Bears standed at home again

YAKIMA -- It's not like no one was home.

But the Bears' repeated knocks on the proverbial door went unanswered Monday night, with the home team stranding no fewer than seven runners in scoring position, including four at third base, en route to a 3-1 loss to Boise.

"It was like a broken record," said Bears manager Bob Didier, whose team has lost seven of nine. "Leave 'em on, leave 'em on, leave 'em on."

With an announced crowd of 1,626 at Yakima County Stadium watching in football weather on Seahawks Night, Houston Summers took a step forward as a knuckleball pitcher.

Coming off a rough last outing, the right-hander scattered seven hits and allowed only two runs over seven innings against the Northwest League's best-hitting team. He nonetheless fell to 4-7.

"I felt really good out there, and it was one of the best outings I've had," Summers said. "You'd probably say I'd like to have one pitch back, but the fact is it was the same pitch I'd gotten three or four guys out with."

Summers was referring to a third-inning offering to Drew Rundle, who with two out and a runner on first, hit his second homer in two days and eighth of the year for a 2-0 Hawks lead.

"It was a hard knuckleball, and I expected to get a fly ball out with it," Summers said. "But he got his hands up, put a good swing on it and the ball got out."

Yakima, which left runners at second and third in the first inning and another at second in the second, scored its only run in the third.

Jimmy Principe walked with two out, stole second and scored on Andrew Fie's double to right-center.

There would be further opportunities against the second-worst pitching staff in the league (Boise's collective ERA coming in was 4.57 compared with the Bears' 4.67), but no more runs.

Jhoan Pimentel was left at third in he fourth inning when Brendan Duffy, who returned from a two-week injury-induced absence to go 2-for-5, struck out. Duffy himself was stranded there in the seventh when Principe took a called third strike, and Justin Parker was also within 90 feet of tying the score in the eighth when David Cooper went down swinging.

Boise, 39-28 and five games behind East Division-leading Spokane with nine to play, got its final run in the ninth on Ryan Flaherty's seventh homer.

"We hit a few balls hard that got caught," Didier said, "but the fact is we're not hitting enough balls hard. You need to hit eight to 10 balls hard every game, not just three or four.

"It's a shame when you pitch and play defense as well as we did tonight. You hold a team like that to two runs through seven innings, you figure you should be tied, at least, or ahead."

Rundle and Flaherty had two hits each for the Hawks, who totaled eight. Duffy was the only multi-hit producer for Yakima (23-44).

The teams will bus to Boise for three games, starting tonight, after which the Bears will play Friday night at Tri-City before returning home Saturday to face the Dust Devils.

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