Sac flies and wild pitches doom Lugnuts in Great Lakes opener
MIDLAND, Mich. – The Great Lakes Loons (31-23, 67-51) used a sacrifice fly and a pair of Abel Mercedes wild pitches to rally past the Lansing Lugnuts (24-30, 53-65), 5-4, on Tuesday evening at Dow Diamond. The Lugnuts’ dramatic home and road fortunes continued to diverge: Lansing came in to
MIDLAND, Mich. – The Great Lakes Loons (31-23, 67-51) used a sacrifice fly and a pair of Abel Mercedes wild pitches to rally past the Lansing Lugnuts (24-30, 53-65), 5-4, on Tuesday evening at Dow Diamond.
The Lugnuts’ dramatic home and road fortunes continued to diverge: Lansing came in to the road opener having won five of six at home against Peoria and 13 of its last 15 home games – but the Tuesday result is the Nuts’ ninth loss in their last 11 road games.
RBI singles from Jake Reinisch (2-for-4, HR) and Breyson Guedez (2-for-3, walk) had given the Nuts a 4-3 lead in the seventh inning.
But in the bottom of the eighth, Mercedes relieved Riley Huge (2 1/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 3 K) and gave up consecutive singles to Mairo Martinus and Eduardo Guerrero to put Loons at the corners. Victor Rodrigues plated Martinus with a sac fly, tying the game, and Guerrero stole second to move into scoring position.
With Anson Aroz at the plate, Mercedes uncorked a wild pitch to move Guerrero to third base. Then, after a walk to Aroz, Mercedes unleashed another wild pitch to bring in Guerrero to give Great Lakes the lead. He then tossed a third wild pitch but recovered to strand Aroz at third base.
It was for naught, though, as Davis Chastain struck out the side in the ninth to secure the Loons victory.
Rodrigues’s sacrifice fly was the Loons’ third of the game. After a Reinisch home run and Dylan Fien RBI single gave Lansing an early 2-0 lead, a Charles Davalan sac fly in the third inning and Guerrero sac fly in the fourth inning leveled the score.
20-year-old Lansing starter José Parra gave up two runs in 3 1/3 innings, walking three and striking out one in his High-A debut. The young southpaw had skipped over Single-A Stockton, moving from the Arizona Complex League directly up to the Midwest League.
DH Reinisch extended his on-base streak to 35 games with his RBI single and fifth home run of the season.
Lansing starts southpaw Jackson Nove on Wednesday night at 7:05 p.m., countering Great Lakes right-hander Will Gagnon in the second game of the six-game series.
The Nuts play the Loons through Sunday in their final road series of the season,returning to JacksonⓇ Field™ from September 1-6 to host the San Diego Padres-affiliate Fort Wayne TinCaps in the last series of 2026. For tickets and more information, call (517) 485-4500 or visit www.milb.com/lansing.
# # #