Recently called down Los Angeles Angels pitcher Matt Shoemaker’s return to Salt Lake City was a chance for the former Bees player to work on his mechanics and get his mind right after two shaky outings to start the month for Los Angeles.
While Shoemaker was rock-solid through five innings, the right-hander gave up three runs in the sixth, all of them unearned, as the Cubs dropped the Bees 3-1 in front of 15,406 fans at Smith’s Ballpark.
“There were a couple of minor things, but other than that everything felt really good and where it needed to be,” Shoemaker said.
Sent down with the intent to work on a few things, Shoemaker said he felt good Saturday.
“Just some mechanical stuff like keeping my lower half working together and riding the slope of the mound when I’m driving,” Shoemaker said.
After witnessing a 20-run, 31-hit performance Friday night, Bees fans were treated to an old-fashioned pitchers’ duel as Shoemaker and Cubs pitcher Dallas Beeler hooked up in a thrilling duel Saturday at Smith’s Ballpark.
With runs and hits limited early, and the Bees committing three early errors, Shoemaker showed his big-league stuff, working out of a two-out, runners on second and third jam in the second, and a two-out, runner on third event in the third.
After threatening with one out and runners on second and third, the Bees pushed across a run in the fourth.
With one out, Alex Yarbrough tagged a 0-2 pitch to center that drove in catcher Jeff Bandy, who led off the inning with his second base hit of the night, and the Bees led 1-0 after four.
While Shoemaker was cruising through five innings, the Bees' defense had looked shaky with three early errors. In the sixth, the fourth error cost the Bees big time.
Following two consecutive ground-outs, Shoemaker gave up a double to Cubs third baseman Mike Olt. The next Cubs batter, Mike Baxter, hit what looked like a routine fly ball that Bees right fielder Alfredo Marte simply dropped. Olt scored and the two-out mistake proved costly as the next batter, Cubs DH Austin Chambers, blasted a two-run shot to give the Cubs a 3-1 lead.
“I briefly saw it,” Shoemaker said, “I mean it looked like he was going after a fly ball pretty hard, and sometimes that happens.”
Moving on up
A night after cranking a two-run home run in the Bees’ 12-8 win over Iowa, Bees utility player Grant Green was called up to the Angels where he started at second base.
On Friday, the Bees called up Inland Empire catcher Stephen McGee. On Saturday, McGee’s former teammate, shortstop Angel Rosa, joined the Bees. Needing a middle-infielder, Rosa got the start at short, and reached base on a single during his first triple-A at-bat.
Punching out the opponent
The Bees' Shoemaker recorded his fourth strike-out of the game in the fifth inning. That strike-out was the 1000th strike-out by a Bees pitching staff that needs to record about four k’s per game through the final 16 games.