DULUTH – Omar Maldonado faced six batters on Thursday night.
All six scored.
That just about says everything one needs to know about how the Thunder Bay Border Cats fared in Duluth against their cross-border Northwoods League rivals.
Let’s just say the way they snapped their three-game winning streak was ugly.
Maldonado and reliever Luke Malone combined to surrender a whopping 14 first-inning runs on five hits and six walks as the first-place Huskies (22-9) went through their order twice and cruised to a 17-4 win.
The Thunder Bay starter, who has lasted into the third inning on just one occasion in 2018, has now walked 29 batters in 7.2 innings and saw his earned run average soar to 27.00 as a result of his latest performance, which dropped his season to 0-4.
Ben McConnell was 1-for-2 with two RBI for Thunder Bay (9-22), who roared back with three in the second and one more in the third, but still trailed 15-4.
Michael O’Connor, who took over for starter Andrew Stout after the latter tossed a perfect first, earned the victory.
Christian Jones drove in three runs for Duluth.
The two teams wrap up their two-game set on Friday.
Claw marks: Former all-star Border Cats pitcher Wes Parsons this week earned a one-day recall to the big leagues after the Atlanta Braves transferred Canadian pitcher Michael Soroka to the 60-day disabled list. Parsons did not make an appearance and was sent back down when Atlanta activated top prospect Ronald Acuna from the DL. Parsons, who pitched for Thunder Bay in 2012, is 4-3 in 2018 with a combined 2.10 ERA and 1.07 WHIP split between AA and AAA. He becomes the fifth former Cats to don an MLB uniform, after Matt Mangini, Blaine Hardy, Jonathan Diaz and A.J. Schugel.
