Fish fumble their way through 4-1 loss to Texas

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This article was published 12/06/2017 (3129 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One team entered the game as a league heavyweight. The other was bordering on becoming a laughing stock.

And so, in true sporting fashion, what looked like a predictable night at Shaw Park proved to be anything but as the Texas AirHogs snapped a 14-game losing streak by beating the Winnipeg Goldeyes 4-1 Monday.

Winnipeg starter Zach Nuding had another rough outing, giving up four runs (two unearned) off 10 hits in five innings. Texas (5-18) entered the game with a league-worst .208 team average but made life miserable for Nuding, who is now 1-3 on the year with an 7.39 ERA.

Meanwhile, the Goldeyes (14-9) had no answer for Texas pitcher Roman Gomez, who began the year in the AirHogs bullpen and was making his first start of the season. Gomez held the Goldeyes to just three singles over his five innings of work.

Texas opened the scoring in the second inning as the Goldeyes booted the ball around and committed a pair of errors. First, Winnipeg botched a ground-out when the throw to first pulled Shawn Pleffner off the base. Then catcher Alixon Suarez threw the ball into centre field when trying to throw out the runner at second. He advanced to third and scored on a bloop single.

The AirHogs made it 2-0 in the fourth inning after another costly Winnipeg error. Right fielder David Rohm misjudged a fly ball and saw it scoot past him, and the runner would eventually come around to score on a sacrifice fly. Texas added two runs in the fifth, first off a solo homer and then off a sacrifice fly after loading the bases with no outs.

The Goldeyes looked poised to breath through in the seventh, loading the bases with no outs off a pair of walks and a single. But they would come up empty after a strike out, a fly out and a play at the plate that saw David Bergin thrown out.

Bergin would drive in the only Goldeyes run with a two-out single in the eighth.

Winnipeg and Texas continue their four-game series with a matinee on Tuesday at Shaw Park. First pitch is set for 11 a.m.

EARLY EXIT: Josh Romanski had a quick night. The Goldeyes outfielder was thrown out of the game in the bottom of the first inning while in the middle of an at-bat — apparently for leaving the box without permission to apply pine tar to his bat after fouling off a pitch. Casio Grider came off the bench to take his place.

BULLPEN SHUFFLE: Rookie reliever Joeanthony Rivera was released by the Goldeyes Monday. He had appeared in seven games this season and struggled with an 11.37 ERA. The move leaves the Goldeyes with 22 players on their roster, one under the league maximum.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca