TinCaps Baseball: Caps Strike Twice In Ninth For Win
PEORIA, Ill. – The TinCaps scored twice in the top of the ninth inning to break a tie score and beat the Peoria Chiefs (St. Louis Cardinals), 5-3, on Sunday afternoon at Dozer Park.
With runners at second and third and one out, designated hitter Tyler Benson, in just his second game as a TinCap, knocked a single to right field that scored Jack Suwinski for what proved to be the game-winning run. Buddy Reed then added a sacrifice fly to plate Nate Easley to make it 5-3. Suwinski had drawn a one-out walk against Ronnie Williams (L), while Easley pulled a double down the left-field line.
Hansel Rodriguez (S) entered for the bottom of the ninth and closed it out with a 1-2-3 inning.
The TinCaps (16-8, 42-51) have won six of their last seven and are 4-1 on their current six-game road trip.
Fort Wayne initially fell behind, 2-0, as Peoria (14-10, 44-49) scored a run in the first and another in the fifth off Ronald Bolaños.
Shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. gave the TinCaps a 3-2 lead in the sixth inning with a three-run homer that went 418 feet out to left field. It was the 18-year-old’s 16th of the season—tied for second most in the Midwest League.
Mark Zimmerman relieved Bolaños in the fifth with runners at second and third and only one out. The righty reliever struck out Peoria’s cleanup hitter, Ryan McCarvel, and retired the next batter, too, to extinguish the threat.
In similar fashion, Wilmer Torres (W) replaced Zimmerman with runners at first and second and one out in the seventh. Torres also retired the Chiefs’ four and five hitters, although he did surrender a game-tying run in the eighth that made it 3-3.