Winning can mask a lot of weaknesses, and it did for the Aces in their two season-opening victories. But those areas were easy to spot in the past two games, including Sunday afternoon?s 5-2 loss.
The Aces? offense was non-existent in all but one inning for the second straight day, and it led to them settling for a series split.
?It just tells you that we have to continue to push,? manager Brett Butler said. ?Not that they haven?t. But we have to go out there and do it each game.?
The Aces (2-2) let a 2-1 lead slip away for the second straight game, this time when Colorado Springs scored three times in the sixth inning against Zach Kroenke in front of 5,218 spectators at Aces Ballpark.
After the Aces took the lead in the second, they did not get a runner past second base again until the ninth.
?We?re not at full capacity yet,? Butler said, referring to his team?s three-deep disabled list. ?We?re just trying to hold our head above water for the time being.
?I?m not discouraged at all. The guys just have to bear down at key times and get the job done.?
Butler?s optimism is from a combination of faith that the offense will come around and that the starting pitching has been very good.
Kroenke gave up four runs in five innings Sunday, but he had allowed just one ? a leadoff home run to DJ LeMahieu in the first ? through five before he ran into trouble in the sixth.
The first three Sky Sox reached to give Colorado Springs the lead before Butler went to Jensen Lewis, who allowed an inherited runner to score on a sacrifice bunt and sacrifice fly.
?He just got a couple pitches up,? Butler said of Kroenke. ?Other than that, I was very happy with his performance. I liked the way he went about his business. He just dropped his elbow up a couple times and left (the pitch) up. But that was it.?
It was the fourth solid outing by a Reno starter, following Barry Enright, Chris Jakubauskas and Joe Martinez.
?I feel good about what they?ve done in the first four outings,? Butler said. ?If they continue to do that, we?ll win a lot of ballgames.?
But such optimism can remove only some of the sting from splitting a series in which the Aces were ahead 2-0.
?Now, we got a new series and have to go through Salt Lake,? Butler said. ?Hopefully, we can do a little better than we just did.?
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