Buoyed by pen, Locos rally past Caps

LANSING, Mich. – Trailing 5-0 in the second inning, the Lansing Locos (10-14) used seven scoreless innings and six unanswered runs to top the West Michigan Whitecaps (8-16), 6-5, on Thursday night at Jackson® Field™.

The result marked Lansing’s third straight win over West Michigan to open the six-game series.

The tie-breaking blow came from Euribiel Ángeles in the eighth inning, delivering a sacrifice fly to bring in Lazaro Armenteros with the Locos’ first lead of the game and thrilling the crowd of 6,440.

The game had begun inauspiciously for the Locos, who sent James Gonzalez to the mound in a spot-start for ill right-hander Grant Holman and watched West Michigan score five runs against the young southpaw in the second inning – though a potential sixth run was tagged out at the plate on a fine series of relays from right fielder Lawrence Butler to second baseman Ángeles to catcher Jared McDonald for the final out.

The Locos’ offense immediately struck back, tallying three runs in the second inning, sparked by Brett Harris’s third home run of the year, a solo shot launched to left off Tigers top prospect Ty Madden.

Madden departed after just 2 1/3 innings, with a fourth run charged to him after reliever Gio Arriera wild-pitched in Jack Winkler in the third.

In the fourth, Austin Beck homered to right-center off Arriera, Beck’s fourth home run of the year, to tie the game at 5-5.

Lansing’s relief corps stepped forward from there: Diego Granado blanked West Michigan through the third and fourth innings, Edward Baram handled the fifth and sixth, and Kumar Nambiar twirled a perfect seventh and eighth.
After the Locos grabbed the lead in the eighth, Angello Infante stranded the potential game-tying run at third in a hitless ninth for his fifth save in as many chances.

Every Locos batter hit safely at least once , with Butler and Ángeles each finished 2-for-4 with two singles.

Right-hander Stevie Emanuels (7.13 ERA) starts the fourth game of the series on a LAFCU Frontline Friday featuring the entertainment of Tyler’s Amazing Balancing Act. West Michigan counters with right-hander Keider Montero (7.94 ERA), with first pitch at 7:05 p.m. and gates opening at 6 p.m. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit lansinglugnuts.com or call (517) 485-4500.

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