TinCaps Baseball: Club Sets Scoring Record [VIDEO]
FORT WAYNE – Fort Wayne scored 18 runs in a game for the first time since 1998 and just the fifth time ever to tie the franchise record in an 18-5 victory over the Great Lakes Loons (Los Angeles Dodgers) on Friday night at Parkview Field. The TinCaps scored 14 straight runs after trailing, 5-4, en route to the victory.
Great Lakes (24-30, 60-63) jumped out to early leads of 3-0 after the first inning and 5-4 after the third inning thanks to a Connor Wong three-run home run and a Jared Walker two-run double. That’s all the Loons would get offensively though.
Fort Wayne (35-19, 61-63) scored its first four runs in the bottom of the second inning as part of the early back-and-forth affair. A triple by second baseman Reinaldo Ilarraza knocked in two runs to cut the deficit to 3-2 before Ilarraza scored on a double from shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. to tie the game, 3-3. The TinCaps took their first lead when Tatis stole third base and the throw to third went into left field, allowing Tatis to score for a 4-3 Fort Wayne advantage.
Once the Loons went back in front, 5-4, the TinCaps took full control. In the fourth inning, right fielder Nate Easley extended his on-base streak to 22 games with a single that score Ilarraza from second base to tie the game again, 5-5.
Fort Wayne broke the game open in the fifth inning off Great Lakes reliever Aneurys Zabala (L). The TinCaps scored six runs on just two hits, including a two-run single by Easley that pushed the Fort Wayne advantage to 11-5. Ten batters came to the plate in the inning and seven reached base.
TinCaps catcher Kyle Overstreet knocked in two more runs in the sixth with a double that scored first baseman G.K. Young and third baseman Hudson Potts for a 13-5 edge. The hit was Overstreet’s fourth time on base, his second double, and it gave him three RBIs for the evening.
The scoring for Fort Wayne ended with an exclamation point in the seventh. With the bases loaded and no outs, designated hitter Jorge Oña singled in one run, and another run scored on the play thanks to an error to make the score 15-5. Two batters later, with two runners on base, Potts deposited a ball onto the grass berm past the left-center-field wall to extend the TinCaps’ lead to its final margin of 18-5. The hit marked Potts’s fifth time on base and his third hit of the night. The 18-year-old is the first Fort Wayne player this season to have 10 games with at least three hits.
The TinCaps’ bullpen was magnificent. Reliever Jim McDade (W) threw five perfect innings with five strikeouts and no walks. McDade has now gone 69 and 2/3 consecutive innings without allowing a walk between Fort Wayne and Short-Season A Tri-City. Relief pitcher Jordan Guerrero pitched the final two innings and struck out a career-high six batters, utilizing a fastball that reached 100 miles per hour.