Loons shutout the Captains to get their fourth in a row
MIDLAND -- Four Great Lakes Loons pitchers helped the team to their third shutout win of the season Wednesday night, in which they defeated the visiting Lake County Captains 3-0 at Dow Diamond before 4,526 fans.
Angel Sanchez made a scheduled abbreviated start, pitching the first inning for the Loons. He used nine pitches, seven for strikes, to retire the side before closing the books on his short night.
He was relieved by lefty Rick Anton, recently drafted by the Dodgers in the eighth round of the MLB Draft and added to the Loons roster in late July.
Anton ate up five innings for the Loons to pick up the first win of his professional career, improving his ERA from 2.00 to 1.29 in three appearances. The lefty limited the Captains to two hits, allowed no walks and struck out two, using mostly fastballs.“We threw a lot of strikes tonight and just let our defense work,” Anton said after the game. “My fastball was working, that’s just about all I threw, not too many breaking balls tonight, just fastballs down into the zone.”
Loons reliever Pete Budkevics entered the game in the top of the seventh and allowed only one hit through two frames before newly acquired Juan Rodriguez made his Dow Diamond debut. Rodriguez, who was involved in the Dodgers recent three-way trade with Boston and Seattle that sent former Loons outfielder Trayvon Robinson to the Mariners, brought the heat Wednesday night. After allowing the only walk from Loons pitchers of the night to his first batter, he settled in to strike out two Captains, twirling heaters at 96-99 m.p.h. His final strikeout ended the game, earning him his first save for the Loons.
Offensively the resourceful Loons used five hits to score three runs over the fourth and fifth innings.
Chris Jacobs got the Loons on the board first with a single to left field that scored Bobby Coyle, while Charlie Mirabal, Leon Landry and Casio Grider connected for three consecutive singles in the fifth for two runs. Jacobs was the only player in the game to record multiple hits, going two-for-four with one RBI.
The Loons will continue their four-game series against the Lake County Captains on Thursday night and send LHP Greg Wilborn (2-2, 4.03) to the mound against the Captains RHP Felix Sterling (2-0, 2.38).
