Canaries Drop Twinbill In Kansas City

KANSAS CITY, KS -- After dropping the first game of Saturday's doubleheader by a score of 4-2, the Sioux Falls Canaries were unable to salvage a split on the day in Kansas City, losing the nightcap 10-0 to the T-Bones at Community America Ballpark.

Kye Winter made his first professional start for the Canaries and held the T-Bones scoreless in the first inning.  Things would turn south from there, however, and he was tagged for three runs in the second and six in the third.  His day would end with the Canaries trailing 9-0 after three. Chase Boruff pitched the fourth and fifth innings and allowed just one run and Josh Giles made his first apperance in over a month, throwing a scoreless sixth.  Giles was activated off the DL Friday morning and the Canaries hope he will get back to his strong early-season form.

TJ Mittelstaedt, David Espinosa and Robby Kuzdale each had two hits for the T-Bones and Kuzdale hit his third homerun of the season.

Derek Gordon earned the win in his first start for Kansas City, throwing a four-hit shutout while striking out and walking three batters apiece. The Canaries have scored only four runs in the first three games of the series.

In the first game of the douibleheader, a big second inning propelled the T-Bones to a 4-2 victory over the Canaries.  The T-Bones pushed across four runs in the inning; Vladamir Frias hit a two-run homer and Mittelstaedt singled in two more to provide the T-Bones a 4-0 lead they would never relinquish.

Joe Bircher pitched effectively outside of the second inning and went all six innings in defeat for the Birds.  The lefthander did not allow another run the rest of the way, but dropped to 2-5 with the loss.  His counterpart, Casey Barnes, earned the win in his first game with Kansas City since coming over from Long Island of the Atlantic League, going five innings and allowing just one run.

Solo homeruns from Carlos Mendez in the fourth and Chris Duffy in the sixth cut the deficit to 4-2 and gave the Canaries some hope, but an inability to bring home runners on base cost them a chance to finish the comeback.  In the second, fifth and sixth innings, the Birds left two men on base and were unable to muster a run off of closer and former Canary Kris Regas, who earned his 11th save.

Ben Moore will try to quiet the Kansas City bats in the series finale on Sunday at 5:05 PM as he seeks his 54th career win in a Sioux Falls uniform, which would give him the franchise career record.

Courtesy:  Sioux Falls Canaries