Game recap from the TinCaps:
TinCaps win fifth straight, 10th straight at home
(August 13, 2015) – The TinCaps swept the Quad Cities River Bandits for a second consecutive season with a 3-0 victory on Thursday night. Fort Wayne’s win streak at Parkview Field has now hit 10 in a row, dating back to July 17th.
Manager Francisco Morales’ team has taken five straight series and are now the hottest team in the Midwest League – winning 13 of its last 15 games.
Another sellout crowd – the 17th of the season – was on display at Parkview Field with 8,322 in attendance.
Fort Wayne (29-17, 61-53) pitchers shut out an opponent for the ninth time this season, and for the first time on back-to-back nights in 2015. The home team blanked Quad Cities (29-17, 74-40) 2-0 on Wednesday and hasn’t allowed a run in 22 consecutive innings.
Starter Dinelson Lamet (W, 4-6) danced out of trouble in every inning on Thursday. The righty struck out seven over five frames, but more impressively, stranded at least one runner in scoring position in every inning. Lamet has yielded fewer than three earned runs in each of his last 14 starts.
The scoring started in the third inning. Michael Gettys stepped to the plate to face River Bandits starter Agapito Barrios (L, 1-1), and Gettys quickly hammered a pitch to the center-field wall. Center fielder Jason Martin sprinted, leaped toward the green fence, but the ball caromed over his glove and off the wall. Gettys was already around second and heading for third while the ball ricocheted back toward the infield. The Padres prospect then turned for home while the ball was relayed to the plate, but the throw was tardy. Gettys’ inside-the-park home run was Fort Wayne’s first since Diego Goris accomplished the feat in South Bend on Aug. 8, 2013.
Fort Wayne stretched the lead to 2-0 in the fifth when Jose Ruiz began the inning with a triple. He touched home when Edwin Moreno tattooed a pitch off the right-field wall.
Luis Tejada scored from first base in the bottom of the eighth frame after a throwing error on a hit to right field by Trae Santos to add an insurance run.
The bullpen continued its torrid stretch. Four more scoreless innings lowered the bullpen’s ERA to an astonishing 0.76 over the last 15 games (the TinCaps are 13-2 during that span). Nick Monroe and Kyle McGrath (S, 2) combined to strike out five over those four frames.
Fort Wayne starts a three-game series with the Cedar Rapids Kernels on Friday at 7:05 p.m. The TinCaps send right-hander Ernesto Montas (9-6, 3.48) to the bump to face Kernels lefty Randy Rosario (1-3, 3.21).
You can watch the action on Comcast Network 81 starting at 7:00 p.m. or listen in on ESPN Radio 1380, Box Score, and the TuneIn Radio app starting at 6:45 p.m.
By Kevin Fitzgerald
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