FORT WAYNE – The Great Lakes Loons, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ High-A affiliate, rolled into town and pounded the home team 12-2. The Dodgers system has nine players in MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 players, and the Loons featured three of them in outfielders Eduardo Quintero, Charles Davalan, and shortstop Emil Morales.
All three hit home runs and accounted for eight of the visitors’ 12 RBIs on the evening.
Matt Watson got the start on the opener against Great Lakes. (Photo: Jeff Nycz)
Righthander Matt Watson got the start for the TinCaps, and although he didn’t allow a hit, he needed 31 pitches to get out of the inning as he walked three batters, and his two wild pitches led to the first run of the game.
“I would rather get hit than give up free bases,” said TinCaps manager Jonathan Matthews. “Our pitchers are good, but they are not so good that they are going to blow away guys by throwing it down the middle of the plate. We try to fill up the zone with as many strikes as possible.
“I can stomach that more than the free passes.”
Watson, 24, whom the Padres took in the 13th round out of Texas A&M Corpus Christi in the 2024 draft, lasted 2.2 innings in his twelfth appearance and ninth start of the season. He wound up throwing 56 pitches, but still only allowed a pair of runs while notching four strikeouts against four walks.
Fort Wayne put a run on the board with Jack Costello‘s RBI double in the second and evened the score with Lamar King, Jr.’s sacrifice fly in the third before Great Lakes put ten unanswered runs on the board. Quintero capped the scoring with a grand slam in the eighth to go along with two other hits, including an RBI double and a stolen base.
Jack Costello had one of the TinCaps’ two RBI. (Photo: Jeff Nycz)
After Costello’s double, the TinCaps were held to four singles on the evening as left-hander Zach Root threw six innings with seven strikeouts and no walks.
“He had what we call a ‘carry-heater’ with some vertical rise, and the plan was to hit low bullets, and that is kind of what we got early in the game,” said Matthews.
“We kind of wanted to get him off of his fastball, which we did, but he started hitting his breaking pitches, getting chase below the zone – he did a good job.”
In addition to the seven walks and three wild pitches on the evening by the TinCaps’ staff, the defense made five errors behind them, including two by normally sure-handed shortstop Justin DeCriscio, two by Rosman Verdugo and one by center fielder Ryan Wideman.
“Careless,” said Matthews. “They are professionals, and they were all in the middle of the field, and that is where you typically want your best defense.
“It was also uncharacteristic, especially with DeCriscio and Verdugo, and Wideman was just an error in a blowout game, but it’s not acceptable, and we will talk about all of those things tomorrow.”
Fort Wayne Notes: The TinCaps will attempt to bounce back by sending Winyer Chourio to the mound on Wednesday. The 22-year-old Venezuelan was impressive in Lake Elsinore with a 3.31 ERA in 51.2 innings and looked good in his first start in the Midwest League, going five strong innings and only allowing a run. … TinCaps batters struck out 12 times on Tuesday and only drew one walk.