Fort Wayne TinCaps (23-15, 55-51) @ Burlington Bees (14-24, 49-58)
LHP Travis Radke (1-0, 1.50) vs. RHP Justin Anderson (6-8, 3.64)
Wednesday, August 5, 2015 — Community Field (Burlington, Iowa) — First Pitch 7:30 p.m. — Game 107
ABOUT LAST GAME: The first-place TinCaps extended their winning streak to seven games as they blanked Burlington, 4-0, on the road. Chris Huffman (5 IP), T.J. Weir (2 IP), and Colby Blueberg (2 IP) teamed to author the shutout, while Ruddy Giron, Jose Ruiz, and Franmil Reyes each drove in a run. The TinCaps took a 1-0 lead in the fifth when Trae Santos tripled with two outs and scored on a passed ball. Fort Wayne didn’t look back after that.
FIRST PLACE: The TinCaps lead West Michigan by 2.5 games for first place in the MWL Eastern Division with 32 games remaining in the regular season, which ends on Labor Day (Sept. 7).
WINNING STREAK: The TinCaps now have won seven consecutive games. It’s their longest winning streak of the season. The last time they had a streak of seven consecutive wins or more was when the team won nine straight from June 2-11 in 2013. The franchise record for consecutive wins is 10, which happened twice in 2009 (April 9-19, July 1-10). That year the TinCaps went on to win the Midwest League Championship Series against Burlington in a three-game sweep.
000000: Tuesday was the sixth shutout TinCaps pitchers have thrown this season. All six have come since May 31. Fort Wayne enters Wednesday’s game having gone 17 2/3 without a run allowed going back to Sunday.
NO CROOKED NUMBERS: The TinCaps scored a run in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth innings, respectively, on Tuesday, while the Bees didn’t score at all. Ironically, about two miles east of Community Field is Snake Alley, which was once recognized by Ripley’s Believe It or Not as the Crookedest Street in the World.
THE FAMILIAR ONE: Burlington outfielder Trevor Gretzky, the son of hockey great Wayne Gretzky, grew up with TinCaps starting pitcher Travis Radke. Gretzky and Radke, both 22, went to the Oaks Christian School together in Westlake Village, Calif. — just north of LA. Even before that, they played travel ball together as kids. At Oaks Christian, they were are also classmates with Nick Montana (son of Joe) and Trey Smith (son of Will). To Radke’s chagrin, Gretzky isn’t in the lineup tonight.
MWL EASTERN DIVISION SECOND HALF PLAYOFF PICTURE:
Place Team W-L GB GB WC Streak
1. FORT WAYNE 23-15 — — W7
2. West Michigan 20-17 2.5 — W1
3. Lansing* 20-18 3.0 0.5 W3
4. Bowling Green 19-19 4.0 1.5 L3
5. Lake County 18-19 4.5 2.0 L1
6. South Bend 18-20 5.0 2.5 L1
7. Dayton 17-21 6.0 3.5 L3
8. Great Lakes** 15-23 8.0 5.5 L4
* First Half Division Winner ** First Half Wild Card Winner
