‘Caps Take Tuesday in Fort Wayne, 6-4
FORT WAYNE, IN — The West Michigan Whitecaps began a six-game road trip by taking an early lead and never looking back in a 6-4 win over the Fort Wayne TinCaps in front of 7,316 fans at Parkview Field on Tuesday night. Four pitchers, led by starter Carlos Marcano, combined
FORT WAYNE, IN — The West Michigan Whitecaps began a six-game road trip by taking an early lead and never looking back in a 6-4 win over the Fort Wayne TinCaps in front of 7,316 fans at Parkview Field on Tuesday night.
Four pitchers, led by starter Carlos Marcano, combined to strike out ten TinCaps hitters while the offense banged out ten base hits. As a result, West Michigan trimmed its deficit for first place in the Midwest League Eastern Division to 1.5 games to the Dayton Dragons.
Outfielder Max Clark, a native of Franklin, Indiana, returned to his home state and opened the contest with a double off the center field wall before scoring on an RBI-double from Kevin McGonigle to take a 1-0 lead. After Fort Wayne enjoyed two-out, run-scoring doubles by Romeo Sanabria and Nick Vogt in the early frames, the ‘Caps retook the lead on an RBI-triple by Luke Gold before sacrifice flies by Danny Serretti and Kevin McGonigle helped West Michigan take a 4-2 advantage. In the fifth, Eddys Leonard launched a two-run homer estimated at 430 feet and 108mph off the bat for his first homer during his Minor League Rehab Assignment to extend the ‘Caps lead to 6-2. In the eighth, Fort Wayne collected a pair of solo homers from Joshua Mears and Kai Murphy, but it was too late as West Michigan put the finishing touches on a win to open their series at Parkview Field.
The Whitecaps improve to 16-14 in the second half and 47-49 on the year, while the TinCaps fall to 11-20 in the second half and 39-58 overall. Marcano (3-9) tossed five innings while giving up two runs in collecting his third win, while Enmanuel Pinales (3-8) gave up all six Whitecaps runs in five frames in suffering his eighth defeat of 2024. West Michigan righty Erick Pinales worked a perfect ninth inning to record his first save of the season with the Whitecaps. Clark, Max Anderson, Roberto Campos, and Luke Gold each collected two hits apiece, while McGonigle reached safely three times with a double and pair of walks in the victory.
UP NEXT
The Whitecaps continue this six-game series against the Fort Wayne TinCaps on Wednesday at 7:05 pm. Lefty Joe Adametz takes the mound for West Michigan against fellow TinCaps southpaw Jagger Haynes. 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.