pitches well and kept the ball down. And really, they were struggling against him.”
Brandon Sisk came on in relief of Suppan in the seventh and gave up the lead on an RBI single back up the middle by Robinson Cancel on an 0-2 pitch that caught a lot of the plate. With the game tied at four, the combination of Omaha relievers Brandon Sisk, Jeremy Jeffress, and Robinson Tejeda kept Oklahoma City off the scoreboard in the eighth, ninth and tenth innings.
The game remained tied at four into the eleventh inning when Blaine Hardy gave up and RBI single to J.B. Shuck to give the RedHawks a 5-4 lead, and an RBI single to LF by Robinson Cancel. Hardy was tagged with the loss.
“We scored the two in the first and it seemed like we were off to a good start,” Jirschele said. “And after that we really didn’t square a lot of balls up. We hit too many fly balls. We had a couple of opportunities where we had runners in scoring position but we just couldn’t get them in.
“I was happy with the bullpen. For the most part, they did a good job to keep us right there.
“It was a tough game – you lose it there in the last inning. They didn’t hit the ball real hard, but they found some holes and it cost us the game.”
The Storm Chasers have dropped two out of three games since losing Mike Moustakas to the big leagues and given that they lost Eric Hosmer a month prior, they have lost their two of their best hitters. But Jirschele said they still have a good offense.
“You look all the way through our lineup, we’ve got some guys who can hit,” Jirschele said. “They aren’t swinging it real well right now. Even David [Lough] had a rough night tonight. Clint’s going to drive some runs in for you. Kila really hasn’t gotten it going yet either. Hopefully he picks it up a little bit. Mike Aviles, of course, is just down [from KC] … he’s going to get better and better with time, so offensively I think we’ll be fine.”
In unrelated news, Bruce Chen is working out with the team after a rehab appearance in NW Arkansas last Wednesday. Jirschele says Chen may pitch for Omaha on Monday, depending how he feels.
The Storm Chasers set a new attendance record tonight at Werner Park: 8,615.
