News release from the TinCaps:
TinCaps Lose in Longest Game of the Season
(June 25, 2013) – In their longest game of the 2013 season, the TinCaps lost to the West Michigan Whitecaps, 9-6, in 13 innings Monday night. The four-hour, 13-minute game, which included a 38-minute rain delay, was Fort Wayne’s lengthiest both by innings and by time.
A season-high five home runs were hit at Parkview Field Monday night. The derby began in the top of the first inning when Jeff Holm homered for West Michigan to make it 1-0. After the TinCaps tied the game, 1-1, in the bottom of the first on a Luis Tejada RBI-single, the Whitecaps’ Jason King launched a solo home run of his own to put West Michigan ahead 2-1.
Fort Wayne (1-4, 44-30) took the lead in the bottom of the third inning, as it scored twice with two outs. Maxx Tissenbaum singled, Tejada followed with a double, and Chris Burke was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Diego Goris then came through with a two-run single that put the TinCaps in front, 3-2.
Joe Ross, who started for Fort Wayne, couldn’t hang on to the lead, though. West Michigan scored three times off Ross in the fifth to retake the lead and added King’s second homer of the night in the sixth to go up, 6-3.
Goris ignited a TinCaps comeback in the sixth with a lead-off home run, his second long ball of the season. Later in the inning, Brian Adams plated Corey Adamson with a single to cut Fort Wayne’s deficit to 6-5. An inning later in the seventh, Burke blasted his second home run in three games to knot the score at 6-6.
Neither side would score again until the 13th. TinCaps closer Roman Madrid (L, 5-2) working in a non-save situation, threw two scoreless innings in the 11th and 12th, but encountered trouble in the 13th. Throwing more than two frames for the first time all season, Madrid walked Holm and allowed consecutive RBI-doubles to Zach Kirksey and Connor Harrell that gave West Michigan an 8-6 lead. Madrid then intentionally walked King and issued a free pass to Pickar to load the bases. Joe Church came on to relieve Madrid. Church surrendered an RBI-single to David Gonzalez, extending the Whitecaps’ advantage to 9-6.
Corey Knebel (S, 1) — the seventh pitcher of the game for West Michigan — worked around a walk in the bottom of the 13th inning to earn the first save of his professional career. Knebel was selected by Detroit with the 39th overall pick earlier this month. In the game, Fort Wayne left a season-high 16 runners on base.
Fort Wayne’s previous longest game of the season by time was three hours and 38 minutes on May 31, also against West Michigan at Parkview Field. The TinCaps played a 12-inning affair at Parkview Field against the Dayton Dragons on June 8 in what had been the longest game previously.
The TinCaps and Whitecaps meet again approximately 12 hours after Monday’s final pitch at 12:05 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. The game can be heard on The Fan 1380 and TheFanFortWayne.com, and seen on XFINITY Channel 81.
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