Fort Wayne Finishes Series with 2-0 Shutout of Cubs
Fort Wayne, IN - The South Bend Cubs won Game 1 of this week’s series against the Fort Wayne TinCaps 8-3 on Tuesday night. Since that point, Fort Wayne rallied back with five straight wins this week and ultimately shut out the Cubs on Sunday night by a final of
Fort Wayne, IN - The South Bend Cubs won Game 1 of this week’s series against the Fort Wayne TinCaps 8-3 on Tuesday night. Since that point, Fort Wayne rallied back with five straight wins this week and ultimately shut out the Cubs on Sunday night by a final of 2-0 at Parkview Field.
Fort Wayne and South Bend matched up well in the finale, with both teams sending hard throwing righties Victor Lizarraga and Michael Arias to the mound. Lizarraga, who faced the Cubs back in June and allowed three runs in 4.2 innings, had some good stuff working and worked around one base-runner in each of the first four innings.
Arias began his start with three perfect frames. He faced the minimum through three innings, but the bottom of the 4th started the difference maker inning for the TinCaps. Arias faced Fort Wayne lead-off man Tyler Robertson, who drove a ball over the left field wall for a solo home run. Robertson finished the series going 8/20 at the plate.
Lizarraga continued a solid start and struck out a career high nine batters in six shutout innings, earning the victory.
Out of the South Bend bullpen, Derek Casey looked extremely sharp in two perfect innings of his own. Casey faced the minimum in each, and struck out a combined three batters.
Yovanny Cruz continued the solid bullpen day for the Cubs with a quick-paced 6th inning, and then rapidly retired the first two batters of the 7th. A two-out walk to Lucas Dunn was followed by a gap-double from Carlos Luis to make it 2-0 TinCaps.
Fort Wayne’s bullpen finished off the final six outs, and the TinCaps took the game. With their victory, Fort Wayne surpassed the West Michigan Whitecaps and now lead the Midwest League’s East Division by a half-game over the Whitecaps.
South Bend will pack up and head home to begin their final series of the year on Tuesday night at 7:05 PM against the Quad Cities River Bandits, following the Monday off day on Labor Day.