BY WAYNE PHILLIPS
SPORTS EDITOR
It was another "ruff" night for the Astros.
With several canines roaming around the ball park with their masters in tow during "Bark in the Park" night, the Greeneville Astros absorbed their sixth straight setback and were swept for the second straight series as the Kingsport Mets took a 4-1 win.
For a game that started out with so much promise when Greeneville lead-off man Jose Altuve, the smallest man on the Astros' roster, unloaded with a solo homer over the scoreboard in left field, Kingsport's pitching held Greeneville to one more hit the rest of the game.
In addition, errors were costly to the Astros hopes as they made five miscues in the contest. Only one of Kingsport's four runs were earned.
The Astros wasted one of their best pitching efforts of late, as starter Carlos Quevada was extremely sharp, going five innings and allowing only two hits and one unearned run while striking out nine Mets.
After Altuve got Greeneville off to the good start in the first, Quevado went to work and his strikeout pitch kept the Mets at bay until the bottom of the fifth. He had allowed only one hit until the fifth when Pedro Zapata touched him for a triple to the gap in right-center.
With two outs, it appeared as if Quevado would get out of the jam as Kingsport's Gerad Mochizuki hit a bouncer just to the right of first base. Greeneville first baseman Oscar Figueroa fielded the ball but threw it away as he tried to toss to Quevado covering the bag and Zapata scored the tying run.
Kingsport starter Angel Cuan was also impressive on the mound. After the lead-off homer followed by hitting Grant Hogue with a pitch, Cuan settled down and retired the next 15 batters he faced. Ryan Humphrey broke that streak when he started the bottom of the sixth with a single up the middle, and he went to third with one out when Hogue's bunt was booted by the pitcher as the tried to field it.
But Cuan (1-1) was able to get Jiovanni Mier on a short fly to left that was not deep enough to score Humphrey, and he got Kyle Miller on a strikeout to end the threat.
Kingsport then took the lead in the top of the seventh off Greeneville's Joan Belliard, who hit a batter, Cesar Puello, to start the inning and Richard Lucas followed with a double. Taylor Freeman's sacrifice fly to left scored Puello, and then a Greeneville error, when first baseman Figueroa failed to catch Mier's throw to first on a grounder, allowed Lucas to score.
The Mets made it 4-1 with another run in the eighth on a base hit by Darrell Ceciliani, a hit by Alonzo Harris with both runners moving up on an outfield error, and R.J. Harris' sacrifice fly.
Greeneville never threatened again. Mets reliever Zachary Von Tersch allowed a one-out walk to Luis Alvarez in the seventh, but that would be the only runner who would reach off him in two innings of work. Bobby Gagg came on to pitch the ninth and earn his first save.
The Astros head to Bluefield for a mid-week three game series, then return home on Friday to face Burlington.




