In front of Parkview Field’s third sell-out crowd of the season, TinCaps pitchers struck out a season-high 13 batters en route to a 4-3 win over the Lansing Lugnuts on Friday night at Parkview Field.
Starter Dinelson Lamet fanned a career-high eight hitters during his four innings of work and reliever T.J. Weir punched out three more. The pair combined to shut out Lansing (17-12) through the game’s first seven innings.
Fort Wayne (9-17) jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the third. Four straight hitters reached base safely to begin the frame. It was capped by a two-RBI Nick Torres single to right field. His hit plated Jose Ruiz and Michael Gettys.
Later in the fourth, Franchy Cordero roped a triple down the left-field line that scored Ruiz to give Fort Wayne a 3-0 edge. The shortstop has reached base safely nine times over his last three games.
But the TinCaps were not done. In the bottom of the seventh inning, Duanel Jones turned on a fastball from Lansing reliever Starlyn Suriel and launched it over the left-field wall. Fort Wayne went up 4-0. It was Jones’ team-leading fourth home run of the year.
The Lugnuts added two runs in the eighth and one more in the ninth, but Bryan Verbitsky closed the door at the end and picked up the save.
Weir (2-0) recorded his second win of the season and Conner Greene (2-2) picked up the loss for Lansing in front of 6,587 fans.
The TinCaps can win the series on Saturday evening. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m.