A pitching battle took place between the Winnipeg Goldeyes and the Gary SouthShore RailCats Tuesday night.
Starting pitcher Landen Bourassa put on a star performance, but the Fish offence couldn’t say the same in a 1-0 loss on a windy night at Blue Cross Park in front of 2,411 fans.
“(Bourassa) has been about as good as we could have ever asked for him to be so far this year,” said manager Logan Watkins. “He doesn’t deserve to take losses when he pitches as well as he does, but hopefully we can get some sort of bounce going.”
Bourassa went six scoreless innings without allowing a hit until the RailCats took a 1-0 lead late in the game off the bat of centre-fielder Francisco Del Valle, whose single brought in right fielder Chad Smith.
“I mean it’s always nice when you have a ballgame like that,” said Bourassa who allowed two hits in eight innings. “And we’ve been so solid at home so it’s just a tough loss. But that’s the way it goes sometimes.”
The Goldeyes are coming off a dominant three-game sweep against the Sioux City Explorers, which included winning the final game of the series 8-0.
The Fish struggled on offence Tuesday, mustering three hits against RailCats starting pitcher Peyton Long, who played 6 1/3 innings.
“We do tend to kind of go cold and then we get hot all at once,” said Watkins. “I think that’s every team, every season, kind of go through those ups and downs. But we’ll continue to keep trying to work with our offensive guys, and hopefully, we can be more consistent going forward.”
Bourassa was relieved by Nick Trogrlic-Iverson at the top of the ninth inning, striking out one player and not allowing any hits.
Goldeyes pitching still remains strong even with the departure of right-hand pitcher Justin Courtney (2.03 ERA), whose contract was transferred to the Diablos Rojos del México of the Mexican League Tuesday morning.
“Getting picked up was good for him,” said Watkins whose team added Winnipeg-born left-handed pitcher Ben Onyshko to the roster on Friday. “Unfortunate for us, but I still feel pretty good about what we have.”
The RailCats improved to 12-23 on the season, while the Goldeyes fell to 19-16.
“It’s professional baseball, you’re never gonna go undefeated,” said Watkins. “It’s hard to win a lot of games in a row, but we’ll keep the focus on winning each series.”
Lucky for the Goldeyes, they have been successful at home with a 10-6 record at Blue Cross Park.
“That’s the best part about playing here,” said Bourassa who had his family watching in attendance. “I think that’s something I’ve really come to love. Even having my dad here tonight for the first time in a couple years is pretty special to me. So I really enjoyed that part and just the atmosphere in general.”
The Goldeyes look to climb the West Division standings as they continue a season-high nine-game homestand with game two against the RailCats on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.
