Photo by John Ellis / Kansas City T-Bones
-
KANSAS CITY, Kan. – The Kansas City T-Bones tied a franchise record by recording their 58th win of the season as they defeated the Sioux City Explorers 7-5 Sunday evening at T-Bones Stadium. The record was set in 2010, which was also the T-Bones’ last playoff appearance. Kansas City still has eight regular season games to play and holds a game-and-a-half lead over Wichita (57-35) in the wild-card race.
Sunday’s game saw the T-Bones lead most of the game. They then fell down by a pair but came back to win it by a pair.
In the bottom of the third, Keith Curcio put Kansas City on the board first when he smashed a two-run home run over the right field fence and gave the T-Bones a 2-0 lead. In the sixth, Colin Walsh crushed a solo home run to the mini-monster in left to put Kansas City up 3-0.
T-Bones starter Barrett Astin held Sioux City scoreless for five innings, and it looked like smooth sailing until the seventh when Michael Lang drove in a pair of RBIs on a double and brought the Explorers to within one at 3-2.
Then in the top of the eighth, a two-run bomb from Jay Baum gave Sioux City the lead 4-3 and an RBI single to right by Daniel Jackson scored Blake Schmitt to put the Explorers up 5-3.
But in the bottom of the eighth, Ryan Brett hit a game-tying double to left that scored Alay Lago and Anthony Phillips to even it up 5-5.
The next batter, Mason Davis, then got a big-time two-run RBI with a left-field single that brought home Keith Curcio and Ryan Brett to give the T-Bones a late-game 7-5 lead.
All of the runs in the eighth were off of Sioux City’s Patrick Schuster, who in 30.2 innings this season has only given up two earned runs. Sunday, he allowed four earned runs in just the eighth inning.
Prior to the first pitch, T-Bones manager Joe Calfapietra was ejected by home plate umpire Joey Stegner after a heated discussion about Barrett Astin not beginning his warm-up before pre-game ceremonies had ended. Calfapietra spent the rest of the game in the clubhouse.
On Monday, the T-Bones (58-33) continue their three-game series against Sioux City (66-26) at 7:05 pm at T-Bones Stadium.
Season, group tickets, mini-plans and nightly party suites are on sale now and can be purchased by visiting the Box Office at T-Bones Stadium. Call the Box Office at (913) 328-5618 or purchase and print at www.tbonesbaseball.com. Box office hours are 10:00 am to 4:00 pm Monday – Friday and 10:00 am to 2:00 pm Saturday. For additional information or interview requests, members of the media may contact the T-Bones Media Relations Department at (817) 739-3693. Stay tuned to www.tbonesbaseball.com. and the T-Bones Facebook and Twitter pages for updates throughout the season.
Box Score
