Bakersfield Rolls to Eleventh Straight

Bakersfield extended their winning streak to eleven games when they opened a series at Modesto last night. Kyle Lotzkar is now 3-0 on the season while Billy Hamilton and Donald Lutz continued swinging hot bats.

It was a new opponent with the same result for Bakersfield last night when they extended their winning streak to eleven while rolling at Modesto 7-0. Just like the previous game it was Billy Hamilton setting the table, Donald Lutz cleaning up, and the pitching staff shutting down. Hamilton was 3-4 with two walks to lift his average to .395. Lutz had two RBI with two hits and is now at .333. Bryson Smith, Yorman Rodriguez, and Juan Duran also added two hits each.

Right hander Kyle Lotzkar threw 5 2/3 innings and is now 3-0 on the season with a 1.25 ERA. Blaine Howell, Pat Doyle, and Brian Pearl combined for 3+ innings of shutout relief. Pearl has now allowed runs in only one of eight appearances.

The Blaze look to keep the streak going behind Daniel Renken (3-0; 3.47) in the second game of the series tonight.

Other news from the farm:

Jeff Francis allowed one run on three hits over eight innings to lead Louisville to a 2-1 win at New Orleans. The veteran southpaw struck out nine and walked three. He’s now 2-2 on the season with a 3.20 ERA. Josh Judy got the save for his seventh scoreless out of eight appearances.

Pensacola cruised to an 8-2 win at Jacksonville. It was a balanced attack for the Wahoos as seven of the starters had two hits each. Oddly enough their leading hitter Didi Gregorius was the only non-pitcher to fail to reach base. His batting average has fallen from .403 to .337 over the past four games. Joel Guzman got the scoring started with his third home run in the fourth. Daniel Corcino picked up his first win of the season.

Billy Hamilton Theft Watch:

You’d expect any game where Hamilton reaches base five times to have some action on the base paths and he did not disappoint last night. He stole second base three times and has racked up seven over the past two games. He did get caught for the fifth time on the season when attempting to swipe third. He’s now stolen 26 in 21 games.

Dayton was shut out at Wisconsin 3-0. Radhames Quezada was charged with all three runs and his third loss. The Dragons were limited to four hits on the night.