SIOUX CITY EXPLORERS PRESS RELEASE
Phone: 817.739.3693
Website: xsbaseball.com
August 23, 2023
By Dan Vaughan Jr.
EXPLORERS BLAST THEIR WAY TO WIN OVER MILKMEN
BATES TOSSES QUALITY START
SIOUX CITY, Iowa – Earlier in the month the Sioux City Explorers (46-42) went on a power drought going a week without a home run. That power outage is over as the X’s went yard three times Wednesday night in a 9-3 win over the Milwaukee Milkmen (51-38) at Lewis and Clark Park. Sioux City has hit six home runs so far in the first two games of the series.
Daniel Perez put the Explorers on the board in the home half of the second on a two-run shot off Milwaukee starter Kyle Mora (7-4). Wilfredo Gimenez would double, then Perez would hit his second home run in as many nights to get the offense going early. In the third inning with two outs, Gimenez joined the home run parade, with a three-run blast just below the scoreboard in left to make it 5-0 Sioux City.
Milwaukee would cut into the lead in the top of the fourth, with a Drew Ward home run off Sioux City starter Solomon Bates (10-6). If the long ball was the feature act Bates and his 12th quality start was the curtain call. Bates joined the American Association 10-win club holding the Milkmen to three runs while scattering six hits and striking out two.
In the sixth, the X’s would pick up one more run off Mora on an RBI double that center fielder Reggie Pruitt Jr. lost in the lights to put Sioux City up 6-2. In the bottom of the seventh, Scott Ota would lead off the inning with a monster blast down the right field line off Hansel Rodriguez to push the X’s advantage to 7-2 after the stretch break.
Milwaukee would get a Ryan Torres double off Bates and an RBI single from Cam Balego to cut the lead to 7-3 in the top of the eighth. Parker Caracci would take over for Bates and strike out Gabriel Cancel and following a single for Miguel Gomez get a 3-6-3 double play ball off the bat of Ward, to end the inning.
The Explorers picked up two more runs in the bottom of the eighth. Delvin Zinn reached on a two out single off Aneuris Rosario and came home on an RBI double from Chase Harris to up the lead to 8-3. Ota would drive in another run with his third hit of the game and the Explorers went to the last call up 9-3.
Caracci would close out the game with Milwaukee getting an unearned run to make the final score 9-4 in favor of Sioux City. Gimenez went 4-for-3 driving in three runs while Ota and Perez each had two RBI games for the X’s. The win for Sioux City and a loss by Sioux Falls in Winnipeg by a 3-0 score gave the X’s a one game lead over the Canaries for second place in the West Division but still Kansas City by six games with 12 games left in the season.
The Explorers will wrap up the three-game series against the Milwaukee Milkmen Thursday night August 23 at 7:05 p.m. Tickets for the season can be purchased online as XSBaseball.com, in person at the Lewis and Clark Park Box Office or by calling 712-277-WINS. You can catch all the X’s action on aabaseball.tv and on radio at KSCJ 94.9 FM and 1360 AM with the pregame beginning 30 minutes prior to first pitch.