Goldeyes defeat Milkmen 4-3

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/06/2019 (2317 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WHEN your first home run as a Goldeye comes at the hands of a former major-leaguer, you know it was a good day.

The Winnipeg Goldeyes outlasted the Milwaukee Milkmen 4-3 on Sunday, serving Milwaukee’s starting pitcher T.J. House his first loss of the year.

Winnipeg’s win was largely due to first baseman Kyle Martin, who drove in three of the team’s runs. A no-doubt homer in the fifth accounted for two of them, followed by a sacrifice fly an inning later.

“I felt great. I think the nerves have finally calmed down,” said Martin. “It’s nice knowing who we have in the lineup and Joel (Seddon) coming out and pitching a great game, it gives us even more confidence.”

It’s been a slow go for Martin over the past few weeks. Since joining the Goldeyes earlier this June, his batting average has been consistently one of the lowest on the team. Headed into Sunday’s contest he was sitting at .163.

“Today I think I finally settled in,” he said. “That wind has been killing me lately but I mean all you can do is hit the ball hard and hope it just falls in somewhere.”

Martin definitely looked settled in, with his homer easily clearing the right-field wall. The home run came off House, who spent fours seasons pitching in the majors.

From 2014-17 House went a combined 5-7 with a 4.44 ERA in 22 MLB starts and seven relief appearances.

Since joining the American Association he’s had a sparkling clean record, 5-0 with a 2.91 ERA — 10th best in the league.

In addition to the Goldeyes handing House his first loss, they tacked on a few other impressive feats.

Before Sunday’s game not even a single batter had tried to steal a base on House, despite him putting in 43 1/3 innings of work over his six starts.

But in the bottom of the first Goldeyes’ Alex Perez stole second in his first steal attempt this year. A few innings later, Wes Darvill swiped another bag.

It was the also the first time this year House has allowed more than three runs and walked more than two batters.

The only other run scored by the Fish came off the bat of veteran Reggie Abercrombie. The slugger hit a leadoff solo shot to give Winnipeg an early lead. It marked Abercrombie’s 344th RBI in a Goldeyes uniform, tying him with Josh Mazzola for second-most in franchise history.

The vet has a good shot at claiming first place during the upcoming six-game road trip. Luis Alen holds the record with 347 RBI.

Goldeyes manager Rick Forney was happy to come away with the win, but said there’s areas the team needs to work on.

“Today we lived on the long ball. We got a lot of offence from Kyle, had a great opportunity in the seventh inning to do a little bit of situational hitting, but got punched out three guys. We didn’t force them to throw strikes, we’re still a work in progress in that area.”

Since the Milkmen are new to the league this year, some may wonder if it’s challenging for the Fish to play a team they’ve never seen before. Forney said that while the addition of a new team adds a layer of complexity to the game, it can never be used as an excuse to not come home with the win.

“At the end of the day it’s baseball. Your pitchers have to throw strikes, you have to throw balls and expand the zone, you have to play defense and you have to have good at-bats. Regardless of who you’re playing or whether you know the personnel at all you have to have a plan when you go up there,” said Forney.

“It can be difficult but it’s certainly not an excuse when you play bad against them. But I thought we had a pretty good series here, I’m always happy winning three out of four against the division foe.”

After winning five out out of the seven games at Shaw Park this week, the Fish have got to pretty happy about their most recent homestand.

With their series wins over Chicago and Milwaukee, Winnipeg improves to a 21-13 record. They sit second in the North Division, three games back of the first-place St. Paul Saints.

The Goldeyes get to take it easy today, but tomorrow they begin a 21-day-stretch of back-to-back games. It’s their second-longest bout of games this season to play without a day off.

On Tuesday, the Fish begin a three-game road series against the Sioux Fall Canaries. Despite being on a four-game losing streak, Sioux Fall is 18-16 and leads the South Division in wins. The Fish visit the Windy City after that to take on the Dogs. First pitch for Tuesday’s game against the Canaries is at 7:12 p.m.

devon.shewchuk@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @devonshewchuk