SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Down to their final three outs, the West Michigan Whitecaps let South Bend's bullpen beat itself, scoring four runs in the ninth inning — the tying and go-ahead runs both coming home on back-to-back wild pitches by Jose Romero — to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 5-2 win over the Cubs in front of 5.638 fans at Four Winds Field on Thursday night.
Romero's first wild pitch of the inning brought home Clayton Campbell to tie it at 2-2. His second scored Andrew Sojka to put West Michigan back in front. From there it only got messier for South Bend: a balk with Juan Hernandez at the plate pushed across Stephen Hrustich to make it 4-2, and Hernandez capped the rally himself, singling home Carson Rucker two batters later. Four runs, and the Whitecaps needed only one hit to get them.
It was the second time all night South Bend's pitching had opened the door. West Michigan struck first in the sixth on a wild pitch by Cubs starter Nazier Mulé that scored John Peck, but the Cubs answered in the bottom of the seventh against Whitecaps reliever Maddox Long — Justin Stransky's RBI single tied it, and Leonel Espinoza's groundout brought home the go-ahead run to make it 2-1 South Bend heading into the late innings.
Zack Lee (4-2, 2.87 ERA) picked up the win for West Michigan, while Romero (0-1, 10.24 ERA) was saddled with the loss after the ninth-inning meltdown. South Bend actually out-hit the Whitecaps on the night, 7-6, but it didn't matter once the free bases started piling up.
West Michigan gave shortstop Bryce Rainer, who has homered in each of his last five games to break a franchise record, the night off, but didn't skip a beat without him. The win keeps the Whitecaps (55-60) in first place in the Midwest League East during the second half, holding a 2.5-game lead over the Great Lakes Loons, who kept pace with a 7-2 win over Fort Wayne. South Bend falls to 66-47, still comfortably the class of the West Division and postseason-bound regardless of how this series shakes out.
UP NEXT
West Michigan plays the fourth game of this six-game series against the South Bend Cubs on Friday at 7:05 p.m., with lefty Jojo Ingrassia getting the start for West Michigan against fellow southpaw Cole Reynolds for the Cubs. Broadcast coverage with Dan Hasty begins on the Whitecaps Baseball Network at 6:50 pm on ‘The Ticket West Michigan’ and 1340 WJRW-AM in Grand Rapids, and online at WhitecapsBaseball.com.