Multiple Rallies Fuel Extra-Inning TinCaps Win

FORT WAYNE — A night after blowing a ninth-inning lead and taking a dispiriting extra-innings loss, the TinCaps offense looked listless as they fell behind 4-0 through the first half of Friday night’s game.

But the home club rallied, using a combination of speed, an aggressive approach on the bases, and quality at-bats to push across runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth to tie it up. Great Lakes got back-to-back doubles to retake the lead in the top of the ninth, but the TinCaps once again rallied to send it to bonus baseball again.

This time, though, Fort Wayne got through the top half scoreless before, with one out, Lamar King Jr. came through with his third RBI knock of the night to push across the winning run and set off a team-wide celebration in short right field.

“It felt great. There’s no better feeling than that,” said King, who had also tied the game with an opposite-field single in the eighth inning. “I knew I was going to get a fastball there because the last at-bat they gave me a slider, so I was just trying to get the barrel out in front and get the ball in play.”

The 10th-inning rally was the fifth straight frame in which the TinCaps scored. In each, instance, speed and aggressiveness on the bases contributed to their success.

Fort Wayne got on the board when Ryan Wideman lofted a 70 mph flare down the right field line. Going hard out of the box, he turned the ball into a double easily. One out later, he scored on the first of Bradley Frye‘s two singles on the night. Frye immediately swiped second before coming around on King’s line drive double.

“It was a nice team win,” said manager Jonathan Mathews. “To be honest with you, I was a little worried early in the day… this is a pretty boisterous group and it wasn’t as much today. But then, as the game went on, we stole a couple of bases, and we scored a little bit. The fight, the effort has never been an issue with these guys.”

In the seventh, Conner Westenburg drew a four-pitch walk, then stole second base on the next pitch. That allowed him to score on a single and close the gap to one. An inning later, Frye singled again, logged his second stolen base of the night and 29th in 36 attempts on the year, then beat a strong through from Loons right fielder Eduardo Quintero to tie the game.

“Our lineup changed over the last couple of weeks, so we’re going to have to bunt, we’re going to have to run, we’re going to have to move the baseball and advance guys, and they did that tonight.

“That’s how this team is going to look the rest of the way, and tonight was a good example of that.”

The late offense was a reversal from early in the game when the TinCaps were held scoreless over 3.1 innings by Jack Leiter in his High-A debut. The demonstrative righty struck out seven with a fastball that ran up to triple digits.

Meanwhile, Bryan Balzer, who subscribers can read more about here, struggled to repeat his mechanics and both his command and velocity suffered. The righty walked four and hit three more batters with his fastball fluctuating from 92 to 98 mph.

The 21-year-old, coming off a masterful one-hit, 10 strikeout performance his last time out, has held Midwest League hitters to a .207 average, but he’s walked 22 and hit 10 in 32 innings.

Abraham Parra, scheduled to follow in a piggyback role, was called on with the bases loaded to face top Dodgers prospect Emil Morales in the fourth. The 20-year-old righty got him to fly out to keep the game from getting away from the TinCaps.

Parra allowed one run in the fifth, but then got on a roll and set down nine straight Loons hitters, running his fastball up to 97.

“We were talking about it in the dugout. That was as good as his fastball has been. For that to happen at this time of year is really impressive,” said Mathews.

With only one available pitcher behind him in the bullpen, Parra went back out for the ninth after his offense had tied the game, but gave up back-to-back doubles to give back the lead. He rallied back one more time to avoid further damage, getting a pair of easy grounders.

“He pitched his guts out, tonight. I was proud of that. He had good stuff, but he also pitched.”

Notes: In addition to the hustle double, Wideman also had a single, drew a walk and was hit by a pitch in the contest. It was just his fourth extra-base hit with the TinCaps and 10th walk in 197 trips to the plate. … Frye finished the night 2-for-4 with a walk and two stolen bases. He’s posted a .968 OPS in his first 14 games in the Midwest League.