Lake County Sentinel
Chiang tosses gem, Captains fall to Cubs
BY JUSTIN LADA
SENIOR WRITER
The Lake County Captains celebrated Christmas in July on Thursday but their offense sure didn’t bear many gifts for their starting pitcher Shao-Ching Chiang, who took the hard luck loss to the South Bend Cubs, 3-0.
Tough luck
Chiang sank his fastball all over the outside and inside of the plate all game long. He allowed a leadoff double to start the game but pitched out of that jam. He was in the zone until the seventh inning when Eloy Jimenez hit a one out triple that was misplayed in the outfield into a triple. Eddy Martinez singled him in and that was enough to sink the Captains.
Chiang’s line: 7IP, 5H, 1ER, 3K - 78 pitches - 57 strikes
Captains manager Tony Mansolino said Chiang is one of the better pitchers in the Midwest League and is an efficient worker that gets good sink on his fastball that topped out at 94 on Thursday but sat 88-90. He also throws a curveball and a split-change. The two breaking pitches don’t normally hit in the 80s, giving him a good difference in velocity. It helps that he throws a lot of strikes as well.
Do not pass go….or second
The Captains had one runner on second base all night. Sam Haggerty was hit by a pitch with two outs and moved Juan De La Cruz to second base, who hit into a fielder’s choice earlier in the inning. That was the one and only time the Captains had anyone in scoring position all night. It was also the last inning they had a base runner.
Birthday blues
RHP Kieran Lovegrove turned 22 on Thursday but much like Christmas in July, he unfortunately didn’t have much to celebrate on the diamond. He came on in the ninth inning and threw two crisp 95 mph fastballs and had a rough outing after. He walked three, hit one and threw a wild pitch recording just one out. It broke a string of four straight outings where he didn’t allow an earned run. He has 10 strikeouts and four walks along with a 1.50 ERA in the second half.
Do the shuffle
The Captains have lost several players to promotions to High-A Lynchburg throughout the year.
Consider these numbers: The Captains have scored 439 runs.
Francisco Mejia knocked in 51 of them before being promoted.
Tyler Krieger: 35
Connor Marabell: 50
Nathan Lukes: 32
That’s 168 RBI.
Pitchers Thomas Pannone, Matt Esparza, Billy Strode and Matt Whitehouse have also moved on to Lynchburg.
At Lake County they combined for: 244 ⅓ innings and 235 strikeouts. At 314, Esparza had the highest ERA of the four.
Up Next:
The Captains host the Cubs again on Friday at 7 p.m.
RHP Casey Shane (5-8, 4.67) will start for the Captains and be opposed by Kyle Miller (4-2, 2.12)
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POSTED 07/29/2016 00:04
