Fort Wayne TinCaps (14-21, 50-55) vs. Lansing Lugnuts (18-17, 54-51)
RHP Anderson Espinoza (5-9, 4.63) vs. LHP Ryan Borucki (7-3, 2.86)
Sunday, July 31 — Parkview Field — First Pitch 7:05 p.m. — Game 106
LAST NIGHT: The TinCaps beat the Lugnuts, 4-3, in a 4 hour, 32-minute, 15-inning epic. Carlos Belen plated Austin Allen with a walk-off triple for the game’s first run since the seventh inning.
LONGEST GAME SINCE: April 18, 2014, when the TinCaps lost to the Burlington Bees, 7-5, in an 18-inning game that went 5 hours, 45 minutes. Previously this year, Fort Wayne’s longest game by innings was 13 (July 11 @ West Michigan — also a 4-3 win) and by time was 4:26 (July 16 vs. Cedar Rapids — a 13-10 loss in 10).
FIRST WALK-OFF WIN SINCE: June 28 against Dayton, when Peter Van Gansen drew a ninth-inning bases-loaded walk for a 4-3 win. The TinCaps now have 4 walk-off victories on the season.
LONGEST WINNING STREAK SINCE: The TinCaps have won 4 in a row for the first time since a 5-game winning streak from June 4-9.
K-ASTILLO: Left-hander José Castillo struck out 9 in 4 2/3 innings of relief last night. The last time a TinCaps reliever K-ed 9 was June 20, 2013, when Walker Weickel did it over 5 1/3 against South Bend.
NO WALKS STREAK: Not only did Fort Wayne’s 3 arms (Emmanuel Ramirez, Corey Kimber, and José Castillo)last night not walk a batter, TinCaps pitchers haven’t walked a batter in 45 1/3 consecutive innings dating back to Monday. It was actually today’s starter, Anderson Espinoza, who walked a batter in the third in game two of Monday’s doubleheader at Beloit.
BELEN’S BIG NIGHT: The walk-off triple wasn’t Carlos Belen’s only hit last night. He finished 4-for-7, and a homer shy of the cycle. Belen struggled in the first half, hitting .194, but in 32 games since the break, he’s batting .285 with 19 extra-base hits and 21 RBIs. Since Carlos debuted on April 23, his 36 extra-base hits are the sixth most in the league in that time. Half of his 72 hits have gone for extra bases. (He’s now tied for fourth in the MWL with 7 triples.)
VILTER VAULTS UP: Nick Vilter is batting cleanup today for only the second time in his professional career, and the first time since his rookie season in 2014 with the Eugene Emeralds. (San Diego has since switched its Northwest League affiliation to Tri-City.) Vilter is on a 13-game on-base streak. In July he’s slashing .353/.510/.618 with 6 doubles. Vilter had 1 RBI in his first 24 games of the year and now has had 7 over the last 2 days.
ROSTER MOVES: This morning the Padres promoted TinCaps left-handed starter Jerry Keel to the Advanced-A Lake Elsinore Storm. Keel, who allowed only 1 run in 7 innings on Thursday, posted a 2.97 ERA here across 9 starts and 16 relief appearances. In turn, San Diego has added righty Jesse Scholtens from the Short Season-A Tri-City Dust Devils. Scholtens was just drafted in the 9th round last month out of Wright State. (See Page 8.)
PARKVIEW FIELD PROMOTIONS:
Today: On-Field Postgame Autographs
Monday: Jake the Diamond Dog, Family Feast Night, Fireworks
Tuesday: Donnelly Day (U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly)
