Fort Wayne TinCaps (9-12, 45-46) vs. Quad Cities River Bandits (11-10, 42-48)
LHP Jerry Keel (5-8, 2.75) vs. RHP Franklin Perez (1-2, 3.32)
Friday, July 15 — Parkview Field — First Pitch 7:05 p.m. — Game 92
LAST NIGHT: Fort Wayne fell to Quad Cities, 4-2. After the River Bandits took a 2-0 lead with a pair of runs in the second, the TinCaps tied it in the fourth, only to see the visitors score the go-ahead run on a wild pitch in the fifth. QC added an insurance run in the eighth.
ROSTER MOVE: The Padres have added RHP Anderson Espinoza to Fort Wayne’s roster, while LHP Thomas Dorminy has been promoted to the Advanced-A Lake Elsinore Storm.
PADRES TRADE: On Thursday, San Diego sent All-Star starting pitcher Drew Pomeranz to Boston for the 18-year-old Espinoza, who Baseball America ranked as the No. 15 prospect in all of the Minors earlier this week. Espinoza, who’s from Venezuela, is now considered the Padres’ top prospect. He had been pitching this season for Class A Greenville in the South Atlantic League (equivalent to the MWL) with a 4.38 ERA and 72 strikeouts in 76.0 IP.
BRINGING IN TALENT: Espinoza is now the sixth TinCap this season who was acquired by the Padres in a trade during the tenure of General Manager A.J. Preller, who was hired in Aug. 2014. Of the Top 30 Prospects in San Diego’s system, according to MLB.com, 14 have been acquired via trades. Fort Wayne’s roster now features 10 of the Top 30 Padres Prospects. Another 12 have previously played for the TinCaps.
MOORE OF THE SAME: OF Tyler Moore is on a career-long 9-game hitting streak that started on the Fourth of July. Over these 9 games, he’s 13-for-32 (.406) with 2 doubles and an RBI. Moore’s success has come after an 0-for-12 slump just before this had dropped his average on the season to below .200.
ALL-EN THE WAY UP: C Austin Allen saw his batting average fall below .300 for the first time all season over the weekend. But now he’s 7-for-his-last-14 with 2 homers, raising his average back to .306.
BIG BRAD: 1B Brad Zunica hit his 11th homer of the season Wednesday night, putting him into a tie for second most in the Midwest League. Zunica, though, actually has the best HR/AB ratio in the league, homering once every 23.45 times up.
BELEN BASHES: 3B Carlos Belen has 56 hits on the season with 29 of them (52%) going for extra-bases. Last night, however, he simply had an RBI single. Belen hit .194 in the first half but is batting .282 since the break.
GIRON HEATS UP: After his second consecutive 2-hit game, SS Ruddy Giron starts today with his batting average at .204 — the highest it’s been since he went on the disabled list (groin) on April 21. He’s on a 9-game hitting streak, the longest of his career.
