Green homers, Lugs drop 2nd half opener  

DAVENPORT, IA – Rodney Green, Jr. ended a homerless drought with a towering roundtripper toward the Mississippi River, but the Quad Cities River Bandits (1-0, 40-27) quieted the Lansing Lugnuts (0-1, 36-31) otherwise, 8-2, on Friday night at Modern Woodmen Park.

The game marked the official start to the 66-game second half of the Midwest League season, coming halfway through the Lugnuts’ six-game series with the River Bandits.

Center fielder Green had opened up the season red hot with four home runs in a six-game span against Great Lakes, April 8-13, and then hit his fifth and sixth homers of the year on April 23 and April 26 vs. Fort Wayne. But the A’s 2024 fourth-round selection had not homered in 38 games and 166 plate appearances before taking Mauricio Veliz way out to right field with a solo shot in the seventh inning.

By that point, however, the game was already in hand for the hosts. Quad Cities lit up Lansing starter Nathan Dettmer for 11 hits, four walks and seven runs in four innings-plus, capped by a two-run homer from Carson Roccaforte in the fifth inning.

The Bandits added a sixth-inning unearned run off Tom Reisinger for good measure before Yehizon Sanchez blanked them on three strikeouts in the seventh and eighth innings.

In the losing cause, shortstop Joshua Kuroda-Grauer and right fielder Jared Dickey each went 2-for-4 with a pair of singles.

The penultimate game of the series sees Lansing right-hander Corey Avant tangle with Royals prospect Felix Arronde at 6:30 p.m. / 5:30 local time on Saturday.

The Lugnuts then wrap up the road series on Sunday and return home to host the Dayton Dragons from June 24-29. Tickets are available for purchase at the stadium box office, (517) 485-4500 or online at milb.com/lansing.

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