August 7: Goldeyes Hit Five More Bombs To Hammer Joliet 17-5

Talk about fireworks at Canwest Park. When the Goldeyes bats boom, they’re loud. And on Thursday night, you could hear those bats booming all over town.

Big Juan Diaz hit a pair of home runs and drove in four, Brent Metheny hit two and drove in three and Josh Asanovich hit one and drove in three more as the Goldeyes demolished the Joliet JackHammers 17-5 to win their fifth-straight series and set up a weekend showdown with the Schaumburg Flyers.

“Everybody chipped in tonight and that’s nice to see,” said Goldeyes manager Rick Forney. “We’re really hitting the ball well right now and Juan Diaz is a man among boys. He’s locked in.”

Diaz finished the three-game series with Joliet with four homers and eight runs batted in. He now leads the Northern League in home runs with 23 (five already in August) and his 70 RBIs leave him one back of Fargo’s Nic Jackson.

But while Diaz brought the crowd to its feet early with a two-run long fly in the first inning, a handful of Goldeyes had multi-hit games.

Leadoff man Cory Patton went two-for-four with three RBI and three runs scored, Asanovich went two-for-five with three RBI and two runs scored, Diaz went for-four-six with two runs scored and four RBI, Metheny went three-for-four with three RBI and two runs scored and Dee Brown went two-for-three with three runs scored. In the end, the Goldeyes pounded out 17 hits.

The Fish scored two in the first, two in the second, four in the third and six in the fifth to lock up their 45th win of the season. Their magic number to clinch a playoff berth is now 10.

“We have a team that’s capable of having nights like this,” said Forney. “We’re living on that long ball and tonight I was pleased that we also got a few more timely hits.

“But what really makes me happy is that for the third-straight night, our bullpen was rock solid. In the last three games, the bullpen has allowed only one earned run in nine innings of work. You win games with timely hits and a solid bullpen and we’ve had that in recent weeks.”

With the win, the Goldeyes improved to 45-26 and remained two-and-a-half games ahead of red-hot Gary (the RailCats have won 11-straight at home) in the race for first in the Northern League.

“Everything is going well right now,” added Forney. “I just hope we can keep hitting the way we are now to keep the pressure off the pitching. Maybe this is the start of a sweet August and a memorable September for this team.”