TinCaps Win Fourth Straight, 4-3 Over Cubs
SOUTH BEND, IN - For the second time this week an Ethan Salas homer doomed the Cubs. The 18-year-old top-10 prospect in all of baseball came up to bat with the TinCaps leading 2-1 in the sixth. The young phenom catching prospect belted a two-run shot to right off Nick
SOUTH BEND, IN - For the second time this week an Ethan Salas homer doomed the Cubs.
The 18-year-old top-10 prospect in all of baseball came up to bat with the TinCaps leading 2-1 in the sixth. The young phenom catching prospect belted a two-run shot to right off Nick Hull to extend the Fort Wayne lead to 4-1.
South Bend made things interesting with a late rally in the eighth. Pedro Ramirez kickstarted the inning with a single. Jefferson Rojas stepped up next and it looked off the bat like he chopped into a double play but the throw to first from Wyatt Hoffman sailed into the dugout and allowed Rojas to move up to second. Andy Garriola singled down the line in right to give the Cubs runners at the corners. A wild pitch that hit the backstop on a fly from Will Varmette scored a run and brought the Cubs a pair.
Edgar Alvarez then reached on a dropped third strike, with the wild pitch advancing Garriola to third. A sac-fly from Ed Howard made it 4-3. Parker Chavevs smashed a liner to short that was knocked down at short by Nik McClaughry but kicked into left for a single. Manuel Castro entered to get a four out save and stranded a pair when Jordan Nwogu flew out to right.
Castro came back out and retired the side in order in the ninth to pick up his ninth save.
Fort Wayne scored the first two runs of the game off Cubs starter Nick Dean in the second. Devin Ortiz singled to begin the frame and the TinCaps plated their early runs on back-to-back doubles from Ethan Long and Nick Vogt.
Ed Howard rolled an infield single softly to third to start the second and the throw from Roman Verdugo skipped into the South Bend bullpen, sending Howard up to second. Nwogu brought him home on a groundout to short.
Isaiah Lowe picked up the win in just his second High-A start. He didn’t finish with the sexiest of lines, working five innings, allowing four hits, four walks, and striking out just one. But he allowed just the one unearned run and the bullpen held the line enough to hold on for the victory.