The Louisville Bats extended their season long winning streak to six games Saturday night with a 7-5 win over the Pawtucket Red Sox. Pawtucket how lost six straight.
With the game tied at four in the eighth, Felix Perez reached on an infield single that scored Cody Puckett to give the Bats the lead. Two batters later, Mike Costanzo singled home Daryl Jones and Perez to make it 7-4.
Pawtucket had their chance to come back in the bottom of the eighth. With two on and two out, Lars Anderson ripped a double to center field. Pedro Ciriaco scored on the play, but Ryan Lavarnway was thrown out on the relay throw at the plate to preserve the Bats’ lead at 7-5.
The Bats tied a season with 16 hits in the game. They had six players with multi-hit games, including Paul Janish and Puckett each with three hits.
The Bats won for just the eleventh time when their opponent scores first. Pawtucket got three runs on Mauro Gomez’s 16th home run of the season.
The Bats came right back in the second, getting a solo home run from Janish and RBI double from Daryl Jones to cut the lead to 3-2.
The Bats tied it on a sacrifice fly from Dioner Navarro in the third and took their first lead of the game in the fifth when Janish doubled home Kristopher Negron.
The lead didn’t last long as the Paw Sox scored their fourth run off Bats starter Sean Gallagher in the sixth on Lavarnway’s RBI sacrifice fly.
Josh Judy, who pitched the seventh and got two outs in the eighth, picked up his second win of the season for the Bats. Jordan Smith came in for Judy in the eighth and picked up a four-out save, his ninth of the year.
The Bats extended their winning streak to six games after not winning more than two in a row all season. During the six game streak, the Bats have scored 40 runs.
Cody Puckett, whose bat has come alive during the streak, extended his hitting streak to six games and picked up his fourth three-hit game of the season, tying him with Bill Rhinehart for most on the team.
Game three of the four game series with the Red Sox is Sunday. The Bats are scheduled to send Ryan Feirabend (0-1, 6.91 ERA) to the mound against Doug Mathis (5-4, 4.01 ERA). First pitch Sunday is set for 1:05 p.m.
