Walk-Off by Adam Dunn in the Bottom of the 9th Stuns Gems and Preserves Series Win for Goldens!

Adam Dunn proved to be the hero in the rubber match of the Diamond Gems annual visit to the Great American Ballpark of the Sierra Nevada Goldens. Dunn completely spoiled the sensational start of Adam Wainright in one thunderous crack of the bat. The home fans went into a frenzy as Dunn lofted a LONG blast into the night air as the ball splashed into the Ohio River once again off the bat of Adam Dunn. This time it was after a heated pitchers duel between the Gems' Adam Wainright and the Goldens' Mark Buehrle in a potential World Series match-up.

The Gems, a Platinum Division leading (40-16) entering the series squared off against the hosting Sierra Nevada Goldens with a Copper Division leading (44-19) record. The defending BRASS champion Gems showed who was boss in the first game of the series in a blowout of the Goldens defeating the staff ace Josh Beckett. He was lit up spoiling his early (9-1) record in a blowout 13-4 loss. Uncharacteristically, Beckett was scorched like never before this season as he gave up 7 earned runs in 5 2/3 innings giving up 6 walks. The Diamond’s John Danks was up to the task earning the win bringing his record to (8-2) while pitching a strong 7 innings with the run support of star 3rd basemen Alex Rodriguez who broke open the game in the 6th with a 1-run double and finished the game off with a 2-run bomb in the 9th.

The 2nd game of the series featured a pitchers duel between the Gems’ Ervin Santana who was (10-1) entering the game against the Goldens staff work –horse, Gil Meche, who entered the game with a respectable (7-4) record. Each starter gave up five hits in a solid 7 innings of work, but the damage was done n the bottom of the 3rd as the Goldens’ Josh Anderson and Dan Uggla launched back-to-back jacks en route to a Goldens 3-1 victory. Brian Fuentes finished off the game with his 18th save in 1 1/3 innings of work.

In the finale, the Gems’ Adam Wainright went toe-to-toe with the Goldens’ Mark Buehrle. Today, Wainright stole the show allowing only 1 hit in 7 innings of baseball. He allowed 2 walks and struck out 5, and allowed only one hit as the Goldens’ squad was held scoreless through his 7 innings of work. The Gems staked Wainright to a 1-0 lead in the top of the 5th as Franklin Gutierrez singled in Geovani Soto for the 1st run of the game. The game got dicey for Wainright in the rubber match of the series as he beaned Mike Lowell with 2-out in the 6th. On the next pitch, Jason Giambi doubled off the wall, but the Goldens’ 3rd base coach elected to hold Lowell at 3rd. Wainright’s manager Vaughn Nuest then decided next to intentionally walk CF Josh Anderson to load the bases for slugger Dan Uggla who whiffed after hitting the game winner the day before. Wainright and Vaughn were out of the jam.

Giambi’s double proved to be the only Goldens hit of the night until there were 2 quick outs in the 9th. The Gems’ J.J. Putz came in to save the game for Adam Wainright and quickly struck out the Goldens’ Jason Giambi and Josh Anderson on 6 pitches. After mustering only 1 hit all day, the Goldens got the glimmer of hope they were looking for with 2 down in the 9th. Putz glared in at the Goldens’ Dan Uggla who is among the league leaders in home runs with 22 and plunked him right in the ribs. Uggla refused to even acknowledge any pain and ran to first as big Adam Dunn entered the batters box with the game on the line. On the first pitch, Adam Dunn launched a missile into the Ohio River giving the Goldens the rubber-match victory on only their 2nd hit of the night in a 2-1 walk-off win. The entire Goldens team bounced around home plate as the Goldens improved their record to (46-20) as they won another series.

While Wainright allowed only 1-hit in 7 innings, the Goldens’ Mark Buehrle manned up and pitched 8 1/3 while giving up only 1 run and striking out 7 Gems. Carlos Marmol (7-1) pitched 2/3 IP for the win in support of Dunn’s dramatics. Adam Dunn now has 26 HR’s on the season with 52 RBI’s in 76 games, on pace for 54 HR’s this season, a serious candidate for at least an All-Star bid and possibly MVP. Tonight the thunderous bat of Adam Dunn preserved the win for the Goldens, and we will have to wait till October to see if he can bring a BRASS World Series crown to Sierra Nevada.

Gems............ 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 - 1 6 1
Goldens......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 - 2 2 0

Gems (41-18) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA SCORESHEET
A.Wainwright 7 1 0 0 2 5 0 93 4.93 A1 C6
B.Ziegler HOLD(8th) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 2.05 C7 C9
J.Putz LOSS(0-1) BS(1st) 0 2/3 1 2 2 0 2 1 12 2.45 D1
[1]Totals 8 2/3 2 2 2 2 7 1

Goldens (51-22) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA SCORESHEET
M.Buehrle 8 1/3 6 1 1 0 7 0 113 3.89 A1 D2
C.Marmol WIN(7-1) 0 2/3 0 0 0 1 1 0 11 2.32 D3
Totals 9 6 1 1 1 8 0

ATTENDANCE- 16,934 DATE- Wednesday, June 11th 2090 TIME- Day WEATHER- Bad
UMPIRES- Mark Hirschbeck, Wally Bell, Brian O'Nora, Dan Iassogna
T- 2:12
LEFT ON BASE- Gems: 4 Goldens: 3
DOUBLE PLAYS- Gems: 2 Goldens: 0
ERRORS- H.Ramirez
DOUBLES- J.Giambi(18th)
HOME RUNS- A.Dunn(25th)
STOLEN BASES- H.Ramirez(24th)
CAUGHT STEALING- A.Rodriguez, F.Gutierrez
WALKS- M.Reynolds, J.Anderson, A.Dunn
HIT BY PITCH- D.Uggla, M.Lowell
STRIKE OUTS- I.Suzuki, H.Ramirez-2, A.Soriano-2, M.Reynolds-2, P.Fielder,
J.Giambi-2, J.Anderson-2, D.Uggla-2, A.DunnGIDP- D.Murphy, M.Lowell