Montgomery Biscuits 2, Birmingham Barons 1
Reaching the Southern League Championship in back-to-back seasons, the Birmingham Barons hosted the opener of a three-game set against the Montgomery Biscuits, the Tampa Bay Rays Double-A affiliate. The Biscuits finished the season 78-60, clinching the Southern League South Division by four games with a +38 run differential, but still three behind Birmingham for overall league performance.
Righthander Connor McCullough had the start after a solid season where
he posted a 3.43 ERA in 42 innings (13 starts). Though he struck out three in his three frames, he allowed two runs on three hits and ended up with the loss. All the trouble for McCullough came when the Biscuits took an early lead in the top of the second: A leadoff triple morphed into two runs from an RBI ground out and a base hit up the middle.
Losing Gladney, 4-for-13 with a triple and three RBIs in the opening playoff series, is a serious blow. Recall that a year ago, it was his single back up the middle that gave the Barons a walk-off Southern League title.
The bullpen was sharp for the remaining six innings and allowed just one hit, walked three, and struck out three. Andrew Dalquist was the first out of the pen and tossed for 1 1/3 innings, accounting for two of the three walks and one of the strikeouts. Lefthander Jake Palisch was tagged for a hit, but also struck out one in his two frames, and everyone else was able to shut Montgomery down. But the Barons’ hitting was disjointed at best, and only put up one run.
Birmingham went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position and left eight on base as a team. In fact, the Barons never sent more than four batters up to the plate in an inning, somehow allergic to stringing together more than one hit. William Bergolla accounted 60% of the hits while going 3-for-4 with a stolen base, and Rikuu Nishida singled once in the fifth. The lone run for the Barons was scored in the sixth on a solo bomb from Ryan Galanie to cut the lead in half, 2-1.
Although they were in Magic City, the Barons couldn’t summon any magic on Sunday. They will have to extend the best-of-three series with a win at Montgomery on Tuesday.
