In a tough night to open a series against an in-state foe, Rocket City saw one of its top prospects shine yet again.
Starter George Klassen’s strong night on the mound was the highlight of a 7-1 loss to the Birmingham Barons for the Trash Pandas.
The No. 3-ranked prospect in the Los Angeles Angels organization pitched 5.1 shutout innings for the Trash Pandas, allowing just three hits and one walk while striking out nine batters.
His Tuesday game comes six days after a strong showing against the Montgomery Biscuits that saw him allow just one earned run and strike out eight across five innings of work.
“A little bit of better fastball command early, that helped him get in the rhythm early,” Trash Pandas manager Andy Schatzley said of Klassen’s performance on Tuesday. “He had a little bit of a better feel for the breaking ball, too.”
Brady Choban took the loss after allowing five runs in 1.1 innings out of the bullpen for Rocket City, which fell to 4-11 on the year with the loss and now has a -30 run differential.
The lone run for Rocket City came in the bottom of the ninth as Sam Brown’s RBI single scored Denzer Guzman; Guzman had two of the Trash Pandas’ four hits, adding to Brown’s single and a triple from Christian Moore.
“It’s been a little bit the way things have gone, more good than bad,” Schatzley said. “It’s just kind of a slow start offensively. Klassen was probably the best he’s been, one of the better defensive nights we’ve had. We’ve just got to create more opportunities offensively.”
The Trash Pandas have lost eight of their last nine games, with the lone win being a 7-5 victory at Montgomery on Thursday; five of those losses have been by two runs or less.
“There’s no secret sauce, and I wish there was, but it’s a marathon,” Schatzley said of looking to find consistency. “It’s not a sprint. We have a solid, efficient, good offensive team, and we’ve got better days coming.”
Rocket City will continue the series at 11:05 a.m. on Wednesday in Madison for education day; the series will run through Sunday, with a t-shirt giveaway on Thursday and postgame fireworks on Friday,
“The numbers don’t really indicate it, but the lineup is deep,” Schatzley said. “There’s a lot of guys with a lot of ability, one through nine, it just hasn’t shown up yet.”
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