Hartford Yard Goats: Pair of Harrisburg homers lead to loss

HARRISBURG, PA. — On Tuesday evening, the Hartford Yard Goats and Harrisburg Senators continued their three-game series in Harrisburg. With a 10-6 win on Monday night, the Yard Goats moved to 4-0 on the season against the Senators and moved back above .500 to 12-11 for the year. In the second game of the series, the Yard Goats started Jesus Tinoco (3-1, 3.48 ERA) on the mound, while the Senators went with Luis Reyes (1-2, 7.29 ERA).

Yard Goats’ starting pitcher Jesus Tinoco had a rough start to his outing, allowing three runs to score in the first inning. The Senators’ leadoff batter, Daniel Johnson, slashed the first pitch of the game down the left field line for a double. After Tinoco walked Yadiel Hernandez on four straight pitches, Dan Gamache delivered the big blow of the inning: a three run homer that was launched out of the stadium in right field.

Tinoco was able to settle down and retired the next 10 batters in a row, picking up four strikeouts in the process. The Yard Goats’ defense also helped Tinoco out, as second baseman Ryan Metzler made a nice jumping catch on a line drive to prevent a hit and right fielder Yonathan Daza tracked down a line drive on the run to prevent an extra-base hit.

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The fourth inning brought more trouble for Tinoco as he allowed back-to-back singles and a walk with one out to allow the Senators to load the bases. But he worked out of trouble, getting Osvaldo Abreu to pop out to first baseman Brian Mundell and striking out Reyes.

Tinoco’s night ended in the seventh after he gave up a two-run shot to Hernandez to allow the Senators to take a 5-1 lead. His final line was 6.0+ innings pitched, allowing five runs on eight hits while striking out six.

“Jesus has some overpowering stuff,” catcher Dom Nunez said after the game, “I had to go out and settle him down a couple of times and he may have tried to overthrow a couple of his pitches tonight, but he has good stuff and he just has to trust himself.”

The Hartford bats just couldn’t seem to get going against Luis Reyes. Just a night after picking up 14 hits as a team, the Yard Goats were held to just one hit through the first three innings of the game. The offense finally got going in the fourth inning as the Yard Goats picked up a run on a Brendan Rodgers RBI single, but a double play ball off the bat of Mundell ended the Yard Goats’ threat in the inning.

The next chance for the Yard Goats came in the sixth inning, thanks in part to a fielding error from Senators’ third baseman Kelvin Gutierrez that allowed leadoff hitter Garrett Hampson to reach base. After a fly out, Daza chopped a weak infield single and some heads up base running from Hampson allowed him to advance to third base. However, a double play ball from Rodgers ended the threat from the Yard Goats again.

With the Senators’ starter gone in the eighth inning, the Yard Goats were able to tack on a run courtesy of a Dom Nunez RBI double in the eighth inning. Another run came in the ninth inning on a Wes Rogers home run to pull the Yard Goats within two. However, the Senators relievers for the night, consisting of Kaleb Fleck and Roman Mendez, were able to finish off the Yard Goats and secure the 5-3 win for the home team.

Rodgers, one of the top 15 prospects in all of baseball, has recently transitioned to playing third base from his usual second base and shortstop positions. Tuesday was only his fourth game at third base, but he appeared to already be comfortable at the hot corner.

“It’s definitely something new,” Rodgers said of his transition. “I’m just trying to be as versatile as I can to be able to play any infield position and I’m just working hard to get them all down as well as I can.”

With the loss, the Yard Goats now fall back to .500 on the season with a 12-12 record. The team has had some ups and downs, losing six in a row to start the season and then bouncing back to win seven in a row. Despite hovering around .500 currently, the team is not worried at all.

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“We can’t get down,” manager Warren Schaeffer said. “When you have a good team like we do, you just can’t get down. Nobody is panicking. We know what kind of club we have. The win streak was nice, and we expect to see some more of that this season.”