PCL: Home field doesn’t curb losing streak for Isotopes

Pancho Morris | The New Mexican

7/11/2008 - 7/12/08

ALBUQUERQUE — An epidemic of losing currently plagues the Albuquerque Isotopes.

Home was not the cure.

Not Friday night.

Not against the Iowa Cubs.

After dropping four straight games at Oklahoma, the Isotopes opened their four-game series against Iowa in defeat.

The Cubs, the team with the most wins in the Pacific Coast League season, parlayed a four-run seventh inning into a 6-2 victory before a soggy crowd of 9,255 at Isotopes Park.

The loss was the fifth straight for Albuquerque.

And the 13th in the past 14 games.

And the 17th of the last 21.

The Isotopes are 15 games under .500 and 12 1/2 games out of first place in the American Southern Division.

The win was the third in a row for Iowa.

And the eighth in the last 10.

And the 13th of the last 15.

The Cubs are 21 games over
.500 and lead the American Northern Division by six games.

Yet, through six innings, nothing separated one division leader from one cellar-dweller. That's because Lorenzo Scott and Tagg Bozied each hit a solo home run for the Isotopes, who forged ties at 1-1 and 2-2.

The stalemated ended in the Iowa seventh.

With one out, five straight Cubs reached base on a pair of doubles, a single, a walk and a hit batsman. Koyle Hill had the final hit, plated the final run and made the final out in a run down for Iowa, which scored four times.

The outburst made a winner of Mitch Atkins (1-0), who made his PCL debut. Randy Williams (0-2), who relieved starter Chris Seddon to start the seventh, took the loss.

Albuquerque didn't score past the fourth, stranding six runners in the final five innings.

Notes: John Baker, called up from Albuquerque to the Florida Marlins on July 8, became the 10th player in the organization's history to hit a home run for his first Major League hit. Baker had a solo home run in the second inning Thursday at Dodger Stadium.