Canaries beat Fish in battle of pitching heavyweights

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This article was published 03/08/2024 (449 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The two best pitchers in the American Association — Joey Matulovich and Ty Culbreth — went head-to-head at Blue Cross Park Saturday night.

Unfortunately for the Winnipeg Goldeyes, it was Culbreth who picked up the win for the West Divison-leading Sioux Falls Canaries.

Even though Culbreth allowed 11 hits in seven innings, the Goldeyes only managed to get two runs across in a 6-2 loss to the Canaries in front of 3,371 fans.

Sioux Falls, which improved to 42-30, holds a 2 1/2-game lead over 40-33 Winnipeg.

“That’s kind of been the story of the whole season,” said manager Goldeyes manager Logan Watkins. “But we’ve got plenty of good hitters on the team. It’s just a matter of teams that win championships, they come through in clutch moments… If we want to win the division, we got to catch them and so everyone can feel the magnitude of every inning, every at bat.”

The first two games in the four-game series between the Goldeyes and the Canaries have both come down to the sixth inning.

In Game 1, the Goldeyes had a six-run sixth to take an 8-2 victory Friday. However, in Saturday’s Game 2, they allowed five runs in the sixth, putting themselves a hole they couldn’t escape.

“We find a way out of that inning, and who knows we could be sitting here with a win,” said Watkins. “We were up 2-1 going into that inning and almost got out of it. So that’s baseball.”

Matulovich, Winnipeg’s starter and the reigning American Association pitcher of the week, allowed four hits and six runs in 5 1/3 innings.

“It’s encouraging that Joey Matulovich probably wasn’t as sharp as he typically is and still did pretty well, all things considered,” said Watkins.

Relievers Ben Onyshko, for 1 1/3 innings, and Thomas Ponticelli, for two innings, shut out the Canaries for the rest of the game.

“Good at-bats together, we had a lot of hits,” said third baseman Ramón Bramasco. “Just left some guys on, didn’t get that key hit. I feel like we battled, and put a lot of good at-bats together. Joey (Matulovich) pitched a hell of a game.”

The Canaries got on the board first after a wild pitch allowed catcher Scott Combs to score a run and give his squad an early 1-0 lead at the top of the second.

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The Fish held a 2-1 lead after the third but after a couple of quiet innings, the Canaries exploded for a five-run sixth.

“I wish I could have made that play in the sixth that led to everything, the error,” said Bramasco, whose miscue in the sixth that set the table for the string of Canaries runs. “If I make that play, everything changes and I think have a better chance to win this game.”

Game 3 of the series is set for Sunday at 1 p.m.

“Tomorrow we’ll come back, said Bramasco. “Swinging it, confident in our guys.”

zoe.pierce@freepress.mb.ca