‘Caps Comeback Falls Short in 13-8 Defeat
LANSING, MI — The West Michigan Whitecaps erased a seven-run deficit, only to fall back into another hole as part of a 13-8 loss to the Lansing Lugnuts in front of 7,851 fans on Friday night at Jackson Field. A pair of Lugnuts homers in the first four innings put
LANSING, MI — The West Michigan Whitecaps erased a seven-run deficit, only to fall back into another hole as part of a 13-8 loss to the Lansing Lugnuts in front of 7,851 fans on Friday night at Jackson Field.
A pair of Lugnuts homers in the first four innings put the ‘Caps in a 7-0 deficit before the ‘Caps tied the game in the sixth inning. In the bottom of the frame, the Lugnuts scored four times off ‘Caps reliever Erick Pinales to reestablish their lead and send West Michigan to back-to-back losses for the first time since July 23-24 against Lansing at LMCU Ballpark.
The Lugnuts struck early and often, beginning with a three-run homer from Midwest League RBI-leader Will Simpson in the first, setting the tone and giving Lansing a 3-0 lead. In the third, T.J. Schofield-Sam highlighted a three-run frame with a two-run blast to help extend the Lugnuts advantage to 6-0. In the fourth, a sacrifice fly from Nate Nankil plated Johnny Butler to give Lansing a 7-0 edge. The subsequent two frames saw West Michigan make a furious comeback, plating four runs in the fifth in an inning highlighted by Max Anderson’s two-run homer and Luke Gold’s run-scoring double. One inning later, the ‘Caps tallied three more to even the score as Thayron Liranzo’s RBI-double and Roberto Campos tied the game with a run-scoring single to knot the ballgame at seven. In the bottom of the sixth, Lansing answered against Pinales, as five of the first six hitters who came to the plate in the frame reached safely. A two-run single by Will Simpson – part of a six-RBI performance – turned the tide in a contest that sent Lansing to its second straight win of the series.
The Whitecaps record drops to 26-19 in the second half and 57-54 overall, while the Lugnuts go to 21-25 in the second half and 53-58 on the year. Lugnuts pitcher Garrett Irvin (2-2) picked up his second win of the year after tossing 1.2 frames of relief, while Pinales (2-2) allowed four runs in one-third of an inning in taking his second loss. Outfielder Roberto Campos reached base in four of his five plate appearances to lead the ‘Caps at the plate in a losing cause.
UP NEXT
The Whitecaps play the penultimate game of this six-game series against the Lansing Lugnuts on Saturday at 7:05 pm. Jaden Hamm, a Top-100 Prospect in Major League Baseball, according to Baseball America, gets the start for West Michigan against Jake Garland. Tune into the broadcast coverage with Dan Hasty on the Whitecaps Baseball Network at 6:50 pm on 106.1 FM ‘The Ticket’ and 1340 WJRW-AM in Grand Rapids to catch all the action. Don’t miss out on the excitement; get your tickets for all 2024 home contests, or listen to the games live at whitecapsbaseball.com.