Friday, July 20, 2012

Garceau spins gem as Kansas City takes series opener                      

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – After a long road trip ended with seven straight losses, the Grand Prairie AirHogs returned home to QuikTrip Park, where they had won 17 straight games. Unfortunately for them, they faced the one team that had beaten them at home this year – the Kansas City T-Bones – who beat the AirHogs again 4-1 on Friday to snap their home winning streak while extending the overall losing run to eight.

Kansas City (33-27) scored an unearned run in the second on a two-out, two-strike single by Justin Bass, and made it 2-0 on a walk and two hits to start the third. Grand Prairie starter John Brownell (7-3) worked around a leadoff double in the third, but four straight hits to start the fourth made it 4-0.

Brownell retired the final nine men he faced, Jakob Cunningham worked around a walk in the eighth and debutant Adam Miller pitched a perfect ninth, but the AirHogs (37-22) could not figure out how to rally against T-Bones starter Shaun Garceau (6-1) or two relievers.

Garceau did not allow more than one baserunner in any of his seven frames, giving up two singles and four walks, getting a strike-him-out, throw-him-out double play in the first and starting a 1-6-3 double play in the seventh.

Grand Prairie got a run on Brian Myrow’s two-out single in the eighth, but Andres Rodriguez grounded out against Brad Furnish representing the tying run.

In the ninth, Trent Lockwood walked against closer Mike Mehlich to begin the frame, but Chris McMurray popped out at the end of a long at-bat, and after Greg Porter singled, Bryan Frichter hit into a game-ending 4-6-3 double play, earning Mehlich his seventh save of the season.

Notes: The start of the game was delayed 75 minutes due to rain…Kansas City is 4-0 at QuikTrip Park this year, while all other teams are 0-20…The AirHogs have only scored in two of their last 22 innings (three total runs)…Frichter was the only AirHogs hitter with multiple hits…The top four hitters in the T-Bones lineup had seven of their 10 hits.

The 2011 American Association Champion Grand Prairie AirHogs continue their four-game series against the Kansas City T-Bones on Saturday, July 21, at 7:05 p.m. It is Fireworks Saturday Night at QuikTrip Park, with a postgame fireworks spectacular. All games are aired live and for free on Ustream by clicking on the link on the AirHogs’ home page or visiting http://www.ustream.tv/channel/airhogs-baseball with selected contests aired on Time Warner Cable’s Texas Channel. For information on tickets, promotions, advertising, and other opportunities with the AirHogs, check out the Web site at www.airhogsbaseball.com, or call the QuikTrip Park office at (972) 504-9383.