 |
| Sean O'Sullivan won his sixth straight start on Tuesday. (File photo: Brad Williams Photography) |
Second place Memphis won as well, so Omaha maintained its four-game lead in the PCL American North. The loss moved the Sounds to 7.5 games back.
After the game on Monday, Jirschele said he would make some adjustments to the defense. The adjustments included moving Irving Falu from second base to shortstop (replacing Yamaico Navarro who committed two errors) and putting Kila Ka’aihue back at first base, replacing Clint Robinson (who committed two errors).
The moves paid off.
“Falu did an outstanding job at short tonight,” Jirschele said. Falu made several great plays, including one in the ninth when he went to his knees to corral the ball and then made an accurate throw to first base in time to throw out Mike Rivera. The ground ball scored a run, but it was the second out of the inning and it stopped the Sounds from mounting a big rally.
“Mertins made the nice play up the middle,” Jirschele continued. “Arias had a couple of hard shots hit at him, made the plays. Those are the little things we’ve got to do, especially when you’re in one, two run games. You’ve got to make those plays. You know, if they get a guy or two on base, get some confidence, that’s when bad things can happen.”
Jarrod Dyson also made a nice defensive play, throwing out Sounds designated hitter Erick Almonte at home in the second inning. The throw was offline a little, but Cody Clark pulled it back from the first base side and made a good tag.
David Lough, who had three sacrifices on the night, drove in the first run of the game on a sacrifice fly to center field in the first inning, driving in Dyson who tripled to lead off the game. It remained a one-run game until the fifth inning when Lorenzo Cain blistered a three-run home run down the left field line, giving Omaha a 4-0 lead.
“I was happy – real happy to see that three-run shot,” Jirschele said. “I was just hoping that when he hit it, it was high enough to clear the wall. We were probably going to score a couple of runs there, but I was happy to see it go over the fence and take the three runs there.”
The Chasers tacked on another run in the eighth inning on back-to-back doubles by Falu and Joaquin Arias.
Sean O’Sullivan, who improved to 8-2, had everything working and wasn’t afraid to go after hitters. He pitched seven shutout innings, giving up six hits on no walks and eight strikeouts.
“It was hot and humid out there and Sully sweats a lot,” Jirschele said after the game, “so I was worried about the humidity out there for him, but he did an outstanding job. You know, we made some good defensive plays tonight – that’s what we need to do. We need to make those plays and keep our pitchers out of trouble.”
O’Sullivan has won his last six starts. The last pitcher to do that for Omaha was Chris George in 2004, who went on to win seven straight starts that year.
The Sounds scored a couple of runs off Kevin Pucetas in the ninth inning.
Omaha will head to New Orleans will they will begin a four-game series Wednesday night. Vin Mazzaro (5-2, 4.51) will go up against RHP Chris Sampson (8-1, 3.74).
