This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Through four-plus innings of Salt Lake's 6-5 loss to the Tacoma Rainiers on Wednesday night, it looked as if the Bees would be embarrassed, shut out on their own turf before a sellout holiday crowd of 15,411.
Through the next three innings, a complete reversal, a rally from six runs down seemed inevitable. And indeed it was for Salt Lake. It just wasn't enough to produce a win.
In many ways, the loss to the Rainiers defines the Bees of the past month. A lengthy losing streak, followed by five consecutive wins, and now this latest streak of three losses in four games.
"It wasn't enough to put us over the hump," Salt Lake Manager Keith Johnson said. "We were a little unlucky. We hit the ball hard in the first few innings, but their center fielder made some great plays out there. We're a team that's going to battle to the final out, and that's what we did tonight."
The Bees (43-44) took until the bottom of the fifth inning to produce a hit. Once they did, however, they came pretty close to erasing a sizable deficit. Three runs in the sixth inning, one run in the seventh, and home runs from Matt Long and Paul McAnulty pulled Salt Lake within 6-5.
In fact, the Bees had the winning run at the plate with the tying run on third base in the bottom of the seventh, only to see a double-play end the rally.
"We're a team full of grinders," McAnulty said. "That's what we are. That means we're never going to give up until that final out is recorded. We didn't get it done tonight, but we battled hard, and we almost pulled even. We were hitting the ball pretty hard."
Brad Mills, in his third outing since coming off the disabled list, didn't make it out of the third inning, where he surrendered all five of his earned runs, including a grand slam to Carlos Peguero that hit the scoreboard in rightfield.
The loss pushes Mills' record to 3-4 on the season, and his earned run average to 4.76. On a positive note, the bullpen trio of Sean White, Jeremy Berg and Ryan Brasier combined to hold Tacoma to a single run over the final six innings. They combined to strike out eight batters, and they scattered six hits.
That enabled the Bees to rally offensively, and threaten to win it in their final at-bats.
"I was really proud of the bullpen, they pitched really well," Johnson said. "They were all put in a tough spot and they responded well to it."
Twitter: @tonyaggieville —
Storylines
Rainiers 6, Bees 5
R Tacoma jumps to a 6-0 lead in the first five innings.
• Paul McAnulty hits his ninth homer of the season.
• The Bees lose for the third time in four games