With Saturday's loss, the Salt Lake Bees fell 61/2 games behind Colorado Springs in the PCL Pacific North Division standings. Salt Lake has not been this far out of first place since late in 2005, when the then-Stingers ultimately finished the season a game out of first place.
Injuries and an inconsistent bullpen have not allowed Salt Lake to put together a run of victories for more than a few days.
"It's been a lot of different things," Salt Lake manager Bobby Mitchell said. "I don't think we've scored more than six runs maybe three or four times all [of June]."
It was three times, and one of those was a 19-10 loss to Sacramento. In the run-happy PCL, anemic offenses spell defeat. A sluggish offense and the league's highest earned run average combined for a 12-16 month of June.
Injuries to Chris Pettit and Freddy Sandoval -- both players aren't expected to return until later this month -- hurt the offense, while injuries to the Los Angeles Angels' pitching staff have depleted the Bees.
"The only way to get out of that, it falls on the players," Mitchell said. "They work on things and [the coaches] do all they can do. Their ability to apply it, until they can apply what's practiced in games, we'll continue to struggle."
Mitchell was pleased for Terry Evans, Brandon Wood and Jeremy Hill, who were selected to the PCL All-Star Game, scheduled for July 15 in Portland, Ore.
"That's exciting," Mitchell said. "They're all deserving. It's good that Evans is getting noticed."
Following a slow start, Evans has approached .300, with 17 home runs and 54 RBIs.
Note: Bees radio play-by-play announcer Steve Klauke left the team for three days starting Wednesday to attend to funeral of his grandmother in Chicago.
