By Brian Bruce

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Our national pastime begins and ends with pitching, and Friday night’s game at QuikTrip Park was no different. The Kansas City T-Bones used a strong start from right-hander Matt Mitchell and a save from Jake Wiley to close out Grand Prairie, 4-3. The win puts the T-Bones in position for a three-game sweep on Saturday night.

Mitchell worked seven innings, in which he allowed two runs (one earned) on four hits. The 23-year-old from Barstow, Calif., Mitchell dazzled in the middle innings, retiring nine consecutive AirHogs hitters between the second and fifth innings. Mitchell comes away with the win, improving to 1-1 on the season and lowering his ERA to 2.84.

Kansas City scored one run on three hits in the third, tying the game 1-1, and then added one run on one hit in the fourth for a 2-1 lead. Grand Prairie tied the game 2-2 in the bottom of the sixth with a leadoff opposite-field homer to left by Trent Lockwood, his second of the season.

The T-Bones answered back with two runs on two hits in the eighth, including an RBI triple by former Atlanta Braves outfielder Brandon Jones and a botched would-be inning-ending 4-6-3 double play ball that extended the inning. Kansas City set an all-time single game record for triples, recording four in the game, with one each by Trevor Coleman, Reid Fronk, Jose Duran and Brandon Jones.

Liberty, MO native Lucas Irvine pitched the eighth inning, giving up one run on three singles. The eighth ended on a long drive to right field off the bat of former Major League player Brian Myrow that was caught on the dead run by T-Bones right fielder Fronk on the warning track. At the time the ball was hit, the AirHogs had runners at second and third and would have taken the lead had the ball fallen to the outfield grass.

Right-hander Jake Wiley pitched the ninth, earning his second save of 2012. He induced back-to-back groundouts by the first two batters he faced, and then walked pinch-hitter Zane Chavez. The next hitter was former T-Bones All-Star leadoff man Keanon Simon, whom Wiley froze with a 2-2 fastball on the outside corner that finished the game.

The win pushes the T-Bones to 4-5 on the season and gives them the opportunity to sweep the three-game set at QuikTrip Park on Saturday night. First pitch set for 7:05. Probables are right-hander Brian Grening (1-0; 2.70) for KC and left-hander Cody White (0-0; 1.80) for Grand Prairie.