Cubs Cough Up Late Lead in 7-6 Loss to Fort Wayne

The South Bend Cubs (12-11) lost a fourth consecutive game and the series to the Fort Wayne TinCaps (11-15) on Saturday afternoon at Four Winds Field. In the 7-6 loss, the Cubs blew a 6-5 lead in the ninth inning, walking four and issuing two wild pitches.

Click here to view Saturday’s box score.

Neither starting pitcher — right-hander Kevin Valdez for South Bend and reigning Midwest League Pitcher of the Week Jamie Hitt — fared all that well on Saturday. Both men walked three and surrendered multiple runs while failing to complete four runs, making for a competitive game out of the gate.

Fort Wayne struck first in the second inning thanks to left fielder Jack Costello, who stroked a solo home run to left field. Costello’s fourth blast of the season didn’t hold up for very long, as Cubs first baseman Cole Mathis led off the bottom of the second with a triple and scored on a ground ball.

In the next inning, the Cubs took the lead and chased Hitt from the mound, loading the bases with one out. A walk to Mathis pushed the Cubs ahead, and a single from designated hitter Cameron Sisneros stretched their lead to 3-1. South Bend could have gotten more, but Fort Wayne righty Will Varmette entered the game and retired two in a row with the bases juiced to end the inning.

The TinCaps would erase the two-run deficit in the fourth, scoring three to move ahead by a 4-3 margin. Two Valdez walks set the table for second baseman Dylan Grego, who drilled an RBI double to left-center field. Center fielder Jake Cunningham then tagged a two-run single to right-center, flipping the lead in Fort Wayne’s favor.

Another TinCap run scored in the fifth on a Costello sacrifice fly, but the Cubs pushed back in the bottom of the inning. A pair of walks brought up second baseman Drew Bowser with two aboard and two outs, and Bowser cleared the bases with a game-tying double up the alley in right-center.

With the game knotted up at 5-5, both relief crews settled in after the fifth inning. For the Cubs, lefty Ethan Flanagan completed four innings of one-run ball, striking out four. He worked around a serious jam in the seventh, posting a zero after allowing runners to reach second and third with nobody out.

For the TinCaps, lefty Braian Salazar punched out five in two scoreless frames. However, he came back for the eighth inning and struggled, helping the Cubs load the bases with nobody out. They’d take the lead on a walk from center fielder Kane Kepley and hand the ball over to right-hander JP Wheat, who sought his first professional save.

Wheat started strong in the top of the ninth, getting to two outs right away on a pair of groundouts. He fell apart after that, though, walking four in a row while uncorking two consecutive wild pitches to put Fort Wayne in front. Right-hander Kleiber Olmedo would finish the job for the TinCaps in the bottom of the ninth, earning the winning decision by working around a one-out walk.

The Cubs will look to split the series against the TinCaps at 2:05 PM on Sunday, May 3.