Lake County Sentinel
Captains drop doubleheader with Hot Rods
BY TIM SHIRER
CAPTAINS BEAT WRITER
The Lake County Captains and Bowling Green Hot Rods took the Ernie Banks approach to baseball on Tuesday and played a doubleheader. This could be the night where the Captains kissed their playoff hopes goodbye as they dropped both ends of the twin bill 3-1 and 7-6, in front of a crowd of 1,971 loyal fans at Classic Park.
Game one was a pitcher’s duel early on as the game was scoreless through three innings. The Hot Rods broke through in the top of the fourth inning off Captains starter Shao-Ching Chiang. Chiang allowed three straight hits, a double, followed by two singles and the second single by Michael Russell which drove home Kevin Padlo who had doubled to lead off the inning. Bowling Green led 1-0 after three and a half innings.
Bowling Green then got two unearned runs off Chiang in the top of the sixth inning. The runs were scored courtesy of errors by Sam Haggerty and Anthony Miller.
The Bowling Green starter Eduar Lopez pitched a complete giving up only one run, allowing the Captains only four hits and issuing one base on balls, while striking out four. With the win Lopez improves to 4-2 with a 3.24 ERA. Chiang took the loss for Lake County and falls to 8-11 while lowering his ERA to 3.77.
Game two was the opposite of game one as the Captains drew first blood in the second inning when, with a man on base Bobby Ison blasted his third home run of the season, giving Lake County a 2-0 lead.
The Hot Rods got on the scoreboard in the fourth inning with a single run off Captains starter Courtland Cox. David Olmedo-Berrera tripled to right field with one out. One batter later Michael Russell hit a sacrifice fly to center field and Olmedo-Berrera trotted home, cutting the Captains lead to 2-1.
The Captains put two more runs on the board in the fifth inning, extending the lead to 4-1 when Martin Cervenka had an RBI double, driving in two.
The Captains bullpen, which has had its issues this season once again ran into trouble in the top of the sixth inning. By the time the inning ended the score went from 4-1 Captains to 6-4 in favor of the Hot Rods. The inning consisted of four walks, one hits batsmen, single and passed ball.
The Captains fought back in the bottom of the sixth inning and tied the game. With two outs and Angel Miguel on first base when Jodd Carter smacked his second home run of the season to tie the game 6-6.
The Hot Rod struck back in the top of the seventh off Captains reliever Christian Meister. Kevin Padlo singled to start the inning and was driven home two batters later when Brett Sullivan doubled and drove in the go ahead run giving the Hot Rods a 7-6 lead,
The two teams will continue their five game series on Wednesday night with a 7:00 p.m. start. Lefty Genesis Cabrera will take the mound for the Hot Rods. Cabrera is 10-4 with a 4.02 ERA. Casey Shane will take the hill for Lake County. Shane, a righty is 8-10 with a 4.46 ERA.
tshirer@lakecountysentinel.com or follow Tim on Twitter @IndiansTim Check out our IndiansNation fan page
POSTED 08/23/2016 21:59
