Bees open homestand with win over Sacramento

SALT LAKE CITY — Long road trips are a large part of baseball, and the Salt Lake Bees have had to experience the woes of the road lately.

The Bees are 10-22 on the road and came home Thursday for a quick four- game series against the Sacramento River Cats before embarking on another eight-game road trip. Fortunately for Salt Lake, the team’s struggles abated as the Bees powered past Sacramento, 8-7.

“Obviously, you’ll take any win you can,” Bees manager Keith Johnson said. “There were some opportunities we had out there to help our teammates, and we could have done a better job of that. That’s kind of been our Achilles’ heel all year, but it was good to finally get off the slide against (Sacramento). After winning the first two games, we lost 10 in a row to them, so it was good to finally finish one against them.”

The River Cats scored two runs in the top of the first inning to take a quick 2- 0 lead. However, the Bees quickly responded as an Efren Navarro triple scored two runs. Navarro later scored on a Brennan Boesch single, and Boesch also scored later in the inning as Salt Lake took a 4-2 lead.

Sacramento scored a single run in the third, but Salt Lake countered in the bottom half of the inning with Boesch scoring again. But in the top of the fourth inning, the River Cats scored three runs to take a 6-5 lead.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Salt Lake reclaimed the lead, scoring three runs. First, Shawn O’Malley scored on a wild pitch; then, J.B. Shuck and Navarro scored on a Zach Borenstein single to give the Bees an 8-6 lead.

Salt Lake starter Hector Santiago surrendered six runs over six innings but earned the win for the Bees.

Borenstein finished the night going 3-for-5, driving in three runs. O'Malley went 3-for-3, scoring two runs and earning two walks.

The Bees and Sacramento will square off for the second game of the series Friday, with first pitch scheduled at 7:05 p.m. Bees left-hander Justin Thomas is scheduled to face off against Sacramento right-hander Matt Buschman.

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