As if being recently shipped down from the Minnesota Twins wasn't enough to damage some confidence, Chris Latham was having a bad day in the batter's box.
Striking out twice, flying to left and reaching on a bunt were all Salt Lake's speedy centerfielder had to show from his four previous trips to the plate."I definitely wasn't going up there to take," Latham said after his bases-loaded single in the eighth inning scored two runs and lifted the Buzz to a 5-3 win over Edmonton. "I just wanted to come up there and be aggressive."
The win was the fourth straight for the Buzz and kept them in second place in the PCL's South Division of the Western Conference.
Buzz manager Phil Roof said his team is starting to come together as a unit.
"They've got to learn to be a tough out," Roof said. "In these situations, you've got to be confident enough to be patient and see the ball and hit it."
Roof's advice paid of sweetly in the eighth.
Edmonton held a 3-2 lead but fell victim to playing matchup too often.
The Trappers used three pitchers in the eighth inning in order to get what they hoped was the right arm throwing against the right batter.
It ended up costing them.
Corey Koskie singled off losing pitcher Mark Holzemer to put runners on the corners. Brian Buchanan promptly doubled to score one run.
Salt Lake tried to sneak a run home with a suicide squeeze, but the pitch was low and outside and Koskie was an easy out for Edmonton.
However, left-hander Jim Dougherty, brought in to face Salt Lake's righty line up, walked two straight batters before facing Latham.
Latham kept Salt Lake's winning streak alive as his soft liner sailed just past the outreached glove of Edmonton second baseman Jason Wood. The bases were loaded at the time and Buchanan scampered home with the winning run and was followed by Jamie Ogden with an insurance run.
Edmonton managed to puts runners on first and second with two outs in the ninth. But the potential winning run, Jack Voigt, grounded into a harmless fielder's choice off Gus Gandarillas.
Gandarillas picked the save, his second of the season.
The Buzz got on the board first thanks to some shaky pitching from Edmonton's Chris Roberts in the third.
Three Buzz batters walked and a bunt single by Latham combined with a Jayhawk Owens sacrifice fly gave Salt Lake a 2-0 lead.
Buzz starter Mark Redman began the game strongly and allowed only a pair of hits through four innings. But his luck lasted only until Mike Neill launched a pitch well over the fence in center field for a two-run homer that tied the game.
BEE LINES: Sunday's game time has been changed to 2 p.m. to avoid conflict with the Jazz-Bulls game.