The Charlotte Knights jumped out to a five-run lead and held off the Syracuse Chiefs, the Triple-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals, for a 5-3 win Sunday at Alliance Banks Stadium. The win prevented a Chiefs’ sweep of the Knights and was the first home loss for Syracuse since a May 13 loss to Durham. They had won eight straight at Alliance Bank Stadium.

Chiefs starter J.D. Martin (0-3) started the game hot with three strikeouts against the first four batters he faced, but the Knights turned things around after that. Three straight singles scored Tyler Flowers and put runners on first and second. A wild pitch from Martin that bounced toward the Charlotte dugout, allowing Jordan Danks to come home. After a popout ended the top of the second, Alejandro De Aza extended the lead to 3-0 with a leadoff home run in the third.

The Knights continued their run in the fourth amid some controversy. Danks started the inning with a triple to the rightfield corner. Martin hurled a pitch inside to Lastings Milledge in the next at-bat, and the Charlotte designated hitter started walking to first base claiming the pitch grazed his arm. Umpires Toby Basner and Gerard Ascani discussed the call before the first base umpire Basner awarded Milledge the hit-by-pitch call.

The decision drew Syracuse pitching coach Greg Booker out of the dugout, and Ascani eventually ejected him after a long, heated discussion between the two. By that point, Chiefs’ manager Randy Knorr had already been tossed for arguing a strikeout call earlier in the third.

When play finally resumed, Charlotte’s Ozzie Chavez hit a sacrifice fly to right that scored Danks. Another flyout by Andrew Garcia brought De Aza to the plate with Milledge still on first. Milledge then stole second and advanced to third on another wild pitch from Martin. De Aza ripped an RBI triple in the at-bat to extend the lead to 5-0.

From there, Collin Balester took over on the mound and the Chiefs used some stellar defensive plays to keep Charlotte stuck at five runs. It started immediately after De Aza’s triple. Eduardo Escobar popped the ball up to shallow leftfield. Syracuse third baseman Tug Hulett turned to track it down and made a diving, backhanded catch just inside the leftfield line to end the fourth inning.

The Chiefs offense started to mount a comeback in the bottom of the frame. Catcher Jesus Flores hit a one-out double to leftfield. Corey Brown was then called out on strikes and became the third Chief to be ejected after a comment to Ascani.

But Charlotte starter Gaby Hernandez (3-5) hit Jeff Frazier with a pitch and walked Matt Antonelli to load the bases. Adam Fox stepped up to the plate and hit a soft grounder to shortstop for an infield RBI-single. With the bases still loaded, Hernandez nearly hit Hulett with a pitch that rolled all the way to the backstop and allowed Frazier to come home.

Chris Marrero tacked on a two-out home run in the fifth to put the score at 5-3 and Syracuse kept their comeback hopes alive with some defensive gems. Balester walked Danks to start the inning and the Knight advanced to third despite two consecutive groundouts by his teammates. Balester then walked Garcia before Atahualpa Severino took over in relief.

With Severino pitching to De Aza, Garcia took off for second. The catcher Flores threw the ball out to Hulett and as he did, Danks bolted for home. Hulett quickly made the catch and sent the ball back to Flores at home, who tagged out a sliding Danks to end the inning and keep the score at 5-3.

But the Chiefs managed just two hits the rest of the game against Charlotte’s bullpen and could not muster up a comeback despite their efforts defensively.

Syracuse starts a four-game series in Louisville Monday at 4:05pm. Ross Detwiler will take the mound for the chiefs against Bats’ righty Matt Klinker.

Courtesy: Syracuse Chiefs