[rink23]

Record:33-39, 6th, 7.5 GB Cedar Rapids
St. Louis starting pitcher Ming Xiang fell one out short of a shutout exiting the game with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning as the River Walkers defeated Kansas City 5-1 at Kauffman Stadium.
Xiang (6-5) allowed one run on four hits -- two doubles and two singles -- over the first 8.2 innings before issuing back-to-back walks to Amari Simpson and Juan Gonzalez.
Xiang also struck out six.
Brett McVey took over for Xiang, who had thrown 114 pitches and allowed a single to Sean Sumner to load the bases.
A walk to Willie Chavez then wiped out the shutout.
But McVey got Eric Marion to ground out to end it.
Joe Allen hit a pair of solo homers to lead the River Walkers offense.
An inside-the-park homer off Monarchs starter Luis Jimenez in the top of the third opened the scoring.
Allen later capped the scoring for St. Louis with a homer off Jose Patrico in the ninth.
In between the Walkers got their other three runs in a fifth inning where they cranked out four doubles.
The first three came via Zach Wenman, Rich Dodson and Ryan Wibbenmeyer off Jimenez.
Dodson and Wibbenmeyer both collected RBI,
Mark Herman hit the fourth double, it came off Josh Bankes and scored Wibbenmeyer.