Nuts romp behind Quad Cities' quintet of errors

DAVENPORT, IA – Jake Garland went seven innings, Davis Diaz slugged his first professional home run, and the Lansing Lugnuts (1-2, 37-32) took advantage of five errors to roll the Quad Cities River Bandits (2-1, 41-28), 10-3, on Sunday afternoon at Modern Woodmen Park.

The Lugnuts piled up 16 base hits – three by Jared Dickey and two apiece from Diaz, Tommy White, Ryan Lasko, CJ Rodriguez and Joshua Kuroda-Grauer – to clinch a six-game series split on the road.

A day after Corey Avant struck out eight batters in seven innings, Garland fanned seven while allowing solo tallies in the first, fifth and sixth. Meanwhile, the Lugnuts’ offense was doing a lot more damage, with a lot more help.

River Bandits third baseman Diego Guzman committed two errors and shortstop Daniel Vazquez, first baseman Callan Moss and catcher Canyon Brown committed one error apiece, leading to seven unearned runs. More specifically, Moss’ throwing error in the fourth inning opened the door to a four-run rally. Four innings later, Diaz swatted his first pro homer to left to ignite a second four-run rally, aided by miscues from Vazquez and Brown.

Yehizon Sanchez worked a hitless eighth and Jack Mahoney pitched around a single in a scoreless ninth, nailing down the win in two hours and 25 minutes.

In the top of the first inning, Lansing first baseman T.J. Schofield-Sam was hit by his league-leading 22nd pitch of the season. It was the fourth consecutive game in which Schofield-Sam had been hit by a pitch. He trails the MiLB leader in HBPs, Everett’s Michael Arroyo, by three. Schofield-Sam also went 1-for-4 with a single, leaving his batting average at .350, best in the Midwest League and second best in MiLB.

After a day off on Monday, the Lugnuts welcome in the Dayton Dragons for a six-game series 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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