PCL: Isotopes downed by 10th-inning, game-winning shot
8/18/2008
ALBUQUERQUE — David Freese swung as if he knew what pitch was coming.
Tommy Murphy ran as if he knew where the ball was landing.
Murphy, though, couldn't catch what Freese hit, which was a first-pitch, 10th-inning, game-winning home run for the Memphis Redbirds, who defeated the Albuquerque Isotopes 6-5 Monday night at Isotopes Park.
It was the lone hit of the Pacific Coast League baseball game for Freese. But it wasn't the lone damage the third baseman has done in the series, which the Redbirds lead
2-1 heading into tonight's finale.
Freese, in his first year in Triple-A, is hitting .500 against the Isotopes. He has three home runs and six runs batted in.
His latest, off Carlos Martinez with one out in the 10th, landed 414 feet from where it started and a foot farther than center fielder Murphy, who ran out of room, even in the deepest part of the park.
Albuquerque had a chance for its second last-at-bat victory in as many days. The Isotopes put the first two runners on in the bottom of the 10th off closer Kelvin Martinez. But Tagg Bozied was thrown out at third on Paul Hoover's attempted sacrifice bunt, and Hoover was erased at second on Jai Miller's fielder's choice.
With Dallas McPherson on third and Miller on first, Chase Lambin struck out.
Jimenez earned his 12th save. He made a winner of Ron Flores (6-4), who worked the ninth. Martinez (0-1) took the loss.
The Redbirds never trailed, plating three runs in the first and two more in the second. The Isotopes chipped away behind the bat of Bozied.
Bozied had a solo home run in the first, a run-producing double in the second and a two-run single in the fifth that closed the deficit to 5-4. Tommy Murphy's run-scoring single in the seventh forged the deadlock.
Both teams left eight runners on base.