Chirinos Drives in Five as Wisconsin Wins Fourth Straight
FORT WAYNE, IN – The fans of the Fort Wayne TinCaps came to see Yu Darvish on Wednesday night at Parkview Field. It was Jesús Chirinos who put on the show. Chirinos drove in five runs, including three on a home run to a rarely reached part of the ballpark,
FORT WAYNE, IN – The fans of the Fort Wayne TinCaps came to see Yu Darvish on Wednesday night at Parkview Field. It was Jesús Chirinos who put on the show. Chirinos drove in five runs, including three on a home run to a rarely reached part of the ballpark, to lead the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers to an 8-3 victory.
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The Rattlers (43-23) took the lead in the second inning against Darvish, who was on an MLB rehabilitation assignment for the San Diego Padres as the starting pitcher for the TinCaps. Matt Wood and Felix Valerio singled with one out to put runners on first and second. Darvish got Tayden Hall to hit a grounder to second. The TinCaps got the force at second, but the throw to first was off the mark to keep the inning alive.
Eduarqui Fernández drove in Woods with an infield single that dribbled about halfway up the first baseline. Then, Jesús Chirinos hit one a lot farther. The Wisconsin designated hitter hit a home run to the roof of the 400 Club in dead center field. The only other player to reach that spot in Parkview Field was Fernando Tatis Jr in 2017. The homer was the sixth of the season for Chirinos.
Chirinos added a two-run single against Darvish in the fourth inning to put the Rattlers up 6-0.
Tate Kuhner, the Timber Rattlers starter was cruising through five innings. He allowed one hit and struck out seven as he headed to the mound for the bottom of the sixth inning, which was just about the time a brief rain shower hit the stadium. Kuehner gave up a walk and a single to the first two batters. An error on Jadher Areinamo on a high chopper near second allowed a run to score and put runners on the corners with no outs. Jay Beshears grounded into a force play at second to score a run. Kuehner walked his second batter of the inning and that was all for him.
Chase Costello was called into action from the Wisconsin bullpen. Costello gave up a single to right that loaded the bases before getting Nerwilian Cedeño to ground into an inning ending 6-3 double play.
The Timber Rattlers would get both of those runs back with single tallies in the seventh and eighth innings on an RBI single by Luis Lara and an RBI triple by Valerio.
Fort Wayne (27-38) got a run in the eighth inning on a single by Ethan Salas but that was it for their offense.
Kuehner earned his third win of the season as he struck out seven over 5-1/3 innings. Valerio went 3-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI in his first game with Wisconsin this season.
The Timber Rattlers won their fourth straight game and have tied the 2001 Timber Rattlers for the third-most wins in a half. The 2001 Rattlers went 42-26 in both the first and second halves of the Midwest League season when there were 70 games. Only the 1996 Rattlers (46-21 in the first half) and the 2012 Rattlers (44-25) have won more games in a half that the 2024 Timber Rattlers.
Game three of the series is Thursday evening at Parkview Field and it is also the final game of the first half. K.C. Hunt (2-0, 2.14) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Fernando Sanchez (0-2, 18.00) is set to start for the TinCaps. Game time is 6:05pm CDT. The radio broadcast is on AM1280, WNAM starting with the Community Blood Center Pregame Show at 5:45pm. The game is also available on the internet and the Bally Live App.