Captains rout TinCaps 13-7 to sweep six game series and win ninth straight

(EASTLAKE, OH) - Sunday afternoon at Classic Park the Lake County Captains were looking for their first six game series sweep in the history of the club and their ninth win in a row overall. Things went as planned as the game included eight home runs and the Captains came out on top in the slugfest 13-7 sending the crowd of 3,299 home happy.

The Captains once again has been the theme lately scored first. This time in the first inning. Again, another theme two out runs. With two outs in the inning Jonathan Rodriguez drew a base on balls off Fort Wayne starter Garrett Hawkins. Hawkins, a righthander then gave up a single to Alexfri Planez to move Rodriguez to third base. Things got no better for Hawkins in fact they got worse when Petey Halpin doubled to rightfield, and Rodriguez crossed the plate with the first run of the game. Things continued to be bad for Hawkins as he then gave up a single to Gabriel Rodriguez and Planez trotted home with Lake County’s second run. Hawkins finally recorded the third out when he got Aaron Bracho to pop out to the third baseman.

In the top of the second inning the TinCaps tried to respond to the Captains first inning rally by loading the bases off Lake County starter Rodney Boone with no outs in the inning. But Boone proceeded to retire the next three TinCaps and escape the inning scoreless.

The Captains added two more runs in the second inning on back-to-back solo home runs by Korey Holland, his eighth and Angel Martinez, his tenth to put the Captains on top 4-0.

The Captains continued to add to their advantage in the third inning when Halpin continued his good day by hitting a solo home run deep over the right field wall increasing the lead to 5-0. The home run was Halpin’s fifth of the season.

The TinCaps cut into the lead in the fourth inning when Boone allowed a one out single to Joshua Mears and then Adam Kerner hit a mammoth home run deep over the bleachers onto the blow up slide. The home run was Kerner’s second and cut the Lake County lead to 5-2.

The TinCaps came all the way back in the top of the fifth inning when the Jarryd Dale doubled to lead off the inning. After Cole Cummings lined out to right field Carlos Luis singled on a soft fly ball to left field. Then came the big blow of the inning when Boone gave up a home run just over the left field wall to Olivier Basabe tying the game 5-5. The home run was Basabe’s fourth home run in a row and second in two games.

The Captains regained the lead in the bottom of the fifth inning when Bodi Rascon who started the inning in relief on the mound gave up a one out back-to-back singles to Halpin and Gabriel Rodriguez. He then got Aaron Bracho to ground out moving Halpin and G. Rodriguez to second and third base. Micael Ramirez then hit a ground ball single up the middle scoring Halpin with Lake County’s sixth run. Rascon was able to escape the inning without any further damage and keep the Lake County lead at 6-5.

Lake County blew the game open in the bottom of the sixth inning when the Captains exploded for five runs. The Captains tallied three singles, a base on balls and to cap it off a three-run home run by Bracho to put the Captains up six runs 11-5.

The Captains were not done scoring, however. In the seventh inning Holland single to lead off the inning. It looked like Rascon might get out of the inning just allowing the single when he retired the next two Captains, but Jonathan Rodriguez had other ideas as he hit his 21st home run of the season, a deep shot over the right field fence to extend the Lake County lead to eight runs at 13-5. Rodriguez now leads the Midwest League in home runs.

Fort Wayne trimmed the lead to six runs in the eighth inning with a pair of solo home runs by Basabe and Joshua Mears. The long ball for Basabe was his fifth and his third in the last two games. Mears round tripper was his14th of the season.

Boone got the win pitching five innings allowing five runs, all earned on eight hits. He also issued one base on balls and struck out six TinCaps hitters. With the win Boone improves to 3-3 with a 5.98 ERA. Rascon took the loss and falls to 0-1 with a 27.00 ERA. Today’s appearance was Rascon’s High-A debut.

The Captains will remain at least tied for first place in the Midwest League East Division as the results of West Michigan’s game with Beloit are still to be determined at the time of this writing.

The Captains will have an off day on Monday before they trave to West Michigan to take on the Whitecaps in a six-game battle for first place. .

tshirer@lakecountysentinel.com or follow Tim on Twitter @TBBucsTim Check out our IndiansNation fan Page

POSTED 08/14/2022 16:13

Lake County Captains . Photo by Tim Shirer