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The Yakima Bears have been able to score runs early and take a lead in each of a three-game series against the Tri-City Dust Devils.
All three times, the East Division champion Dust Devils came back to erase that deficit. The difference in Yaki-ma's 9-6 victory Thursday at Gesa Stadium was the Bears dug a little deeper and found a way to win.
With Yakima trailing 6-5 with two outs in the sixth inning, Tim Sherlock blasted a first-pitch two-run home run to right centerfeld off Tri-City reliever Erik Stavert to give the Bears a 7-6 lead en route to their first win in the last 10 games against the Dust Devils.
"Our biggest objective now is to just finish strong," said Sherlock, a 40th-round pick by Arizona out of Duke. "It's my first year, so I'm sure it went by a little quicker for me than the guys out of extended. We're just trying to end on a positive note."
Tri-City, which clinched a berth in the Northwest League championship beginning Monday, lost for just the second time in the last 13 games. It's been a memorable year for the franchise. A day after the Dust Devils set the Colorado Rockies' short-season mark with 45 victories, the team increased its attendance for the fifth season in a row.
With a crowd of 3,041 in Gesa Stadium's final regular-season contest, the final tally of 84,194 fans -- an average of 2,215 per game -- shattered the mark of 82,021 set last season. It's the third straight season Tri-City has re-set the attendance mark.
"You have to give credit to the people in the front office," said Tri-City manager Fred Ocasio, who earned NWL Manager-of-the-Year honors last week. "Every year it seems like it gets better here. Now we'll try to bring home a championship."
Dust Devils starter Brad McAtee got hit hard in his first start since July 27, allowing five earned runs on two hits in just two innings. The 6-foot-5 right-hander threw 43 pitches in the first inning alone with four walks and two hit batters as Yakima sent 11 hitters to the plate during a five-run frame.
"That first inning we were really close to taking him out," Ocasio said. "You want to win every game, but today we needed to save our bullpen."
Stavert (0-1) took the loss, allowing three runs on three hits in three innings.
Tri-City got three runs back in the bottom of the first, including an RBI triple by Orlando Sandoval and a solo homer to left by Kent Matthes -- his fourth of the year -- to cut the lead to 5-3. Two innings later, Matthes cut the Bears' lead to 5-4 with an RBI single and scored the tying run on a single to right by Joseph Sanders.
"I've been working hard with (hitting coach Anthony) Sanders trying to finish strong," said Matthes, who needs one more double to match the Rockies' short-season record of 24. "I've been able to hit some gaps."
Bo Bowman tripled to deep center with one out in the fifth and scored on a passed ball to give the Dust Devils a 6-5 lead. But Sherlock's two-run shot in the sixth gave Yakima the lead for good.
"(Coming back on them) was a good sign," Ocasio said. "We've just got to play until the last out is recorded."
