By Dylan Butler
The comeback Kings, who have won 20 games after trailing could not pull off the late inning dramatics Sunday at The Ballpark at St. John's University, falling to the Pittsfield Mets, 8-5, in front of 1,937.
The loss snapped the Kings' three-game winning streak after the team dropped two games to the New Jersey Cardinals early last week.
Despite the loss, the Kings still find themselves in the middle of a heated pennant run in the New York-Penn League's McNamara Division. Only 3.5 games separate the top four teams in the division, with just the top two teams to advance to the post season.
After back-to-back one run losses to the lowly New Jersey Cardinals, the second-place Kings returned to the win column with a 5-3 victory over the Cardinals at Skylands Park last Thursday night.
The bullpen duo of James Detweiler and George Perez combined to shut down the Cardinals offense, pitching 4.1 innings of shutout ball.
Queens fell behind 3-2 in the bottom of the third before rallying. Wade Rikert led off the fourth with a double to left field and advanced to third on a bunt single by Rich Thompson. Raul Tablado's sacrifice fly to left scored Rikert to tie the game at 3.
A fielder's choice by Alexis Rios brought Thompson home and Mike Snyder scored the game's final run on a single by Robert Cosby. Detweiler earned his third win of the season and his second against New Jersey, pitching 2.2 innings of relief, giving up two hits with three strikeouts and Perez notched his team-leading 10th save of the year.
The Kings returned home Friday to open a four-game set against the Pittsfield Mets and thanks to a four-run sixth inning, Queens took the opener, 9-4.
After the Kings opened the scoring with two runs in the bottom of the third inning, the Mets scored a pair of runs in both the fourth and sixth inning to take a 4-2 lead.
Following Cory Harris' home run in the sixth inning, Kings relievers Danny Huesgen and Joe Orloski retired 11 of the last 13 Mets batters. Huesgen picked up his second win of the year and Orloski was credited with his third save.
The game was the last for Kings manager Eddie Rodriguez, who is heading to Sydney, Australia as the third-base coach of the U.S. Olympic baseball team.
Geovany Miranda's debut as Kings manager was a successful one Saturday night as Queens cruised to a 15-6 win over Pittsfield. After a four-run sixth inning the night before, it was an eight-run seventh inning that led the Kings to the win.
The Mets drew first blood and had a 3-2 lead going into the bottom of the sixth inning, but the Kings scored four times in the sixth to take a 6-3 lead. and sent 12 men to the plate and scored eight runs in the seventh to put the game away.
Guillermo Quiroz, who was 3-for-5 with two RBIs, and Brian Sellier, who was 3-for-3 with a single, triple and home run, four runs scored with three RBIs, were the Kings hitting stars. Derrick Nunley earned his second win of the year, pitching 1.1 innings of relief allowing one unearned runs on one hit and three strikeouts.
On Sunday it was the Mets who had the big inning, scoring six runs in the top of the fourth en route to an 8-5 win. Queens jumped ahead with three runs on five hits in the bottom of the first to go ahead, 3-0. But the Mets went ahead for good in the top of the fourth, scoring six runs on seven hits and added two more runs in the seventh to take a commanding 8-3 lead.
The Kings rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth, but Dominic Rich flew out to right field with the bases loaded to end the game.
