Quakes win, 66ers lose desert slugfests

While the Quakes were holding on to win in Lancaster, 8-7 on Friday night, the 66ers’ comeback came up short at High Desert, falling 15-12 to the Mavericks.

The Quakes improved to 3-6 in the second half, while the Sixers dropped to 2-7.

 

Chris O’Brien hit a three-run homer and Jonathan Garcia had two hits, including the go-ahead two-run double, to lead the Quakes’ attack. Leon Landry also drove in two runs for the Quakes.

There were lead changes in five consecutive half-innings: the Quakes scored two to take a 2-1 lead in the top of the 5th. Lancaster scored two in the bottom of the fifth to take a 3-2 lead. The Quakes scored three in the top of the sixth to go up 5-3. Lancaster countered with three of their own in the bottom of the sixth to go up 6-5. The Quakes scored three more in the top of the seventh to go up 8-6 and held on for the win as Scott McGough and Eric Eadington each had a shutout inning of relief.

The Quakes won as left-hander Jordan Roberts made a spot-start for prospect Garrett Gould, who is the subject in trade rumors.

As for the Sixers, they trailed 13-4 through six innings, and then made it interesting at the end.

They scored three in the seventh to make it 13-7. At that point, Sixers manager Bill Haselman chose to have infielder Brandon Brewer pitch for the third time this season to save a depleted bullpen. Brewer allowed two runs in the eighth, as his ERA rose to 5.40.

Trailing 15-7 in the ninth, the Sixers made it interesting. Rolando Gomez’s fourth hit of the game, a three-run double, made it 15-12 with two outs in the ninth against Tim Griffin. That prompted Mavericks manager Pedro Grifol to bring in Tyler Burgoon.

With the tying run on deck in leading home run hitter C.J. Cron, Kaleb Cowart fouled out to third to end the threat.

Gomez drove in four runs, while Randal Grichuk and Jett Bandy had three hits apiece as the Sixers out-hit the Mavericks 17-14 but had no home runs compared to three for the Mavericks. John Hicks was 3 for 6 with three runs, including two home runs, and three RBIs to lead the Mavericks. Brad Miller had three hits and three RBIs and Kevin Rivers had two hits and two RBIs for the Mavericks. The Sixers were 7 for 22 with runners in scoring position; the Mavericks were 7 for 19.