BY NATHAN ENSERRO
Kansas City Monarchs
KANSAS CITY, Kan. - The Kansas City Monarchs (63-30) wrapped up the home portion of their season with a 2-0 win over the Houston Apollos (15-77) to grab its franchise-record 63rd win with seven games remaining in the season.
The win also tied an American Association mark for home wins in a season at 44.
In a pitcher’s duel, the Monarchs battery of arms spread out seven hits across the nine innings, never getting into more trouble than runners on the corners with one out in the ninth. They stranded eight Apollos.
Newcomer Carson LaRue threw the first three innings before being relieved by Brock Gilliam. Dalbert Siri, Carlos Diaz and Jameson McGrane were each called upon to pitch an inning to hold down the Apollos.
Meanwhile, Houston starter Auggie Martinez worked a perfect 5.1 innings before Ryan Grotjohn ripped a sixth-inning triple. The next batter, Darnell Sweeney, stuck a single in front of the right fielder to bring Grotjohn home to put the Monarchs on the board.
Sweeney raced home from second on a failed inning-ending double-play, where Ibandel Isabel beat the throw to first to make it 2-0.
The Monarchs have no more regular-season home games, but as the South Division Champions, they will host games in the postseason. The remaining road games can be heard on the Monarchs Broadcast Network with the pre-game beginning 30-minutes prior to first pitch and the video stream airing on aabaseball.tv.