WINNIPEG, MB – Third baseman Dayson Croes and first baseman Jake McMurray homered on consecutive pitches as the Winnipeg Goldeyes (39-31) defeated the Kansas City Monarchs 5-2 at Blue Cross Park Wednesday evening.
Kansas City (34-34) opened the scoring in the top of the third inning on left fielder Chavez Young’s two-out, solo home run to left-centre field.
The Goldeyes responded in the bottom of the inning when left fielder Keshawn Lynch came in to score on designated hitter Roby Enríquez’s ground out to the first baseman.
Winnipeg’s back-to-back homers came with two out in the fourth inning. Croes crushed a 3-2 pitch 383 feet down the right field line to make the score 2-1 Goldeyes. It was his third long ball of the season – all coming in the past nine contests. One pitch later, McMurray smacked his second four-bagger of the campaign to left field to give Winnipeg a two-run advantage.
The Monarchs trimmed the lead to one in the top of the fifth on shortstop Josh Bissonette’s single to centre field. Third baseman Carson Maxwell crossed the plate to make the score 3-2 in favour of the Goldeyes.
Again, Winnipeg answered in their next at-bat. First, shortstop Ramón Bramasco came home as the result of a throwing error after Enriquez doubled to left field. Then second baseman Edwin Arroyo doubled to left to drive in fellow Puerto Rican Enríquez, giving the Goldeyes a 5-2 lead.
Travis Seabrooke (W, 6-2) worked seven innings, scattering seven hits and giving up a pair of runs. He struck out two. Thomas Ponticelli and his University of San Francisco teammate Joey Steele (S, 4) both pitched one inning, sending Kansas City down in order in the eighth and ninth.
Hunter McMahon (L, 3-2) started for the Monarchs and went five innings. He allowed five runs on eight hits.
Croes was a triple shy of the cycle and improved his team-leading batting average to .339. Arroyo had two hits in his Goldeyes debut. The 33-year-old was activated earlier Wednesday after arriving in Winnipeg a day earlier.
“It was another fantastic pitching performance,” said Goldeyes manager Logan Watkins. “It’s kind of the same story every day, when we win we throw well and get enough hits to push across five or six runs and when we lose we just don’t get those hits.”
The rubber match is set for Thursday at 6:30 p.m. CDT. Ryder Yakel (2-2, 3.91 ERA) will make a spot start for the Goldeyes, while Julián García (2-1, 3.05 ERA) is expected to take the mound for Kansas City.
Trevor Curl will have the pregame show on CJNU 93.7 FM and cjnu.ca at 6:00 p.m. The game will also be broadcast in French on L’Univers de L’Info with Yanick LaRoche handling the play-by-play. The video stream of all games is available free of charge at AABaseball.TV.
The first place Sioux Falls Canaries visit Blue Cross Park for a four-game set that begins Friday at 7:00 p.m. with our “Winnipeg 150” celebration including another fantastic post-game fireworks show.
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Blue Cross Park is located on the original lands of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Ojibwe-Cree, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and on the National Homeland of the Red River Métis. We respect the Treaties that were made on these territories, we acknowledge the harms and mistakes of the past, and we dedicate ourselves to move forward in partnership with Indigenous communities in a spirit of reconciliation and collaboration.
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