Sky Sox lose but lead remains two games

Small ball worked all season for the first-place Sky Sox, but Portland showed its hosts an easier way to do things in the home finale.

After Colorado Springs used singles, a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly to score four runs and take the lead in the eighth inning, the Beavers answered with a home run, double and triple in the ninth and left with a 6-5 win Thursday that kept the Sky Sox's postseason hopes in flux with a two-game lead and four games to play.

“It was a lot of fun,” said Portland’s Chad Huffman, who had four hits and is batting .600 (18-for-30) in eight games at Security Service Field this season. “You lose eight games in a row like we have and you kind of forget how much fun winning is.”

The Sky Sox now face four games in Tacoma against the team chasing them in the Pacific Coast Pacific North Division.

Manager Stu Cole’s mind was already in Washington in the moments after Thursday’s loss.

“We’ve got to focus on Tacoma,” Cole said. “This is where it’s all going to end. We’ve just got to go out there and play well. We need to get some wins in the first couple of games and put this thing away.”

Cole’s team had a chance to distance itself from Tacoma over a 13-game homestand but won only four times. To its credit, three of those wins came in the last four games against Portland.

“I was very pleased with the way the guys came out and played, especially after the way the homestand started,” Cole said. “We battled through the whole series all the way down to the last out of this ballgame. That last inning we just didn’t put it away, we didn’t finish them.”

The brightest spot for the Sky Sox was a solid start from Jhoulys Chacin, the 21-year-old prospect who has struggled to throw strikes at altitude. Chacin — working on a tight pitch count — threw four scoreless innings, walking two and striking out five.