Even after a three hour and 20 minute rain delay, the Winnipeg Goldeyes went out and played an almost perfect baseball game.
A great start by Mark Holliman and a three-run bomb by Kevin West turned out to be the big difference as the Goldeyes went out and whipped the visiting Rockford RiverHawks 7-3 at Canwest Park on Saturday night. With the win, the Goldeyes improved to 20-15 on the season and won their second straight game.
Mark Holliman worked six complete innings, allowed two runs on only four hits to earn the win and improve to 4-1 (although his ERA actually rose from 1.88 to 2.02) on the season. Holliman has been terrific in most of his starts this year and after waiting three hours and 20 minutes to take the mound on Saturday night, he was outstanding once again. However, because he walked four and struck out 10, threw 101 pitches after six innings so manager Rick Forney decided to go to the bullpen.
“That’s how it goes sometimes,” said Holliman afterward. “It’s (strikeouts) really not something you’re trying to do. You want to get in and out and let your hitters get out there and do their jobs. When I strike out a lot of hitters I don’t stay in the game that long because it means I’ve probably thrown a lot of pitches.
“What I’m trying to do is pitch to contact and let the defence get the job done. That’s a good hitting team over there. I’m surprised so many of them struck out. Just one of those nights.”
In total, Holliman and relievers Casey Hodges, Chad Benefield and Bobby Korecky struck out 13 RiverHawks. With 10 Ks on the night, Holliman now leads the Northern League with 47.
“The strike out pitch tonight was the slider,” Holliman said. “They were all over my fastball early tonight. Those guys are fastball hitters. I started out using the slider just to get them off the fastball, but by the end I was throwing almost exclusively fastballs and sliders.”
Offensively, the Goldeyes started slowly and fell behind 2-0 after three innings, but in the bottom of the fourth, red-hot Dee Brown delivered a two-out, two-run double to tie it up and then, in the fifth, Kevin West hit a monster three-run homer over the leftfield wall to all but seal the deal.
“He (former Goldeyes reliever Justin Knoff) threw me a fastball, belt high,” said West with a laugh. “If he wants to do that, well...”
In a very rare occurrence, the Goldeyes put up more runs than hits – seven runs on only six hits – but also in a very rare occurrence the Goldeyes also scored five of their runs when two were out. Dee Brown had the only multi-hit game with a double and a single.
Game 4 of this four-game series goes this afternoon at Canwest Park. Former Goldeyes starter, lefty Roger Lincoln (2-2, 5.06 ERA) will get the start for Rockford while Chris Salamida (4-2, 3.24 ERA) will toe the rubber for the Fish. Game time is 1:30 p.m.
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