NEW ORLEANS — The Salt Lake Bees suffered their franchise record-tying eighth consecutive road loss Tuesday night, as the New Orleans Zephyrs used a five-run outburst in the sixth inning on their way to an eventual 7-1 victory.
The two teams were embroiled in a scoreless duel when the Zephyrs broke through in the fifth inning. Salt Lake starter A.J. Schugel walked Jake Smolinski to open up the inning, and Smolinski advanced to third on a double by Paul Gran.
With Wilson Valdez at the plate, Schugel bounced a wild pitch past Bees catcher Luke Carlin to bring home Smolinski. Valdez then brought home Gran with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0.
New Orleans broke the game open in the sixth, as the first five batters all delivered base hits off of Salt Lake reliever Ryan Brasier, and all five of them came around to score for a 7-0 lead.
Schugel (0-2) took the loss, as he went five innings and allowed just two runs on two hits with three walks and two strikeouts. Fernando Cabrera and Jeremy Berg each worked one scoreless inning. The Bees managed to get on the board in the seventh on an RBI single by Roberto Lopez.
Salt Lake had just five hits in the game. Trent Oeltjen led the way with a pair of singles.