June 8: Kansas City Scores 12 Runs on 16 Hits. Filets Fish 12-3.

The Kansas City Lumber Company came to Canwest Park Monday night and lit up the Winnipeg Goldeyes.

Behind a solid start from lefty Ryan Knippschild and a grand slam home run off the bat of Brian Joynt, the first-place T-Bones drilled the Fish 12-3 in the first game of a four-game series at Winnipeg’s downtown ballpark. With the win, the T-Bones improved to 11-5 on the season while the Goldeyes fell to 10-8.

"They’re way better than we are," said Goldeyes manager Rick Forney bluntly. "They had good pitching, great defense, great hitting with a bunch of home runs and they put up some crooked numbers. They had a real good game tonight."

Kansas City put up 12 runs on 16 hits as Joynt had a double and a grand slam, drove in five and scored three. Second baseman Jake Blackwood also homered for K.C. as the T-Bones had eight extra-base hits off starter Ace Walker and relievers Ulysses Roque and Austin Donmoyer.

"We’ve got a lot of holes right now," Forney said. "We aren’t very good right now. I don’t feel we’ve been very good for two weeks. It’s making me think of making some adjustments here way before I wanted to."

The game was put out of reach when Joynt hit his grand slam in the eighth – that made it 8-2 for Kansas City -- but Forney believed the turning came in the top of the second inning. The Fish were leading 1-0 after Kevin West tripled home Aharon Eggleston, when Winnipeg gave up three in the top of the second and even though Juan Diaz hit a solo shot in the fifth, Winnipeg never had a sniff of the lead again.

"What happened in the second inning changed the game," Forney said. "We got a leadoff ground ball to third base and we didn’t make the play and then there was double play to second and we didn’t turn it. Because of that, they scored three runs. We aren’t getting the job done defensively and we haven’t been getting the job done all year. We have to improve on defense. And we need to do it in a hurry here."

The Goldeyes will get a chance to even the series on Tuesday night. Righty Stephen Flake will get his first start for the Goldeyes while former Goldeye Andrew Cruse will take to the bump for K.C. Game time is 7 p.m. The game is on Shaw TV Channel 9.

Photo: Shawn Coates