Knights suffer 3-ball walk in loss to Bats

As far as strange starts to baseball games go, the first inning of Thursday night’s Charlotte Knights-Louisville Bats matchup ranks right up there.

The Knights (19-14) saw their five-game winning streak come to an end, 5-4, at the hands of the Bats (14-20) in 10 innings. However, it was the unusual way in which the game began that will likely be talked about in the Minor League Baseball offices for days to come.

Three “thrown” pitches into the game, Louisville leadoff man Hernan Iribarren had walked, Charlotte manager Joel Skinner had been thrown out of the game and Knights’ starter Brad Penny had adopted an interesting new technique for avoiding “pitch timer” violations.

Unbeknownst to Penny (3-3) and Skinner, home plate umpire Doug Vines had charged the Knights’ starting pitcher with a ball for taking too long to step on the rubber before the first pitch of the game. So when Penny threw what he thought was his third ball, he was confused to see Iribarren make his way to first.

Penny barked his displeasure at Vines, as Skinner made his way out to argue the right-hander’s case. Following a short discussion between Skinner and Vines, Skinner had earned the earliest ejection of his four-year tenure as the Knights’ skipper.

For the remainder of the game, Penny made a point to deliberately walk around to the back of the pitcher’s mound before toeing the rubber and starting the 20-second pitch timer.

Penny had his best start of the season, holding Louisville one run over over five innings and striking out six. However, Maikel Cleto and Jairo Asencio combined to allow three runs in the ninth to squander a 4-1 lead and send the game into extras.

Asencio (0-2) was touched up for another run in the 10th to earn his second loss.

Quote

“When I got on the mound the anthem had just ended and all I had was a minute. … I need to take my time to, number one, make sure I don’t get injured, and to rush because of what I think to be a stupid rule is dumb. ” – Penny.

Worth mentioning

Knights starting pitching dominated the Bats over the course of their four-game series. Kyle Drabek, Chris Beck, Junior Guerra and Brad Penny combined to toss 22 innings in the series, while allowing just three runs and striking out 24. … Matt Tuiasosopo (3-for-4, homer and double) finished the game a triple short of the cycle.

What’s next?

The Knights will play the first game of a four-game series with the Syracuse Sky Chiefs on Friday at 7:05 p.m. at BB&T Ballpark. RHP Erik Johnson (3-2, 4.39) will take the mound for the Knights against Syracuse RHP A.J. Cole (0-1 2.67).

This story was originally published May 14, 2015 at 11:31 PM with the headline "Knights suffer 3-ball walk in loss to Bats."