Desperate Goldeyes get hot as season hits homestretch

A sentiment Winnipeg Goldeyes manager Logan Watkins has echoed all season is hitting is the key to winning — something the team has been hot and cold with all year, often slumping throughout the lineup at the same time.

Luckily, the Goldeyes have found their hitting groove in August, winning four much-needed games in a row on the road, before dropping a close 5-4 game Tuesday evening against the Sioux Falls Canaries.

Although the club still sits 11 games behind the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks, who are 8-2 in their last ten and hold a strong grip on the final West Division playoff spot, all the Fish can focus on is their own play. Right now, it’s the best it’s been all season, fuelling the longest win streak of the year.

The Goldeyes opened the month with a dominant 9-0 shutout win, arguably, the best series of the season with the Milwaukee Milkmen — a team in a similarly desperate spot, chasing the playoff line over in the East Division.

It was the Fish who wanted it more, playing a complete game with their top players stepping up offensively.

Max Murphy and Jacob Robson each tallied two hits and two runs, while Matthew Warkentin drove in three runs, adding two hits and a run of his own.

Pitching was a group effort, with six Goldeyes contributing on the mound. Weston Lombard earned the win, his first as a Goldeye, in the team’s second shutout of the season.

Game two was another game with not much to complain about in a 7-1 victory.

Winnipeg got on the board early, putting up four runs in the first inning, helped by Max Murphy’s 100th home run as a Goldeye.

Murphy broke the franchise’s all-time home run record in June, and getting the veteran right fielder hot will be important for the Fish in the final stretch of the season.

James Bradwell, another pitcher earning his first win as a Goldeye for the second game in a row, allowed five hits and one run while striking out three on the way to the win.

A less offence-driven but still vital 3-0 win earned the Goldeyes a sweep in the final game of the series, their first of the season on Sunday afternoon.

Pitcher Luke Boyd threw eight innings, allowing six hits but keeping the Milkmen off the scoreboard for the shutout, while Ryder Yakel closed out the ninth. The Goldeyes allowed just one run throughout the series.

Moving on to a division opponent, the Goldeyes’ bats stayed hot in Game 1 against the Sioux Falls Canaries on Monday, powering a 13-4 victory.

The game was close early, with the Fish leading 5-4 in the third inning, before they blew it wide open in the fourth. Murphy led the charge with a team-high four RBI on the night.

Pitcher Zan Rose, who hasn’t allowed a run in his last three relief appearances, picked up the win.

In a much closer game two, the Goldeyes’ win streak came to an end in what was their 21st one-run loss of the season, after the Canaries broke a 4-4 tie with a run in the bottom of the ninth.

The Goldeyes continue their four-game series against the Canaries today, closing it out Thursday.

The club will then look to capitalize against the last-place Lincoln Saltdogs when they return home to Blue Cross Park on Friday.

After Lincoln, six series remain for the Fish, including a final showdown with the RedHawks from Aug. 26-28, which could be pivotal in the race for the final playoff spot.

zoe.pierce@freepress.mb.ca