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T-Bones can’t find offense is loss to Pheasants

By Justin Nutter - | Jul 4, 2012

Justin Nutter

Ray Sadler and the T-Bones struggled at the plate in Wednesday's loss to Sioux Falls.

? Fireworks were out in full force following the T-Bones’ Independence Day game against the Sioux Falls Pheasants. Unfortunately, though, the Kansas City offense seemingly had a bad fuse.

The T-Bones (25-21) managed just six hits — all of them singles — in Wednesday’s 7-2 loss at CommunityAmerica Ballpark.

Sioux Falls (25-19) received a solid outing from starting pitcher Pete Gehle, who had just one earned in seven innings. The left-hander, who improved to 4-3 on the season, only struck out one batter, but limited Kansas City to five hits and faced the minimum in five different innings.

“It’s not so much a matter of what (Gehle) was doing, but it’s what we’re not doing,” manager Kenny Hook said. “We’ve shown that we will refuse to cut our swings down and go the other way. When he’s only pitching to one side of the plate, we can’t try to pull everything.”

Hook’s squad drew first blood when designated hitter Hunter Mense drove in first baseman Trevor Coleman on a second-inning sacrifice fly, but the Pheasants went in front — ultimately for good — with two runs off starter Josh Rainwater in the top of the third. Rainwater allowed three more runs in the fourth and was ejected for arguing with home plate umpire Joe Stenger before the start of the fifth.

Rainwater allowed five earned runs on 10 hits in four innings. He suffered the loss, dropping him to 3-4.

The T-Bones got one run back on an RBI single by catcher Bubby Williams in the bottom of the fourth. Reliever Dan Kickham took over in the fifth and threw four innings of one-hit ball, but received no further help from the offense.

“If we’re behind or up, (Kickham) is the guy we go to,” Hook said. “He did a good job of throwing up some zeroes. We just couldn’t get anything going offensively to get back in the game.”

Sioux Falls added two more runs off reliever Matt Foust in the ninth for the final margin of victory.

The loss snaps a three-game win streak for Kansas City and evens the four-game series at 1-1. Game three is set for 7:05 p.m. Thursday.

“We’ve just got to kind of put (the loss) behind us,” Hook said. “We’ve got to come out and try to work on some things offensively. We’ve got to be more aggressive and get ourselves in hitter’s counts.”

Score by inning

Sioux Falls 002 300 002 — 7 13 3

Kansas City 010 100 000 — 2 6 1

SIOUX FALLS: 2B — J. Bolden 2, J. Anthonsen. 3B — J. Kaplan, J. Bolden. HR — C. Morales. RBI — C. Morales 3, J. Bolden, C. Nicolas. SB — J. Kaplan, C. Nicolas. E — J. Bolden, J. Taylor 2.

KANSAS CITY: 2B — None. 3B — None. HR — None. RBI — H. Mense, B. Williams. SB — None. E — E. Cruz.

WP — P. Gehle (4-3). LP — J. Rainwater (3-4). S — None.