News release from the TinCaps:
Seven-Run Lead Slips Away Against Captains
(July 30, 2013) – The TinCaps held leads of 5-0 and 8-1 on Tuesday night, but ended up losing to the Lake County Captains, 10-9. Fort Wayne has lost five games in a row, despite having a lead in each loss. Lake County’s Todd Hankins came up with the game-winning hit to score Jeremy Lucas in the top of the ninth inning to break the 9-9 tie.
The TinCaps scored five times in the bottom of the first inning before even recording an out against Captains starter Jake Sisco. Maxx Tissenbaum and Gabriel Quintana both had RBI singles leading up to a three-run home run by Luis Domoromo that gave the TinCaps a 5-0 cushion. Domoromo’s home run was his third in the last seven games after going homerless in his first 89 at-bats of the second half.
Fort Wayne (12-24, 55-50) starter Walker Weickel allowed a solo home run to Hankins in the top of the third inning that trimmed the TinCaps’ advantage to four runs. However, Fort Wayne surged ahead by seven with a three-run bottom of the third. Brian Adams drove home a pair with a triple. Adams then scored when Lake County shortstop Dorssys Paulino committed one of four Captains errors on a grounder hit by Mallex Smith. Sisco exited after 2 1/3 innings after yielding eight runs (six earned).
Up 8-1 after four innings, the TinCaps encountered trouble in the road fifth. The Captains sent 10 batters to the plate and scored seven times to tie the game, 8-8. Jorge Martinez plated the first two runs with a double to make it 8-3. Then with runners at first and second base, Logan Vick hit a grounder to second base that Maxx Tissenbaum threw away attempting to get the force out at second base. Two runs scored on that play, bringing the Captains with three with no outs in the inning. Two batters later, a Jeremy Lucas single cut Fort Wayne’s lead to 8-6. Weickel was removed at that point in favor of Colin Rea, who induced an RBI groundout by Richard Stock and gave up a game-tying single to Zack MacPhee.
Lake County (18-19, 41-63) let Fort Wayne regain the lead, 9-8, immediately in the bottom of the fifth. Adams led off with a bunt single and reached second on a throwing error by the pitcher Jimmy Stokes. After Smith sacrificed Adams to third, Alberth Martinez brought Adams in with a grounder to shortstop.
The 9-8 lead didn’t last long, though, as the Captains rallied to tie the game again in the top of the sixth on a Joe Sever RBI infield single.
Lake County reliever Kyle Crockett fanned four TinCaps over the sixth and seventh innings, while Jack Wagoner (4-5) went on to receive the win for the Captains with a perfect eighth and ninth.
Tuesday’s loss marks the first time the TinCaps have ever lost a game in which they led by seven runs or more. The last time a Fort Wayne team dropped a game in which it led by at least seven was when the Fort Wayne Wizards lost to the Kane County Cougars, 12-8, on May 6, 2006. The Wizards led that one 7-0 through 3 ½ innings.
Fort Wayne hosts Lake County again on Wednesday afternoon at 12:05. Right-hander Zach Eflin (5-5, 3.07) starts for the TinCaps against Captains left-hander Ryan Merritt (6-9, 3.70). The game can be heard on The Fan 1380 and TheFanFortWayne.com, and viewed on XFINITY Channel 81.
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