Charlotte Knights fall to Syracuse, 9-3
Don't walk the leadoff batter. It's Baseball 101.
On Friday, the Charlotte Knights' pitching staff chose to put the long-held theory to the test and paid for it in the win-loss column, dropping a 9-3 game to the Syracuse Chiefs in front of 10,534 at BB&T BallPark.
Statistically speaking, a leadoff walk will score 38 percent of the time. In Friday's loss, the Chiefs scored 100 percent of the time.
Syracuse batters earned free passes to begin the third, fifth and sixth innings, and in each occasion went on to post a crooked number on the scoreboard.
Erik Johnson (3-3) got the start for the Knights (19-15) and was perfect through two innings before walking Matt den Dekker to start the third inning. After back-to-back groundouts handled easily by the newly reassigned Micah Johnson, Emmanuel Burriss ripped a triple to right-center to tie the game at 1-1.
Two innings later, Johnson missed wide with a 3-1 fastball to Steve Lerud. After the right-hander once again retired the next two batters (sacrifice bunt, strikeout), Tony Gwynn Jr. came up with a two-out RBI double to put Syracuse (16-19) on top for good.
An inning later, it was Jared Casey's turn to spot the Chiefs a runner on first. After a second walk, a wild pitch and a single, Burriss knocked in his third and fourth runs of the game with a single that bounced off the pitcher's mound and into centerfield.
Matthew Spann (1-0), who was promoted from the Class A+ Carolina League's Potomac Nationals earlier in the day, made the spot start for the Chiefs in place of A.J. Cole, who was promoted to the Nationals, and held the Knights to one unearned run on two hits over six innings.
Charlotte loaded the bases with no one out in the bottom of the seventh and made it a 6-3 game thanks to an RBI fielder's choice by Drew Garcia and a sacrifice fly by Johnson. But that's as close as the Knights would get, with the Chiefs adding three insurance runs in the ninth off Daniel Webb.
Quote
"The (leadoff walks) pushed up (Johnson's) pitch count. You could probably take away 25-30 pitches just from that alone. Leadoff walks make it conducive for the other team to score, and even because of that, he still was able to pitch around it a little bit. But, you know, I think he threw close to 100 pitches through five innings." – Knights' manager Joel Skinner.
Worth mentioning
In his first appearance since being reassigned by the Chicago White Sox to the Knights, Micah Johnson batted leadoff and played second base. Johnson finished the night 0-3 with a walk, a stolen base, and a sacrifice fly. Johnson filled the roster spot vacated by Carlos Sanchez, whose promotion to Chicago was made official on Friday. ... Knights first baseman Dan Black (1-for-3, 2B) knocked in his 21st run of the season with a first-inning double to pull even with Matt Davidson for the team lead in RBIs. ... The sellout crowd of 10,534 was the Knights' largest of the regular season and their 10th in 20 openings at BB&T BallPark this year. The Knights posted a minor-league best 31 sellouts in 2014.
What's next?
The Knights will play the second game of their three-game series with the Chiefs7:05 p.m. Saturday at BB&T BallPark. Kyle Drabek (0-1, 1.89) will take the mound for the Knights against Chiefs’ Scott McGregor (3-2 3.62).
This story was originally published May 15, 2015 at 11:26 PM with the headline "Charlotte Knights fall to Syracuse, 9-3."