TACOMA, WA - The Tacoma Rainiers final home game of the season and last before Cheney Stadium's $30 million offseason renovation ended in a 3-1 loss to Colorado Springs on Thursday.
The Sky Sox put the Rainiers in a hole early in the outing after recording two runs in the top of the first inning. Outfielder Matt Miller was responsible for Colorado Springs' initial trips on to scoreboard with a double that drove in Kazuo Matsui and Cole Garner.
Tacoma attempted to keep things interesting in the bottom of the sixth thanks to an RBI-single from first baseman Justin Smoak that drove in Dustin Ackely and cut the Sky Sox lead down to 2-1.
Colorado Springs added some extra insurance with a run in the top of the eighth. The outfielder Garner belted his third triple of the season to score Matsui from first.
Infielder Matt Mangini turned in the strongest performance for the Rainiers, recording three of Tacoma's five total hits to extend his hit streak to 11 games. Mangini is batting .500 with eight multi-hit outings over that stretch and increased his team-leading hit total to 136.
Colorado Springs' Greg Smith picked up the win, his second of the season, after allowing just one unearned run on four hits over six innings, while walking one and fanning six.
Tacoma starter Ryan Rowland-Smith was tagged with his fourth loss in the sixth start of his Major League rehab assignment with the Rainiers. The left-hander surrendered two runs, one earned, on five hits over seven innings of work.
Following the loss, the Rainiers lead over Salt Lake for first place in the PCL Pacific Northern Division fell to 1.5 games with four regular season games remaining. The Bees topped Fresno 3-1 later in the evening.
Tacoma embarks on their final road trip of season at 7pm on Friday when they begin a four-game set with the Fresno Grizzlies. The Rainiers send right-hander Blake Beavan (2-2, 6.69) to the mound in the series opener, with the Grizzlies set to start right-hander Kevin Pucetas (5-7, 5.54).
