ROUND ROCK, Texas - Matt Kata delivered a game-winning sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 13th inning as the Round Rock Express edged the Iowa Cubs 11-10 in Sunday afternoon's Pacific Coast League action at The Dell Diamond. It was the first last-at-bat win of the season for the Express (4-7), who had 20 such wins last season. Round Rock takes a two-games-to-one lead in the series against the Cubs (6-5); the Express lead the season series 4-3.
Luis Hernandez singled to open the 13th, and Leonys Martin followed with a single that pushed Hernandez to third. After Brad Nelson was intentionally walked, Kata lifted the first pitch he saw into left-center deep enough for Hernandez to tag and trot home with the winning run. Round Rock batters were 2-for-23 between Nelson's two-run double in the sixth inning and the Hernandez leadoff single in the 13th.
That made a winner of Yoshinori Tateyama (1-0). He entered the game with runners on the corners and two outs in the 12th, retired the first batter he faced to end the inning, and retired the side in order in the top of the 13th. Starter Mark Hamburger was tagged for seven runs on 12 hits - both career highs - in two and two-thirds innings; he walked one, struck out two and allowed two home runs.
Manny Corpas (0-1), the last of five Iowa pitchers on the day, took the loss; the winning run was the only run he allowed in two and two-thirds innings. Starter Randy Wells surrendered eight runs on eight hits, including one home run, over two and one-third innings with three walks and three strikeouts.
Hernandez, Martin and Nelson all had three-hit afternoons for the Express. Nelson tallied four RBI, while Martin, Kata and Tommy Mendonca each had two RBI. Hernandez scored three times; Martin and Julio Borbon each scored twice.
Iowa totaled 22 hits, out-inning the Express by six. Alfredo Amezaga was 5-for-7 out of the ninth spot in the order, while Adrian Cardenas was 4-for-7. Tony Campana and Anthony Rizzo both had three hits, while Luis Valbuena and Matt Tolbert had two each.
The teams traded two spots in the first inning. Valbuena's grand slam in the second staked the Cubs to a 6-2 lead, but the Express answered with four runs on five hits in the bottom of the inning. Amezaga had an RBI single in the top of the third, but Round Rock again answered in the bottom of the frame on Mendonca's first home run of the season - a two-run shot into the Cubs bullpen beyond the right-field wall.
Nelson's double in the sixth pushed the Express lead to 10-7. However, the Cubs got to reliever Aaron Heilman for a run in the seventh, and Michael Kirkman surrendered Ty Wright's two-run, game-tying single in the eighth.
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