Dustin Moseley, the hottest pitcher on the Salt Lake Bees roster, was scheduled to start Monday night. He was surprised when he awoke Monday morning to find several inches of snow on the ground. He immediately knew his start would likely be postponed — which it was.
But he was hardly upset by it.
"I was still kind of sore from my last start," said Moseley. "So when I saw the snow (Monday), I was like 'Thank you, Lord, because this is going to allow me to get one more day of rest.' So it worked out good for me."
It certainly did.
Moseley, after an extra off day, pitched the Bees to a 4-2 victory over the Tucson Sidewinders on a chilly Tuesday evening at Franklin Covey Field. He gave up just three hits and one earned run with six strikeouts in six innings to improve to 3-0 on the year with victories in each of his three starts.
Salt Lake improved to 7-5, while Tucson fell to 4-9.
"Once again Moseley threw a great game," said Bees manager Brian Harper. "That's three in a row."
The game began with temperatures in the low 40s, dropping to the high 30s by the final pitch.
"Nobody wants to be out there playing in cold weather," said Nick Gorneault, the Bees' offensive star of the night. "But once you get out there, you start moving around, the juices get flowing and you get locked in."
Gorneault was locked into a pitch from Tucson starter Enrique Gonzalez in the third inning when he blasted a three-run homer over the right field fence to give the Bees a 3-1 lead.
"The ball was outside a little bit and I put a good swing on it," said Gorneault of his homer.
Gorneault had three of Salt Lake's eight hits and the only one for extra bases.
"I'm from Massachusetts so I've had to deal with a few cold days in my life," he said.
Salt Lake scored a run in the bottom of the fourth on an Erick Aybar single to take a 4-1 lead. Former Stinger second baseman Alberto Callaspo hit a solo home run in the fifth inning for the Sidewinders to cut the gap to 4-2, but that finished the scoring. Callaspo was traded from the Angels organization to the Diamondbacks for current Bees pitcher Jason Bulger.
Salt Lake relievers Matt Wilhite, Jonathan Rouwenhorst and Greg Jones each pitched one inning of scoreless baseball to finish off Tucson. Jones, who is slated to share closing duties with Bulger, picked up his first save of the season.
"The bullpen did a great job," said Harper.
The two teams will be back in action tonight at 6:30 p.m. Salt Lake's Jered Weaver (1-1, 3.75 ERA) is scheduled to start against Tucson's Edgar Gonzalez (0-1, 7.20).
BEES WAX: Bees second baseman Howie Kendrick had his 11-game hitting streak end, as he went 0-for-4. Kendrick did reach base on an error and scored a run, however . . . First baseman Kendry Morales' nine-game hitting streak also came to an half, although he did reach base on a walk . . . A pair of striking minor league umpires were protesting outside the stadium prior to the game once again. The umps have been on strike all season and the game was once again officiated by amateurs . . . Attendance was listed as 2,849 but there were really far fewer than that in the ballpark. That figure includes the many no-show season ticket holders.
E-mail: lojo@desnews.com