Lake County Sentinel
Captains split doubleheader with Whitecaps
BY TIM SHIRER
CAPTAINS BEAT WRITER
Sunday Sunday Night there was double the baseball at Classic Park as the Lake County Captains took on the visiting West Michigan Whitecaps. The Captains shut-out the Whitecaps in game one 4-0 and were shut-out by the Whitecaps in game two 9-0 to earn a split.
GAME ONE:
The Captains struck early in the first inning with two runs. The inning began with a triple by Luke Wakamatsu and Conner Capel followed with a home run, his 17th long ball of the season and he wasn't done. The home run was Lake County's 120th of the season which is a new team record. The old mark 119 was held by the 2014 team and gave Lake County a 2-0 lead.
The Captains added single runs in the fifth and sixth innings. The run in the fifth came off the bat of Capel as he belted his second home run of the game, a solo shot and his 18th of the season over the center field fence to give Lake County a 3-0 lead. Emmanuel Tapia added the fourth run with his 25th home run of the season, a solo shot over the right field fence to put the Captains ahead 4-0 which ended up being the final score.
Meanwhile Captains starting pitcher Sean Brady, making a rehab start from Akron was lights out. Brady went five shut-out innings allowing only three hits and striking out four Whitecaps batters. Henry Martinez relieved Brady to start the sixth inning and pitched two scoreless innings, allowing one hit and struck out two. Brady got the win his first and improves to 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA. Martinez picked up his third save. Alfred Gutierrez made the start for the Whitecaps and went all six innings, allowing four runs, all earned on seven hits and he struck out one. Gutierrez took the loss falling to 8-6 with a 3.51 ERA.
GAME TWO:
Game two was completely the opposite of game one, as the Whitecaps enjoyed a home run barrage and rolled to the win 9-0.
The Whitecaps first run of the game in the first inning came when Cole Baumi was hit by a pitch from Captains starter Micah Miniard. Miniard then allowed a double to the next hitter Danny Pinero and Baumi scored the Whitecaps first run.
Miniard was pretty good for the next three innings until the fifth, when the Whitecaps scored four runs. The first run came courtesy of Anthony Pereira who belted his seventh home run of season, it was a solo shot to lead off the inning. After Miniard retired the next batter he walked Drew Longley and Sam Machonis back to back. He then got Danny Woodrow to ground out for the second out of the inning. It looked like Miniard might escape the trouble. But no such luck as he then allowed a home run to Chad Sedio, a three-run shot, to give the Whitecaps a 5-0 lead. The home run was Sideo’s fourth of the season. Then came the rains and the game was delayed one hour and eighteen minutes. The rain came so fast that the grounds crew had trouble getting the heavy tarpaulin on the field. Captains manager and several players aided in the effort and essentially saved the field so the game could continue.
Unfortunately for the Captains the game continued in the same fashion as before the delay as the Whitecaps continued to pile on as West Michigan added another run in the sixth inning.
Miniard took the loss for Lake County going four and two thirds inning, allowing five runs, all earned on five hits. He also issued two walks and struck out two Whitecaps. With the loss, the lanky righthander falls to 4-10 with a 6.35 ERA. Miniard becomes the 16th pitcher in Captains history to lose double digits games in a season. West Michigan Brandyn Sittinger earned the win for the Whitecaps. Sittinger pitched the final three innings of the shut-out and improved his record to 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA. The shut-out for the Whitecaps was their Midwest League record tying 23rd of the season and it was the sixth time they shut out the Captains.
The Captains and Whitecaps will play game four of the five game series on Monday Night at 7:00 p.m. Matt Manning will be on the mound for the Whitecaps. Manning, a righty will be making his debut with in the Midwest League. Justin Garza will make the start for Lake County. Garza, also a righthander is 2-6 with a 6.16 ERA.
tshirer@lakecountysentinel.com or follow Tim on Twitter @IndiansTim Check out our IndiansNation fan Page
POSTED 08/06/2017 22:59
Captains starting pitcher Sean Brady. Photo by Tim Shirer