Wasted power explosion… E-Twins allow four-homer outburst go to wayside in 7-5 loss to Mets
Published 6:00 am Wednesday, August 7, 2019
BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR STAFF
When a team smacks four long balls out of the ballpark, it’s not too often that they end up on the losing end when the game comes to an end.
However, that was the case on Monday evening in Kingsport as the Elizabethton Twins swatted four balls over the outfield fences of Hunter Wright Stadium only to see the home standing Mets take a 7-5 victory and kept the E-Twins from gaining any ground on the front running Johnson City Cardinals.
The loss kept Elizabethton two games behind the Cardinals as the season quickly winds toward an end.
Elizabethton jumped out front early as the Twins took advantage of a Willie Joe Garry Jr. fielder’s choice groundout to score Charles Mack for the early 1-0 lead.
The Twins added to their lead in the top of the fourth as Parker Phillips slugged his second homer of the season to give the visitors a 2-0 edge.
Kingsport washed away the lead quickly in the bottom of the inning scoring three times to take a 3-2 lead, their first of the contest.
Jaylen Palmer’s sacrifice fly to Garry Jr. allowed Brett Baty to tag and score the Mets first run. Scott Ota followed with a two-run dinger, his fourth of the season, to help the Mets seize the one-run lead.
Elizabethton responded to pull even in the top of the sixth when Will Holland drove a ball over the left field fence to even the score at 3-all. It was Holland’s fourth home run of the season.
Just like a good prize fighter that gets knocked down, the Mets jumped right up off the floor to plate two runs in the bottom half of the sixth to retake the lead.
Oda was in the mix again as his ninth double of the season chased Palmer home to pull the game even. A Wilfred Astudillo single allowed Oda to score the go-ahead run as Kingsport led 5-3 at that point of the contest.
The Mets added a two more runs to the board in the bottom of the eighth inning as one might have guessed it on Oda’s second home run of the contest that picked up Palmer in the process.
Trailing 7-3 going into their last bat of the scheduled nine-inning contest, Elizabethton did their best to rally back into the contest.
Holland collected his second round-tripper of the game as he cleared the left field fence to cut the Met lead to 7-4.
A Kidany Salva solo shot once again trimmed the advantage by one making it a 7-5 contest but Kingsport managed to douse the E-Twin uprising when Garry Jr. went down swinging for out number two and Anthony Prato’s fly-ball out ended the contest.
Ben Gross started the game and went five complete giving up three runs on five hits and struck out eight Met batters.
Denny Bentley (2-2) took the loss in relief tossing two innings of baseball. Bentley gave up two runs on three hits. Osiris German finished up the game from the hill pitching the bottom of the eighth inning.
The E-Twins will face Kingsport in the final game of the three-game series tonight and will take on Johnson City in a key four-game series with the first game being at TVA Credit Union Ball Park Thursday before moving to Northeast Community Credit Union Ball Park for three games Friday through Sunday.
