Bullpen helps Grizzlies gain road win at River City

The Gateway Grizzlies’ bullpen shut the door against the River City Rascals in a 4-2 victory on Saturday night at T.R. Hughes Ballpark in O’Fallon, Mo.

The Grizzlies (17-32) received a fine start from right-handed starter Tyler Thompson in the victory. The Rascals (25-24) have now lost nine of their last 11 games with the loss.

Thompson (2-4) allowed two runs in six innings of work. Jordan Wellander, Scott Harkin and Brett Zawacki held the Rascals scoreless in the final three innings after Thompson left the game with Gateway leading 3-2.

Gateway jumped in front during the third inning. Seth Heck walked with one out and advanced to second base after Blake Brown singled with two outs. Ben Waldrip then delivered a timely two-out RBI single to give Gateway the early 1-0 lead.

River City answered in the bottom half of the fifth inning. Thompson had retired 11 batters in a row until Jackson Slaid homered to deep left field to tie things at 1-1.

On this night, Gateway had an answer for each one of River City’s rally. After Ben Waldrip singled with one out in the sixth inning, Blake Brown blasted his 10th home run of the season to put the Grizzlies back up 3-1.

That home run proved to be the game winner. The Rascals would cut into the deficit in the bottom half of the inning after Danny Canela blasted a solo shot to right field, but River City didn’t have an answer against the Gateway bullpen.

Wellander stranded a runner at third base in the seventh inning, Harkin worked around a one-out single in the eighth and Zawacki issued a one-out walk, but retired the final two batters on strikeouts to close out the victory. The save was Zawacki’s fifth on the season.

The Grizzlies picked up a big insurance run in the eighth inning when Waldrip doubled with one out to plate Livesay. He paced the Gateway offense with three hits and two runs batted in.

Gateway will go for the series win on Sunday in the rubber match. Trevor Richards (1-3, 4.06) will take the mound for the Grizzlies and Dane Stone (3-2, 2.78) will pitch for River City. First pitch is set for 4:05 p.m.

This story was originally published July 11, 2015 at 11:15 PM with the headline "Bullpen helps Grizzlies gain road win at River City."