Great Lakes Completes Sweep in Classic Fashion
MIDLAND, Mich. - The Great Lakes Loons (62-68, 35-25) and Lansing Lugnuts (56-74, 24-37) put on an instant classic in front of the 11th sellout of the season at Dow Diamond on Friday night. After a game that featured five lead changes and three ties, including two drastic late-game momentum swings, the Loons pulled out a win, 8-7, in 10 innings, to complete a three-game sweep over the Lugnuts.
"What a ballgame," Loons manager Razor Shines said. "Immediately after the game, it thought, 'this might be the game that puts us over the hump.' To lose a ballgame like that could throw you into a serious funk. But to win one, it can do the reverse."
With the score tied 3-3 in the bottom of the seventh inning, Loons five-hitter Jeremy Rathjen stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and hit a 2-0 pitch over the left field wall for a grand slam that seemed like it would the difference in a Loons victory.
"We had some really tough at-bats that inning and there were two outs with the bases loaded, so I was just looking for a strike because he had to pitch to me," Rathjen said. "He went 2-0, so I was looking for a fastball over the middle of the plate and it found the barrel."
The Loons set the stage for Rathjen with two singles and a hit batsman. Brandon Trinkwon led off the frame with a single. Trinkwon was thrown out at second on a fielder's choice when James Baldwin tried to sacrifice bunt. With Baldwin at first, Robbie Garvey picked up an infield single and then Tyler Ogle was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Rathjen, who finished the night going 2-for-5 at the plate. Rathjen's home run was his seventh long ball of the season.
In the top of the ninth inning, Lansing scored four runs (three earned) off Loons reliever Crayton Bare to tie the game at 7-7. After three singles, Dwight Smith, Jr., hit a one-out, bases-loaded double to score three runs and cut the deficit to one run. Smith scored to tie the game, coming home when Great Lakes pitcher Rob Rogers (2-0) committed a throwing error on a Patterson infield single.
Great Lakes bounced back in the 10th inning to push across the game-winning run. Rathjen led off with a single to right field and advanced to second base on a Kevin Taylor sacrifice bunt. Loons eight-hitter Jose Capellan hit his fourth single of the night up the middle and Rathjen raced home for the winning run, securing the sweep over Lansing.
"I just try to do my job when I go out there," Capellan said. "Since (Rathjen) was on second, I knew that anything close, I needed to get it up the middle. I'm just doing the same things I've been doing and I've kept working hard. It's going to the cage and it's working with Mike (Eylward). I'm just trying to work hard."
"His confidence has changed," Shines added. "Jose now believes that he's a pretty good player. He's always been a good player, but now he believes it. So there's no telling what might happen; he may just take off and I hope he does. He's a good kid; he busts his butt every night and I only hope for the best for him."
Great Lakes cleanup hitter Aaron Miller, who went 2-for-4 in the game, opened the scoring in the first inning with his ninth home run of the season. Miller's homer was a solo shot that went 385 feet to right field.
The Lugnuts knocked around Loons starter Chris Anderson in the top of the third inning, getting two runs in the frame. Lansing loaded the bases and Smith, who was 3-for-5, hit an infield single to score Jason Leblebijian, who was 2-for-4, for Lansing's first run of the game. Kevin Patterson followed with a bases-loaded walk to give the Lugnuts their first lead of the game.
Anderson went three innings for the Loons, giving up two runs on four hits, while striking out four and walking two.
Great Lakes tied the game in the home half of the third, with Capellan, who was 4-5, scoring on a Trinkwon sacrifice fly.
Chris Hawkins scored for Lansing in the fourth to give the Lugnuts another lead. Hawkins, who was 2-for-5, tripled down the right field line and scored when Rathjen dropped a deep Jordan Leyland fly ball in right field.
The Loons tied the game in the sixth inning. Taylor, who was 2-for-4, doubled to left field, advanced to third base on a wild pitch and scored on a bunt single from Capellan.
Lansing starting pitcher Taylor Cole threw 5 1/3 innings for the Lugnuts. Cole gave up three runs (two earned), while striking out three and walking three.
Brandon Martinez gave the Loons five good innings of relief, giving up one run on three hits over five frames. Martinez struck out one and walked one.
Rogers got credit for the win, throwing the last 1 2/3 innings for Great Lakes, ending the Lansing ninth inning by getting Santiago Nessy to ground into a double play, and holding the Lugnuts scoreless in the 10th.
Lansing closer Arik Sikula gave up the game-winning hit to Capellan, but Chad Girodo (1-1) gave up Rathjen's single in the 10th and took the loss for the Lugnuts.
Both Dayton and Bowling Green lost on Friday night, allowing the Loons to gain a game on each division rival. Great Lakes is now 1 1/2 games back of the Hot Rods for first place in the Eastern Division second-half standings and are 2 1/2 games in front of the Dragons for the second-half Eastern Division wildcard spot.
The Loons open a three-game series at the South Bend Silver Hawks (77-53, 33-28) on Saturday. Tom Windle (4-0, 2.47 ERA), the Dodgers No. 9 prospect, is expected to start for Great Lakes. Blake Perry (7-6, 4.43), a 6-foot-5, 190-pound right-hander is slated to start for South Bend. Game time is 7:05 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN 100.9-FM and ESPN1009.com
The Great Lakes Loons are a seventh-year Single-A partner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. For tickets and more information about the Loons, visit Loons.com or call 989-837-BALL.