Grand Prairie Air Hogs

Grand Prairie Reporter: Cats Mackey Shuts Down AirHogs

By Josh Hirsch

After losing his first three starts of 2011 to the Grand Prairie AirHogs (pitching very well in two of them), Fort Worth Cats righty Wade Mackey finally solved the AirHogs on Tuesday, as he shut them out through seven innings at LaGrave Field in a 10-3 Cats win.

Mackey (7-4) allowed the leadoff runner to reach in each of the first two innings, and pitched around two hits in the fifth in his only real jam of the night. Other than the first-and-third situation in the fifth, the righty did not allow any other AirHogs runners to get to third base. In seven innings, he gave up four hits and a walk with three strikeouts.

James Brandhorst relieved Mackey in the eighth and held the AirHogs (55-33) to a leadoff walk, while lefty Greg Denton gave up three runs in the ninth to break up the shutout - walking five in the process - before closer Nick DeBarr was summoned to get the final out.

Will Calhoun's double over leftfielder Joey Gomes's head started things for the Cats (40-46) in the first against Lance Janke (4-3). After a wild pitch and a lineout, Marcos Rodriguez beat out an infield single as Calhoun scored the first run of the game. Kelly Gulledge followed with his 13th home run of the season to make it 3-0, before a walk, double and Aljay Davis single gave Fort Worth a 4-0 lead.

Janke was able to keep the Cats off the scoreboard for the next four innings, but he allowed a sac fly and an RBI single before being chased with one out in the sixth, and another sac fly by Gulledge made it 7-0.

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