The Salt Lake Bees' big ninth inning rally fell just a couple of feet short on Tuesday night at Franklin Covey Field. Fresno edged the Bees 6-5.
But that doesn't mean the Bees didn't get to celebrate just the same. It just meant they had to wait around an extra 60 minutes or so.
About an hour after their loss, Salt Lake players and coaches were uncorking champaign as the PCL Pacific Northern Division champions — thanks to some help from their probable playoff opponent.
Sacramento, the likely Southern Division champ, beat Salt Lake's division-rival Colorado Springs. That clinched the Bees' second-consecutive division crown with six games remaining in the regular season.
"It's always awesome to clinch early," said Bees infielder Matt Brown. "That way you can relax and just have fun out there."
The Bees nearly rallied to clinch the championship themselves on the field. They were trailing 6-1 entering the bottom of the ninth when Juan Rivera ripped a bases-loaded, two-run double. Brandon Wood, the Bees' top home run hitter, then came to the plate as the tying run with one out. He hit a high fly ball to right field, but it was caught at the fence. Instead of a three-run homer, it was just a long sacrifice fly.
"I thought it had a chance (of being a home run), but I hit it pretty high, so I knew it could go either way," said Wood. "There was a full moon and we thought something crazy was going to happen, but we just came up a bit short."
Rivera scored on a throwing error to cut the gap to 6-5, but pinch hitter Greg Porter struck out to end the game.
"We made it a little bit interesting," said Bees manager Brian Harper.
After the game the team remained in the clubhouse to see if they would get to celebrate with a little help from the River Cats. When their championship became official, they celebrated with the baseball tradition of champaign showers.
While there are six virtually meaningless games remaining — all at home — Harper said he will start preparing for the playoffs, which will start Sept. 5 at Franklin Covey Field.
"(Since we clinched early) we can set our (pitching) rotation," Harper said. "It's not that we are going to try to make a whole lot of changes, but you can tinker around with it a little bit."
Salt Lake may have lost on the night they clinched the title, but the certainly were the best team in their four-team division this year. Salt Lake won 11 of the 16 games against Tacoma, 10 of 16 against both Portland and Colorado Springs — giving them a 31-17 mark versus divisional foes. By contrast, the Bees are just 41-48 against the rest of the league.
Meanwhile, the third game of their four-game set against Fresno will be tonight. Bees lefty Jonathon Rouwenhorst (10-8, 4.61 ERA) is scheduled to start against the Grizzlies' Sun-Woo Kim (7-7, 4.91).
The Bees will finish up the regular season with a four-game set against the Las Vegas 51s.
BEE LINES: The Bees have turned 161 double plays this season — which is the second most in the 16-team PCL this season ... In the 14 years since triple-A baseball returned to Salt Lake, the franchise has now produced 12 seasons with a .500 record or better. The only sub-.500 seasons were in 2003 and 2004 ... Nick Gourneault has driven in 245 runs in a Salt Lake uniform — which ties him for the all-time franchise lead with Brian Buchanan ... Attendance at Tuesday night's game was 4,877.
E-mail: lojo@desnews.com