July 22: Hitters Come Back to Beat Kansas City 10-8 After Bullpen Blows 7-0 Lead

Tuesday night was Donnie Smith Night at Canwest Park and the Goldeyes helped the celebration by beating Kansas City 10-8.

However, by the end of the evening, it was difficult to keep all the action straight.

Let’s review...

1) Smith, the former Goldeyes reliever who holds the Northern League record for most appearances, was honoured in a tremendous pre-game ceremony.

2) Bear Bay started for the Fish and pitched a dandy seven innings, allowing two runs on six hits.

3) Through the first seven innings, Kevin West hit two homers and walked twice, drove in two runs and scored four while Juan Diaz hit a two-run bomb as the Goldeyes cruised to a 7-0 lead.

4) In the final two innings, the Goldeyes bullpen blew up and allowed five runs in the eighth and three more in the ninth as Kansas City came all the way back to take an 8-7 lead.

5) But in the bottom of the ninth....

With one out, West hit his third solo homer of the game to tie the game 8-8. Then, with two out, Dee Brown hustled down the line to beat out a slow ground ball. For his effort, Brown is awarded an infield single, proving that hitters should always “run it out.”

That’s when Cody Ehlers came to the plate against T-Bones closer Nate Cotton and hit the first pitch he saw just inside the right field foul pole.

“I went up there looking for one pitch,” said the Goldeyes first baseman, right after being pied by his teammates on the post-game TV show. “I was looking for something off-speed and he threw it to me on the first pitch. It was a change-up right over the plate. It was exactly the pitch I was waiting for.”

West saw a lot of pitches he liked as well. His first two home runs went deep to left wall and the first almost hit the new Donnie Smith 21 sign. West’s third dinger traveled to right as he went to get an off-speed pitch from Cotton and took it the opposite way.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever hit three home runs in one game,” West said. “As long as it helped us win, that’s all that matters. We’ve been struggling and tonight the hitters were able to pick up the bullpen. We’re in a race with Gary now, and that was a big win for us.”

With the victory, the Goldeyes put a halt to a two-game losing skid, improved to 32-23 on the season and remained in a first-place tie with the Gary SouthShore RailCats.

The Goldeyes and T-Bones play Game 2 of this three-game series on Wednesday at Canwest Park. Game time is 7 p.m.