The Salt Lake Bees clubbed a franchise-record eight home runs to rout the Albuquerque Isotopes 17-6 on Tuesday night.
The Bees scored five runs in the first inning, highlighted by a three-run home run from Kaleb Cowart.
After the Bees gave up a run in the second, Jarrett Parker hit a solo shot in the third to put Salt Lake up 6-1.
In the fourth, Jose Rojas, Justin Bour and Jared Walsh hit back-to-back-to-back homers to make it 9-1.
Albuquerque belted a three-run homer in the top of the sixth, but Salt Lake responded in the bottom of the inning with Bour and Walsh again hitting back-to-back homers to put the Bees up 14-4.
In the seventh, Walsh hit his third home run of the night to bring in two of the three runs scored in the inning.
The Isotopes tacked on one run in the eighth on a sacrifice fly, but it was not enough as Salt Lake took Game 1 of the series convincingly.
Salt Lake starter Patrick Sandoval (4-4) took the winning decision after tossing six innings and allowing four runs (three earned) on five hits while striking out eight batters. Jose Rodriguez relieved Sandoval and finished the game, giving up two runs to collect the three-inning save.
Walsh led Salt Lake’s offense with a 3-for-6 performance, which included four RBIs, four runs scored and three home runs. He became the 12th player in franchise history to hit three home runs in a contest, joining Jarrett Parker as batters to accomplish the feat for the Bees this season. The Bees belted a total of eight home runs in the contest, breaking the previous record of seven home runs set on August 9, 2000 against Calgary.
