SATURDAY: Liberty, Mo. native Luke Irvine was superb on Saturday night, throwing seven shutout innings as Kansas City topped Sioux City, 2-0, in the series-opener at Lewis and Clark Park.
Irvine (4-2) struck out 10 and walked only two in the win. He allowed only four hits and had only one runner advance as far as third base during his seven innings on the hill.
Kansas City untied the scoreless pitchers’ duel in the fifth on a sacrifice fly to center by Enrique Cruz, driving home Spiker Helms, who led off the inning with an infield single. The T-Bones made it 2-0 when Ray Sadler led off the sixth inning with his 16th homer of the year.
Toler, then facing clean-up hitter Jorge Delgado, who was hitting .416 through 21 games for Sioux City, induced a 5-3 double play when Helms made a pick on a high chopper, touched third for a force out, and then fired an off-balance throw to first that completed the inning-ending double play.
With the win, Kansas City (50-48) is guaranteed of at least a .500 season with two games remaining. Game two of the three-game series is set for a 6:05 p.m. on Sunday.
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FRIDAY: The Amarillo Sox scored three runs on four hits in the bottom of the ninth, eventually scoring the winning run on a throwing error by Pat Trettel, as they erased a 3-1 deficit and defeated Kansas City, 4-3, in the series finale at Amarillo National Bank Sox Stadium on Friday night.
Devin Anderson (7-6) started for Kansas City and came away with a no-decision despite going six innings and giving up only one run.
With Kansas City leading 2-1 in the top of the ninth, the T-Bones added an insurance run on an RBI single by Adam De La Garza, scoring Kris Sanchez from second. Sanchez went two for four with two doubles and two runs scored.
In the bottom of the ninth, Amarillo loaded the bases with no outs against closer Griffin Bailey (3-6) before Adam Buschini’s two-run double off the glove of T-Bones third baseman Spiker Helms tied the game at 3-3. The T-Bones then intentionally walked Tim Alberts in order to face Jonathan Cisneros.
Cisneros hit a ground ball to Devin Goodwin at shortstop, and he fired to Trettel at the plate for a force out. Garrett Rau slid into Trettel while Trettel was throwing to first for a double play. Instead, the ball flew into right field, scoring Buschini and giving Amarillo the walk-off win.
