Great Lakes Steals Two At Parkview
FORT WAYNE – The TinCaps received superb pitching on Thursday night at Parkview Field, but came away with a pair of one-run losses against the Great Lakes Loons in a doubleheader. Fort Wayne fell 1-0 in the front-end and 2-1 in the finale.
Chris Huffman threw 6 1/3 innings with no earned runs allowed for the TinCaps in Game 1, while Game 2 starter Jose Castillo — in his Fort Wayne debut — pitched 5 scoreless innings.
Great Lakes (22-25) scored the only run of Game 1 in the fifth inning. Jimmy Allen singled in Jacob Scavuzzo, who reached on an error. Although he was bested by Kevin Guzman (W, 3-4) and Kyle Hooper (S, 1), Huffman’s start was the second longest of the season for a TinCaps pitcher.
In Game 2, the TinCaps were a strike away from a victory in the top of the seventh before Kelvin Ramos hit a go-ahead, two-run double against Colby Blueberg (L, 0-1). That plated Jacob Scavuzzo, who singled with two outs, and Jimmy Allen, who was pinch-running for Spencer Navin after he walked.
Fort Wayne (18-29) had taken a 1-0 lead in the second inning after first baseman Trae Santos doubled and scored on an RBI-triple from designated hitter Franmil Reyes. The TinCaps put the tying run in scoring position and the winning run on first in the bottom of the seventh, but couldn’t come through with a big hit off Karch Kowalczyk (W, 2-1).
As for the 19-year-old Castillo, he struck out five and allowed only one hit — a bloop single in the fourth. The native of Venezuela walked two in the first inning before getting comfortable. The Padres just added him to Fort Wayne’s roster on Thursday after he began the year in Extended Spring Training.
The two losses came after Fort Wayne had won the first three games of the three-day, five-game series.
The TinCaps stay home now to host the West Michigan Whitecaps in a four-game set beginning Friday. The 7:05 p.m. game can be heard on ESPN Radio 1380, TinCaps.com, and the TuneIn Radio app, and seen on Comcast Network 81.