BURGOS TWIRLS ANOTHER WINNER
West Michigan (3-3, 35-40) and South Bend (3-3, 37-38) split six consecutive games to open the second half with each team winning two of three on the road. The 'Caps continue a stretch of 12 straight games against their rivals from Indiana as the Fort Wayne TinCaps come to town for the first of two home-and-home series' starting on Thursday.
On Wednesday night, the Whitecaps scored their only runs with a two-run rally in the bottom of the third. Dixon Machado led off the inning with a walk and raced to third base on a single by Jason Krizan. Luis Castillo followed with a groundball single up the middle, scoring Machado for the game's first run. After a sacrifice bunt pushed the runners to second and third, Rob Brantly's hot smash to the right side resulted in a run-scoring groundout and a 2-0 lead.
That turned out to be plenty for Burgos (3-1), who took a shutout into the ninth inning and allowed just four singles on the night. The 20-year-old lefty struck out six and walked three without allowing a hit after the fourth inning. He threw exactly 90 pitches in the ballgame, walking the leadoff batter in the ninth inning before being removed.
Through four starts since joining West Michigan on June 5, Burgos is 3-1 with a 1.35 ERA and has held opposing hitters to a paltry .174 batting average.
His ninth-inning walk turned into the only Silver Hawks' run of the night.
Closer Bruce Rondon took over for Burgos and struck out the first batter he faced, but then walked the next two to load the bases. Gerson Montilla followed with a sacrifice fly to cut South Bend's deficit to 2-1.
Rondon responded by inducing a sharp one-hopper to Machado at shortstop. The slick-fielding 19-year-old played the ball off his chest and fired to first to end the ballgame. That clinched Rondon's 13th save of the season, the third-highest total in the Midwest League.
For the second time in less than a week, the Silver Hawks' Jeff Shields (4-8) suffered a tough loss after being out-dueled by Burgos. Shields allowed just two runs on five hits over seven innings on Wednesday, losing by the same 2-1 score that came out of the first match-up between Burgos and Shields on Friday in South Bend.
The Whitecaps continue a six-game homestand at Fifth Third Ballpark as the Fort Wayne TinCaps come to town for a three-game series starting Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. RHP Josue Carreno (4-7, 5.27) is scheduled to take the mound for West Michigan against RHP Adys Portillo (1-8, 8.08) of Fort Wayne. The Whitecaps will be wearing special jerseys on Space Alien Night and fans will be treated to a post-game concert by the band Outer Vibe. It will also be an Altogas Thrifty Thursday featuring $1 hot dogs and $2 beers, Pepsi products and soft pretzels. Group and individual tickets can be reserved by calling the Whitecaps front office at 616-784-4131 or visiting whitecapsbaseball.com.