Cubs blank TinCaps 3-0 to start series

South Bend, IN: The South Bend Cubs began their weekend series against the Fort Wayne TinCaps in a positive way as they shutout their division rival by a final of 3-0. With two runs in the bottom of the 2^nd inning, it ended up being all the Cubs needed to close out the important win. 

The night was an odd one for South Bend, as starter Riley Thompson looked to be cruising comfortably after his third consecutive shutout inning. Thompson was beginning to approach his career high in strikeouts after punching out three batters in both the 2^nd and 3^rd innings. 
Before throwing his warmup tosses for the 4^th, home plate umpire Bobby Tassone ejected Thompson due to a foreign substance found on his glove. Because of the ejection, Brendan King was called upon cold out of the bullpen.
King came into the game with a 2-0 lead because of RBI from Rafelin Lorenzo and Luis Vazquez in the 2^nd. Lorenzo's sacrifice fly ended up being the game winning RBI, while Vazquez's double provided the first insurance run. 
Despite not warming up in the bullpen before coming in, King dominated in four shutout innings and struck out four hitters. The right-hander's ERA is now down to 4.32.
Taking the loss for the TinCaps was starter Adrian Martinez. The right-hander pitched well enough to win, but 5.2 innings of two run baseball was not enough to pick up the victory in the series opener. 
Out of the bullpen, Fort Wayne used just one reliever in Austin Smith. Before one of his innings, Tassone asked for Smith to have one of his glove tassels cut off. Smith allowed one run, but it was not earned as Blake Hunt was charged with a passed ball with Darius Hill scoring in the 8^th.
Brian Glowicki tossed the final two innings for the Cubs and recorded the six out save. With the win, the Cubs improve to 63-53 on the season and still keep their two-game wild card lead over Lansing.