SALT LAKE CITY — It didn't rain Monday night at Spring Mobile Park, but a rain delay might have cooled off the bats and shortened the game of both teams as the Bees and Fresno tangled in a 33-hit, 26-run, four-hour thriller which saw the Bees outlast the Grizzlies 15-11.
Fresno jumped all over Bees starting pitcher Fernando Rodriguez for four runs in the top half of the first inning. But this is the Pacific Coast League and the Bees roared right back in the bottom half of the inning for three runs. Seven runs scored in the first inning. And this wasn't the half of what was to come.
The Bees grabbed the lead in the fourth inning going up 9-8. They held Fresno scoreless in the fifth for the first time in game. Then came back in the bottom of the fifth with four more runs.
Paul McAnulty delivered the key hit in that inning with a bases-loaded single to left that drove in two runs. Hank Conger blasted a home run and three singles batting left handed but came back to earth in the sixth inning when he turned around and batted right-handed and struck out.
But not to worry. Mark Trumbo came up and smacked a home run down the right field line to keep the merry go around of runs going. It was his second home run of the game and his 34th home run of the year setting a new Bees team record. The old record was 32 set in 1997.
It took until the seventh inning to put up goose eggs for each team in an inning. But the scoring wasn't finished. Fresno put up three more runs in the eighth.
The longest game in Bees history was four hours and four minutes and this game came within two minutes of breaking the record.
The winning pitcher for the Bees was Gabe DeHoyos and the loser was Eric Hacker.
Terry Evans knocked in five RBIs for the Bees with Trumbo getting four and Conger three.
Tonight the same two teams go at it again.
e-mail: wjewkes@desnews.com