(TIMBER RATTLERS) MIDLAND, MI – The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers carried over their impressive play from twelve-game homestand to pick up a 10-3 victory over the Great Lakes Loons Tuesday night at Dow Diamond. The Rattlers were up 6-0 after the top of the second inning and their pitcher worked through some sticky situations to win for the tenth time in their last thirteen games.
The Timber Rattlers (30-28) scored three times in the first inning after there were two outs and none on base. Great Lakes starter hit Blake Burke and walked Dinges to set the stage. Jadher Areinamo lined a double to left to knock in Burke. Hedbert Pérez delivered a two-out, two-run single to score both Dinges and Areinamo for the 3-0 lead.
Wisconsin doubled its lead in the second inning with three runs on five hits. Daniel Guilarte and Yhoswar Garcia started the inning with singles and moved to second on a grounder by Juan Baez. Eduardo Garcia’s ground ball up the middle didn’t get through the drawn-in infield because of a diving stop by shortstop Jordan Thompson. Guilarte scored on the play as the throw went to first.
Burke and Dinges followed with consecutive RBI doubles to make it 6-0 in favor of the Rattlers.
Baez tripled in with one out in the top of the fourth and was able to score on the play when centerfielder Kendall George was unable to pick up the ball cleanly.
Great Lakes (30-28) had a lot of traffic against Wisconsin starting pitcher Ryan Birchard. There was a lead-off walk in the first, two walks to start the second, a single and a walk to open the third, and a one-out walk in the fourth. Birchard wiggled off the hook each time, mostly thanks to six strikeouts.
In the fifth, Birchard walked the first two batters and that was the end of his night. Jesús Broca was called into the game to face Josue DePaula, the #30 prospect in baseball according to MLB Pipeline.
DePaula swung at the first pitch from Broca and tapped back to the mound. Broca turned that into a 1-6-3 double play. He struck out the next batter to end the inning.
The Loons got something going against Broca in the sixth when he hit the lead-off batter and gave up a one-out single before ending the threat by getting Jake Gelof to ground into a 5-4-3 double play.
Dinges added to the Wisconsin lead and his impressive RBI total since joining Wisconsin with a two-out, two-run home run in the top of the seventh. Dinges has collected eighteen RBI in seventeen games with Wisconsin since coming to the team on May 20.
Kyle Nevin gave the Loons fans something to cheer in the bottom of the seventh inning with a two-out, three-run home run off Jeferson Figueroa, who ran into an unfortunate call earlier in the inning.
Figueroa retired the first batter of the seventh and appeared to get Mike Sirota on a flyout to right. However, just before he made the pitch, a ball got loose from the Great Lakes bullpen and time was called. Sirota made the most of his second chance and singled later in the at bat. A single and a fielder’s choice brought Nevin to the plate with runners at the corners and two away before he hit his home run.
Areinamo, who had three hits in the game, knocked in Wisconsin’s final run of the game with an RBI grounder.
Great Lakes loaded the bases with one out in the ninth against Miles Langhorne, Wisconsin’s fourth pitcher of the night, who joined the Rattlers from the Carolina Mudcats earlier in the day. He would close out the game with a strikeout and a flyout to seal Wisconsin’s fourth straight win.
The quartet of Wisconsin pitchers walked seven and struck out eleven.
The Loons stranded ten batters and were 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position. The Rattlers were 6-for-13 with runners in scoring position in the game.
Game two of the series is Wednesday night at Dow Diamond. Tyson Hardin (4-2, 2.22) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Ratters. The Loons have named Eriq Swan (1-3, 5.04) as their starter. Game time is 6:05pm CDT.
Comments