Going into Monday’s game with Connecticut, the Mahoning Valley Scrappers were a little under the weather.  Manager Ted Kubiak and players Joey Wendle, Jeremy Lucas, and Joe Sever were all flu-stricken.  Tyler Naquin (above) and Jake Sisco proved to be a good pair of aspirins to keep his team on the winning track, but the Scrappers bullpen was queasy in the 5-4 loss.

Sisco started the game off in grand fashion.  The Scrapper starter (below) struck out the first three Tiger batters he faced.  Sisco would end up throwing six complete innings.  51 of his 80 pitches thrown were strikes.  More impressively, he was in command and able to get ahead of Tigers hitters all night.

Offensively, the Scrappers got going in the second inning.  Richard Stock singled to start the inning and two outs later, Evan Frazer walked.  Robel Garcia and Jairo Kelly produced back-to-back RBI singles.  Naquin then drilled a triple over the right fielders head to score Garcia and Kelly post the Scrappers to a 4-0 lead.

Robbie Aviles came out of the Scrapper bullpen to start the seventh inning with a 4-0 lead.  Unfortunaly, Aviles could not get an out in the eighth inning and was replaced by Luis Head.

Connecticut would score in the top of the seventh inning off of Avila.  Jordan Dean singled home a run.  Moments later, Dean appeared to be out by a mile stealing second base, but the umpire ruled him safe.  Kubiak went out to argue, but it was pitching coach Greg Hibbard who was ejected by the home plate umpire.  Hibbard got his money’s worth before exiting.

The crowd of 2,532 at Eastwood Field saw the Scrappers bullpen implode in  what seemed to be a comfortable lead.

Naquin finished the game with the two-RBI triple and a single.  Kelly also collected a pair of hits for the Scrappers.

Head inherited runners on second and third with nobody out.  The right-handed pitching prospect’s first pitch was laced to center for a single.    Tyler Hanover tried to score from second, but Naquin fired a bullet to Charlie Valerio and cut down Hanover by a couple of steps to minimize the damage.

Devin Travis had a single with two out in the eighth that drove home a run to make it a 4-3 game.  Patrick Smith then collected his only hit in four AB’s, an RBI-double that tied the game.  For the second consecutive night, the Scrappers bullpen blew a four run lead. In the ninth, with Head still pitching, Hanover got a bit of revenge, singling in the go-ahead run.

In the bottom of the ninth, Frazer started off with a single.  Garcia bunted pinch runner Erik Gonzalez over to second.  Kelly then struck out looking bringing Naquin to the plate in another crucial situation.  Naquin proved to be human striking out to end the game.