Maple Leafs get walked off again, drop to 13-14
By Rob Vona
The Toronto Maple Leafs lost in 10 innings on Saturday night to the Guelph Royals by a score of 3-2 at Hastings Stadium, making it the fourth consecutive loss for the team, and the third consecutive loss in extra innings.
With the loss, the Maple Leafs dropped to a 13-14 record, finding themselves below .500 for the first time this season.
Wilgenis Alvarado put together a strong six inning performance that saw him give up only two earned runs, while the Maple Leafs bats struck out a whopping 16 times.
The Maple Leafs struck first in the top of the second inning, with the bases loaded, centre-fielder Connor Lewis scored on a wild pitch to open up the scoring.
They would tack on another run in the fourth inning, this time an RBI walk from DH Garrett Takamatsu.
After a quiet five innings, the Royals finally got on the board thanks to a double from left-fielder Chris Robinson that scored two runs, knotting the game up at two.
The Maple Leafs turned to their bullpen for the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, Chris Nagorski took to the bump and got through the seventh inning in three-up, three-down fashion.
Dustin Richardson was then handed the ball and faced the minimum through his two innings of relief, striking out four of the six batters he faced.
With two runners in scoring position in the seventh inning and one out, the Maple Leafs failed to cash in on the scoring opportunity, as the game needed extra innings for a winner to be crowned.
The Maple Leafs couldn’t score the runner from second base, while the Royals took advantage of a wild pitch from Evan Elliott and walked off the Maple Leafs for the 3-2 win.
While Royals reliever Brandon Deans put together five shutout innings of relief in his first win of the year, the Royals took home the win with only two hits - their lowest hit total in a win this year.
The Maple Leafs will look to get back to .500 on Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. as they host the Brantford Red Sox at Dominico Field.