Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2009

Dust Devils overcome distractions

By Jack Millikin, Herald staff writer

Rhett Ballard was dealing with enough pressure Monday at Gesa Stadium.

The Tri-City reliever entered with the bases full of Yakima Bears and one out in the ninth, and his Dust Devils clinging to a one-run lead.

Then, ironically, he was thrown a curve.

After Ballard struck out cleanup hitter Matt Davidson and delivered a first-pitch strike to Matt Helm, the outfield sprinkler system activated, delaying the game for nearly three minutes.

But the 6-foot-5 right-hander didn't skip a beat, beating Helm with a pair of sliders for the strikeout to complete the 7-6 Tri-City win.

"You have some away games where that might happen," joked Ballard, a 26th-round draft pick out of Virginia Tech who picked up his first save. "You've just got to stay focused."

The win moved Tri-City even closer to what would be the second East Division title in franchise history, shaving the Dust Devils' magic number down to seven games. Tri-City (37-26) holds a seven-game lead over both Boise (30-33) and Spokane (30-33), which will battle each other for seven of the final 13 regular season games.

"I'm not even thinking about that," said Dust Devils manager Fred Ocasio. "The game we clinch and start celebrating is when we can worry about that."

Bo Bowman, Tri-City's top run-producer, is starting to swing a hot bat again. The third-year pro out of Louisiana-Monroe finished 3-for-3 with three RBIs and scored a pair of runs to raise his average to .311. Bowman is 5-for-10 with four RBIs and three runs scored in his last three games.

"It feels good to get back on track," said Bowman, who drove in the team's final two runs in the fifth and sixth innings.

The Dust Devils held the lead for most of the night after erasing a 2-1 deficit in the third with a four-run outburst in the bottom half of the inning. Kevin Clark highlighted the rally with a two-run double, and Jeremiah Sammy and Jose Gonzalez chipped in RBI singles to give Tri-City the lead for good.

Still, the Dust Devils had trouble keeping Yakima at bay, thanks in part to several miscues on defense. Tri-City had two errors in the boxscore, but there were two pop-ups to short center field that dropped in after miscommunications and another misplay by Kent Matthes on a sinking liner to right.

"When we play a better team, those are the games you're going to lose," Ocasio said. "You've got to play every team like they're the best team out there."

Rod Scurry (5-1) got the win for the Dust Devils after tossing 2 1/3 innings of relief despite allowing two unearned runs. The 6-7 submariner replaced starter Josh Hungerman, who allowed four runs on six hits in four innings, with two on and none out in the fifth. Scurry retired six straight batters before running into trouble in the seventh.

Bears starter Ariel Brea (0-1) took the loss after allowing five runs on six hits in just 2 1/3 innings.

Matthes and Joey Wong each had two hits for Tri-City. Ryan Wheeler drove in four runs for Yakima.