Clark Hits First ‘Caps Homer in 6-5 Defeat
LANSING, MI — Detroit Tigers top prospect Max Clark hit his first homer at the High-A level, but the West Michigan Whitecaps came up short as part of a 6-5 loss to the Lansing Lugnuts in front of 6,628 fans on Thursday night at Jackson Field. WATCH: CLARK’S FIRST HIGH-A
LANSING, MI — Detroit Tigers top prospect Max Clark hit his first homer at the High-A level, but the West Michigan Whitecaps came up short as part of a 6-5 loss to the Lansing Lugnuts in front of 6,628 fans on Thursday night at Jackson Field.
WATCH: CLARK’S FIRST HIGH-A HOMER
A day after collecting his first four-hit game as a pro, Clark led off the ninth inning by smashing an 0-1 pitch 392 feet over the right field wall for his first homer since joining the Whitecaps. Unfortunately, West Michigan left multiple baserunners on in four of the final five innings in dropping from first place in the Midwest League Eastern Division and a half-game back of the Dayton Dragons.
Lansing took control of the contest early by scoring single runs in the second and third innings highlighted by a sacrifice fly from Will Simpson to take a 2-0 lead. In the fourth, ‘Caps outfielder Patrick Lee tied the game with a two-run single to level the ballgame at two. Lansing’s offense continued to push runs across, as the Lugnuts tallied a run in the fourth and two more in the fifth, featuring an RBI-Double by Casey Yamauchi to take a 5-3 lead. In the eighth, a run-scoring single by Jim Jarvis brought West Michigan within a run at 5-4, but Lansing tallied a vital insurance run when Ryan Lasko’s single plated Danny Bautista Jr. to extend the lead to 6-4 before Clark launched his first ‘Caps homer to conclude the scoring.
The Whitecaps record falls to 26-18 in the second half and 57-53 overall, while the Lugnuts go to 20-25 in the second half and 52-58 on the year. Lugnuts reliever Micah Dallas (1-0) tossed an inning of relief to pick up his first Lansing victory, while Jake Miller (0-1) allowed three runs in four innings in taking his first ‘Caps defeat. Lansing lefty reliever Diego Barrera recorded the final five outs of the contest in recording his fourth save of the season. Jarvis, Max Anderson, Roberto Campos, and Josh Crouch all record two hits apiece for West Michigan in a losing cause. Catcher Thayron Liranzo reached base in all five of his plate appearances, including drawing a Whitecaps individual-best four walks, the first four-walk game since Carlos Mendoza on June 22 of last season, and coming one short of Derek Mitchell’s single-game franchise record of five set back in 1997.
UP NEXT
The Whitecaps play the fourth game of this six-game series against the Lansing Lugnuts on Friday at 7:05 pm. Pitchers Joe Miller and MLB Futures Game Participant Luis Morales get the starts for West Michigan and Lansing respectively. 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.