Dunn lifts TinCaps over Lugnuts, 5-4
FORT WAYNE, Ind. – The Lansing Lugnuts (7-11, 32-52) rallied to erase a four-run deficit, but Lucas Dunn’s eighth-inning RBI single pushed the Fort Wayne TinCaps (8-10, 35-49) to a 5-4 victory on Thursday night at Parkview Field. The TinCaps have won the first three games in the six-game set,
FORT WAYNE, Ind. – The Lansing Lugnuts (7-11, 32-52) rallied to erase a four-run deficit, but Lucas Dunn’s eighth-inning RBI single pushed the Fort Wayne TinCaps (8-10, 35-49) to a 5-4 victory on Thursday night at Parkview Field.
The TinCaps have won the first three games in the six-game set, improving to 12-3 against the Nuts in the season series.
Lugnuts starter Joey Estes lasted only 2 2/3 innings, departing after allowing four runs in the third, keyed by a two-run double by All-Star Futures Game participant Robert Hassell III, the San Diego Padres’ No. 1 prospect.
TinCaps starting pitcher Robert Gasser had shut out the Lugnuts in each of three starts entering the night, spanning 17 scoreless innings. The streak reached 20 scoreless innings before Jared McDonald swatted a two-run homer in the fourth to halve the TinCaps’ lead to 4-2.
An inning later, Alexander Campos crushed his first Midwest League home run, a solo shot, and Euribiel Ángeles flared an RBI double to tie the game at 4-4.
The score remained knotted into the late-going, with Daniel Martinez (1 2/3 innings) and Osvaldo Berrios (2 2/3 innings) matching goose eggs with Gasser and TinCaps right-hander Nick Thwaits.
But in the bottom of the eighth, Angello Infante walked Anthony Vilar and Max Ferguson with one out. Hassell flied out to center for the second out, but Dunn followed with a liner into left field to bring home Vilar with the tie-breaking run.
Ramón Pérez set the Lugnuts down in order in the ninth, striking out Tyler Soderstrom and Joshwan Wright, to end the game.
Wright finished 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, ending his 13-game on-base streak.
Southpaw Jack Owen (2.77 ERA), the reigning Midwest League Pitcher of the Week, will start the fourth game of the six-game series on Friday at 7:05 p.m. The TinCaps’ starter has yet to be announced.
The next Nuts homestand runs from July 22-24 against the Lake County Captains. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit lansinglugnuts.com or call (517) 485-4500.
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