Capel stays hot, Lansing wins slugfest

(Eastlake, OH) - It was a beautiful day for baseball on Thursday, as the Lake County Captains (18-34) took on the Lansing Lugnuts (29-22) at Classic Park in the rubber game of a three-game series. The rubber game turned into a slugfest with 34 combined hits between the two sides, including three by Conner Capel who fell a triple shy of the cycle and hammered his eighth home run in 15 games. Despite Capel's career day, Lansing came out on top, 15-9.
Lansing struck first against Captains starter Luis Jimenez. Christian Williams blasted a leadoff home run to left field in the second inning to give Lansing a 1-0 lead. The Lugnuts had a chance to extend the lead, but Jimenez worked around trouble. Lansing loaded the bases with two outs on a double and a pair of walks, but Jimenez struck out J.B. Woodman to end the frame. 

The Captains answered back in the bottom of third. Todd Isaacs hit his sixth home run of the season deep to right centerfield, tying the game at 1-1. After Lugnuts starter Andy Ravel walked Capel and Li-Jen Chu singled, Capel stole third and came in to score the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly by Gavin Collins. The Captains had their first lead of the game at 2-1.
Lake County opened up its lead in the bottom of the fourth. With the bases loaded and one out, Trenton Brooks hit a liner to second base that Bradley Jones dropped. Jones picked the ball up and got the force out at second, but Miguel Eladio came home to score. The next batter up was Capel and he drilled a three-run home run to push the Captains' lead to 6-1. Capel's homer was his ninth of the season and his eighth in 15 games.
The Lugnuts responded with a monster four-run fourth inning to trim Lake County's lead to just one run. Lansing loaded the bases with one out on a pair of singles and a hit batsman, prompting Captains Manager Larry Day to pull Jimenez and bring in right-handed reliever Michael Letkewicz to get the Captains out of the inning. Two pitches in, Yeltsin Gudino hit a two-run double and then a wild pitch plated Edward Olivares from third. Shortly thereafter, Gudino came home on an RBI infield single by Ridge Smith to make it a 6-5 Captains lead.
In the top of the sixth, the Lansing Lugnuts took the lead and blew the game wide open. Lansing scored eight runs in the inning on seven hits, a Captains error and a walk. Jones, Williams and Gudino contributed RBI singles, Woodman brought home two with a single, Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. hit a sacrifice fly and Nick Sinay plated a run with a fielder's choice. Letkewicz started the inning on the hill, but the Captains burned through two more relievers, right-hander Henry Martinez and lefty Ben Krauth before the inning was over.
It was not until the bottom of the eighth before the Captains bats came alive again. After a double by Jorma Rodriguez and a walk to Brooks, Capel drilled a triple up the first base line to score both runners. The three-bagger put Capel a double away from the cycle and cut the Lansing lead to 13-8. Capel would not get another at-bat, but finished the day 3-for-4 with five RBI and two runs scored.
Lansing extended its lead to 15-8 with a blast in the ninth. Williams led off the inning with a walk against Captains reliever Cesar Ventura and Olivares followed with a two-run homer, his second home run in as many days. Lake County got one run back in the ninth on an RBI single by Rodriguez, but that was all the Captains' offense could muster.
Lansing took the rubber game from Lake County, 15-9. Ravel (4-1) took home the win. The right-hander gave up six runs over five innings, but his offense helped lift him to victory. Ravel surrendered nine hits, walked one, hit one batter and struck out four.
Jimenez made his Midwest League debut for the Captains and he pitched in and out of trouble early. The right-hander stranded runners in scoring position in each of his four full innings of work. Jimenez ended up going 4.1 innings and surrendered seven hits and four runs. Jimenez struck out 4, walked four men and hit two batters. Letkewicz (0-1) suffered the loss in relief. He lasted 0.2 innings and gave up three runs on four hits.
The Captains will look to rebound on Friday night against the South Bend Cubs. First pitch at Classic Park is scheduled for 7:00 PM.
Individual game tickets for all Captains games are on sale at the Classic Park box office, online at captainsbaseball.com and by phone at 440-954-WINS (9467). 12-, 20-, and 35-game mini ticket plans for the 2017 season are on sale now at great prices complete with several exclusive benefits. Information can be found at the Captains website www.captainsbaseball.com.