LINESCORE
CANADIAN BASEBALL LEAGUE
London 203 400 300— 12 15 0
Barrie 021 013 020— 9 10 0
Keys (W,7-3), Davidson (7), Cassie (S,1) (9) and Babiuk;
Pakkala, Vasquez (L,5-2), Rosario (7), Moreta (8) and Ciprian.
HRs: Ldn — Inoa (15); Bar — F. Hernandez (8).
OTHER SCORES
Welland 18 Kitchener 2
Guelph 10 Brantford 7
Chatham-Kent 4 Toronto 2
The Barrie Baycats were improvising before Saturday's game even began.
With scheduled starter Saul Vasquez among seven players who arrived late for batting practice, Barrie (22-17) turned to Braeden Pakkala as an emergency opener before falling 12-9 to the London Majors (29-13) on Saturday at Athletic Kulture Stadium.
"There's really no excuse," Baycats manager Josh Matlow told Barrie360 postgame. "It gave us an opportunity to use [Pakkala], get a couple innings, and then maybe Saul goes the rest, you know, save the bullpen for tomorrow... we've got to be mindful of our guys."
Pakkala allowed two earned runs on four hits across his two inning start and struck out three, but the unusual circumstances put pressure on a bullpen that entered the game with the CBL's best ERA.
Vasquez (5-2), who entered with the score tied in the third inning, allowed a season-high 10 earned runs over 4.2 innings in relief. He struck out two and walked four while allowing 10 hits.
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Vasquez showed his frustration with home-plate umpire Chris Marco's strike zone early, and was ejected as he was pulled from the game by Matlow in the seventh. Bench coach Andrew White was also tossed after an exchange with the umpire.
But even with the pitching issues, Barrie's offence bounced back, scoring nine runs on 10 hits.
"The frustration lies when we pitch, we don't hit. When we hit, we don't pitch," Matlow said.
London starter Travis Keys allowed a season-high seven earned runs on nine hits over six innings, but still earned his seventh win of the season to set a career high. He also struck out four and walked one.
Over the course of the game, London built its advantage to as many as six runs with two-RBI doubles from Starling Joseph and Trent Lenihan, a two-RBI triple from Jarrett Burney, and a three-run homer from Cristian Inoa.
In the second inning, Barrie tied it with Nolan Machibroda and Wandy Ciprian each taking advantage of rundowns elsewhere on the bases to steal home on separate plays.
Francisco Hernandez homered, tying teammate Canice Ejoh for the team lead. Adam Odd also drove in two with a sixth-inning single before Barrie brought its deficit to three in the eighth inning with two runs scoring on wild pitches by Majors reliever Dustin Davidson.
"That's all I asked from them: be competitive. 'Don't fold like a cheap lawn chair' is what we say," Matlow said.
However, the top third of the Baycats' order went a combined 0-for-13 on Sunday, and are just 1-for-26 including Thursday's game against Hamilton.
Caleb Cassie pitched a one-two-three ninth inning, converting his first CBL save.
Saturday's loss completed a season-series sweep for London, which outscored Barrie 50-23 over its six wins. The loss also leaves Barrie alone in fifth place, one game behind fourth-place Guelph and 2.5 games behind third-place Hamilton, with nine games remaining.
The Baycats' magic number to clinch a playoff berth is three, but a fourth- or fifth-place finish would force them into a single-game playoff for a semifinal berth.
Barrie is 2-5 since the start of August, 1-4 against the teams above them in the standings.
"It's happening fast," Matlow said. "We just want to finish strong. We're not doing ourselves any favors losing to these teams, and we're inevitably finding ourselves in the four-five game."
UP NEXT
Barrie finishes its season series against the Panthers on Sunday in Kitchener. Despite pitching to and striking out one batter in relief on Saturday, Ronny Rosario (0-0, 6.35 ERA) will get the start for the Baycats. Kitchener's probable starter is Dionys Rodriguez (1-3, 5.92).
London will start Luis Perez (2-1, 4.19) on Sunday in Hamilton, while the Cardinals is expected to send Luis Ramirez (2-1, 3.32) to the hill for his second consecutive start against the Majors.
