Smokies Fall In Game One

The Tennessee Smokies opened up the Southern League Championship Series against the Mobile BayBears of the Arizona farm system with a loss on Wednesday night. The Cubs Double A club matched the BayBears with eight hits in the game, but this time it was the Smokies who got burned by a big inning. Mobile scored five times in the third, and Tennessee could not recover.

It is not all bad news for the Smokies, though. Winning game one is always important, but when we look past the loss there is plenty of reason to believe that this series is far from over.

Starting pitcher Marco Carrillo pitched well through the first two innings, but could not escape the third and took the loss. The bullpen gave up a single home run the rest of the way, but the Tennessee offense could not repair the damage done by Mobile in the third.

That’s not to say that the Smokies’ offense was completely ineffective. Outfielder Jae-Hoon Ha had two hits, including a solo home run, and the potent middle of the Smokies’ order nearly all had a hit, but they just could not string together enough hits to salvage the win.

Attention now shifts to game two. The Smokies send lefthander Brooks Raley to the mound hoping to pick up a split before heading back to Tennessee for the remainder of the series. Raley has not been very effective so far in the playoffs, but he is a pretty good pitcher. If the Cubs offense can get their bats back in working order, they could easily head home with a split.