MIDLAND, MI – The West Michigan Whitecaps bullpen gave them a chance, but a walk-off RBI Single in the ninth resulted in a 4-3 loss to the Great Lakes Loons on Wednesday night at Dow Diamond.
The Whitecaps watched starting pitcher Ben Jacobs, the Detroit Tigers No. 16 prospect, last only one 33-pitch inning before being removed due to pitch count restrictions after allowing three runs (two earned) on two hits while striking out all three batters he retired. The loss gives both the ‘Caps and Loons a victory through the first two games of this series.
Jacobs’ first inning saw the first three Great Lakes hitters reach base consecutively, as Loons outfielder Eduardo Quintero deposited an RBI-single to score Mike Sirota before a Jacobs wild pitch helped extend the Great Lakes lead to 2-0. An error later in the frame allowed the Loons to plate a third run and bring the Great Lakes lead to three before the ‘Caps bullpen helped keep the team in the contest. The next 7.1 innings saw the ‘Caps use four pitchers – Carlos Lequerica, Inohan Paniagua, Seth Chavez, and Logan Berrier combine to throw scoreless baseball, and only in the seventh did West Michigan take advantage of a wild Loons pitcher to put themselves on the scoreboard. The ‘Caps drew five walks in the seventh – four against hard-throwing reliever Reynaldo Yean – and a pair of wild pitches gave West Michigan its first two runs to bring the score to 3-2. A solo home run from Luke Schliger – playing in his first game in the Detroit Tigers organization – in the eighth inning knotted the score at three. In the ninth, the bottom of the Loons lineup came through with a single by Eduardo Guerrero before a wild pitch by Berrier advanced the potential winning run to scoring position. After a walk to Victor Rodrigues, catcher Jesus Galiz ended the contest with a run-scoring single to give the Loons the Wednesday win.
The Whitecaps fall to 13-22 while the Loons jump to 21-13. Davis Chatain (4-0) gets his fourth win of the season for tossing 2.2 frames while striking out four, while Logan Berrier (0-2) takes the loss for West Michigan. Outfielder Andrew Sojka and infielder Samuel Gil both reached base three times in a losing cause. The Whitecaps went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position in the defeat.
UP NEXT
The Whitecaps play the third game of this six-game series at Dow Diamond against the Great Lakes Loons, with the first pitch scheduled for 6:05pm. A pair of Top-30 Prospects for the Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Dodgers square off in the Whitecaps Lucas Elissalt, against Zach Root for the Loons. Broadcast coverage with Dan Hasty begins on the Whitecaps Baseball Network at 5:50pm on 106.1 FM ‘The Ticket’, and 1340 WJRW-AM in Grand Rapids, or listen to all the action on whitecapsbaseball.com.