G-Braves Stuck in the Mud

After getting shellacked the day before, The Gwinnett Braves and Mike Minor were set on bouncing back. In a see saw battle, the Braves  rallied twice but the bullpen blew a lead and Toledo came away with a 6-5 victory over the G-Braves Sunday at .

The Mud Hens jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the third when catcher Omir Santos cracked the first pitch of the inning off Minor to straight away centerfield for his first home run of the season.

But the Braves came right back in the bottom of the inning as Shawn Bowman led off with a single and went to third on a single by centerfielder Matt Young. Young took second on the throw to third and both runners scored on an Ed Lucas single to give the Braves a 2-1 lead.

That lead was shortlived as Toledo came right back. Argenis Diaz singled and came all the home on a double by Cale Iorg and an error by Jose Constanza. Clete Thomas singled moving Iorg to third and he scored on a sacrifice fly by Santos. However Thomas was picked off to end the inning with Toledo leading 3-2.And the Braves once again came right back. Mauro Gomez led off the bottom of the fourth with a single and came home on a home run by Brandon Hicks, his third of the year, off Toledo starter Adam Wilk (3-4) to give Gwinnett a 4-3 lead.

Gwinnett manager Dave Brundage took Minor out for Anthony Varvaro and Toledo promptly took the lead again with two runs to take a 5-4 lead. Iorg once again doubled to score Argenis Diaz and Santos grounded out with runners on the corner. The Mud Hens made it 6-4 in the top of the seventh as Diaz singled and scored on a double by Thomas of the second reliever for Gwinnett, Juan Abreu.

Gwinnett trimmed the lead to 6-5 when Constanza singled with one out in the eighth, stole second and scored on a 2-out single by Gomez.

Varvaro (0-5) took the loss. Gwinnett is 6-12 at home and 0-7 against the International League West. The team held a closed door meeting that was off limits to the press after the game as coach Dave Brundage was addressing the poor play over the last three games. Gwinnett will be in action on Monday at 10:35 a.m. for kids day as they host Toledo in Game 4 of the series hoping to avoid another 4-game sweep to a Western Division opponent. This is the first of two midmorning games at Coolray this week. Area schools will bring the students to the games as a field trip. Gwinnett lost four games to Columbus earlier this season at home.