OGDEN — In his first two meetings with Idaho Falls this season, Ogden's Michael Gardner has been involved in some sort of excitement — good or bad.
Now make it three.
Idaho Falls' Mike Moustakas, the No. 2 overall pick in the June 2007 draft, made his professional debut and had a two-run double in his first at-bat to jump-start the Chukars to an 8-4 victory over the Raptors.
Moustakas, the national high school player of the year, signed with the Kansas City Royals earlier in the week. Part of the deal was a $4 million bonus. He finished the day going 2-for-5 with a double and two RBIs.
Unfortunately for Gardner, the game didn't go like his last meeting against the Chukars on July 7, when he didn't allow a run on five hits in firing the Pioneer League's only shutout of the season. In his first meeting with Idaho Falls July 2, he was ejected in the third inning.
In taking the loss Saturday to fall to 5-5, Gardner allowed six runs on nine hits in five-plus innings.
He entered the sixth trailing 3-2, but the Chukars recorded three straight hits to open the inning to chase Gardner from the game.
All three of those runners scored plus two more off reliever Given Kutz as Idaho Falls built an 8-3 lead.
"Hitting is contagious. They got one right after another," Ogden's Erik Kanaby said. Ogden's Jaime Pedroza cut into the Chukars' lead with a solo homer in the sixth and an RBI single in the eighth. He finished 4-for-4 to raise his average to .372. Kanaby added three hits and two RBIs for the Raptors.
Adrian Ortiz led the Chukars with three hits, while Moutsakas and Anthony Seratelli had two hits each.
With the victory, the Chukars (16-9), winners of four of their last five, remain ahead of the Orem Owlz for first place in the Pioneer League South Division standings, while the Raptors (9-15), losers of 11 of their last 13, fall seven games behind Idaho Falls.
"We're all playing hard and we're giving it everything we have so things aren't going our way right now. Hopefully things will turn around here for the last two weeks of the season. We're playing hard so I'm proud of us for that."
The final game of the three-game set is tonight at 7.
E-mail: jhinton@desnews.com