Wham, bam, thank you slam

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This article was published 04/06/2012 (5098 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Yurendell de Caster hammered a grand-slam and pitcher Ace Walker tied a team record for career strikeouts as the Winnipeg Goldeyes rang up their fifth win in a six-game homestand on Sunday.

De Caster belted a fifth-inning slam en route to a 6-5 Fish victory over the Gary SouthShore RailCats at Shaw Park. The Goldeyes improve to 11-4 while Gary falls to 7-9.

Walker (2-0) got the win and tied the team’s career strikeout mark of 313 set by manager Rick Forney. Walker put up K’s in the first and second innings before fanning centre-fielder Sean Smith in the sixth to tie the mark. He’ll go for the record in his next start, expected to be Friday in Fargo. Gary relief pitcher Nolan Nicholson (1-1) took the loss.

It was the team-leading third home run for de Caster, who got a nice post-game shaving cream pie-in-the-face courtesy teammate Jon Weber.

“I’m so happy that I could help my team win. Bases loaded, don’t try to do too much, see the ball and try to make good contact,” said de Caster, who started the game at third base and moved to first in the seventh inning.

The Goldeyes, who wore 1986-1990 Hamiota Red Sox uniforms in honour of the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame’s 2012 inductees, start a four-game set in Lincoln, Neb., against the Saltdogs today before stopping in Fargo for three games against the RedHawks.

Lefty Chris Salamida (0-0, 3.21) is expected to start for the Goldeyes today.

“It was a good homestand,” said Forney, whose team swept the Amarillo Sox 3-0 and took two of three from the RailCats. “About as good as you can possibly get, certainly pleased.”

The Goldeyes entered the ninth with a 6-2 lead but closer Nick Carr got into some trouble, walking two batters. The RailCats scored three runs, including one on the Goldeyes’ fourth error of the game, before Carr struck out the last batter with bases loaded to end the game.

“There was no reason to be nervous, (we) had all the faith in the world in Carr. I was kind of hoping they’d tie it up so I’d get one more chance to hit,” laughed Weber, the DH, who was slated to hit had they played the bottom of the ninth.

De Caster’s grand slam broke 17 scoreless innings for the Goldeyes, who were blanked 4-0 on Saturday.

“We’d been on a little spell there where we were struggling to score some runs,” Forney said. “But we got a leadoff single by (David) Narodowski, a couple walks thrown in there, Jon (Weber) had a big at-bat there against the left-hander (reliever Chuck Lukanen) and drew a walk and Yurendell found his way into a good hitting count, (1-0). The guy challenged him to the middle of the plate and he got the barrel to it.”

The RailCats opened the scoring on a fourth-inning sacrifice fly by designated hitter Mike Coles. After de Caster’s grand slam put Winnipeg up 4-1, the RailCats got their second run in the seventh on an RBI double off the centre-field wall by first baseman Mike Rohde.

Winnipeg took a 6-2 lead in the eighth on consecutive RBI doubles by Josh Mazzola and Ridge Carpenter. Mazzola went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored. Narodowski got a fourth straight start at shortstop, with Price Kendall at second base.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPAshleyPrest