TinCaps Drop Season Finale 3-1
Credit: TinCaps
Fort Wayne, Indiana
On a day where it was easy to feel the move from the end of summer to autumn, TinCaps pitching held the Lansing Lugnuts to only seven hits, but three of those hits were home runs, and that was enough to hand the TinCaps a 3-1 loss in the regular-season finale.
In starting for the TinCaps, Efrain Contreras went six innings with four hits and two runs, each coming on a solo shot to left field by Yorman Rodriguez and Otto Lopez.
Contreras threw well otherwise, hurling his fastball in the mid-90s and chalking up a season-high nine Ks, including striking out the side in the fifth.
In relief, Ramon Perez took the mound for one inning of hard-throwing but slightly erratic work. He walked and struck out one each and gave up the third HR of the game to Griffin Conine, who leads the Midwest League with twenty-two homers on the year. Perez also had three pitches sail past catcher Chandler Seagle to the backstop, Major League style, including a warm-up throw. Franklin Van Gurp finished out the eighth and ninth innings, giving up one hit with two Ks.
Lugnuts’ starter Sean Wymer pitched a complete game and allowed only four hits, three of which came back-to-back-to-back in the fifth inning. Justin Lopez, Agustin Ruiz, and Ethan Skender hit consecutive singles, with Skender’s bringing Lopez across home. On the same play, Ruiz got caught in a rundown between second and third, and the next batter, Chirs Givin, hit into a double play to end the only TinCaps’ rally of the game.
With the loss, the TinCaps finish the second half of the season at 29-41 and 62-76 overall.
GAME NOTES
–Announced attendance was 4,758, pushing the TinCaps just over 370,000 for the season.
–Dwanya Williams-Sutton was hit by a pitch in his last two at-bats, raising the team record for HBP to 32 on the season.
–The first inning was over in nine pitches—five for Contreras and four for Wymer.
Ken A. Bugajski lives and works in Fort Wayne, Indiana. An English professor by trade, he spends many summer nights with his wife and daughter at Parkview Field, home of the TinCaps.