Mike Couzens has been named manager of broadcasting and media relations, the Fort Wayne TinCaps announced today.
The unraveling began the way all unravelings begin, with one innocently pulled thread.
Great Lakes center fielder Nick Buss tugged it loose with an artful bunt to open the visitors’ sixth inning Wednesday night, the ball landing just beyond the outstretched glove of TinCaps reliever Josh Spence.
And just like that, a lovely back-and-forth between the two teams at the top of the Midwest League East Division became a rockslide in favor of the Loons.
Two big innings featuring six hits, two home runs and a couple of fielding errors lifted the Loons, and finished the TinCaps. Great Lakes scored three in the sixth on five hits, three more on just one hit in the seventh, and the Loons claimed the first game of this three-game set, 8-4, in front of 3,250 at Parkview Field.
Great Lakes lit up five TinCaps pitchers for 13 hits and stretched its lead over the TinCaps to four games in the East. The TinCaps’ magic number to lock up a playoff spot remained at four with 12 games remaining as Lansing beat West Michigan.
Speaking of which …
“This is sort of like a playoff preview right now,” TinCaps manager Jose Flores said. “And in order for us to stay in games, we need to make the plays and give ourselves a chance if we can.”
Wednesday, they both did and they didn’t.
“This was one of those games where we hit some balls hard, and they just happened to hit some gloves,” center fielder Danny Payne said.
“And they hit some balls hard and found some holes. And that was the difference in today’s game.
“I feel like we came out today and played hard and gave ourselves a chance to win. Unfortunately, we just didn’t come out on the winning end.”
The Loons unknotted a 2-2 tie in the sixth by knocking around Spence, the TinCaps’ long man, scoring their three runs on Buss’ bunt single, back-to-back homers by Brian Cavazos-Galvez and Jaime Ortiz and singles from Joe Becker and Gorman Erickson.
The TinCaps got two of those back in their half, chasing Great Lakes’ starter Josh Wall with three hits including RBI singles from Daniel Meeley and Everett Williams. But it was their last gasp.
In the Loons’ seventh, TinCaps reliever Noah Mull issued a walk to Rafael Ynoa to open the inning, and the floodgates were open again.
Mull’s attempted pickoff sailed into the TinCaps’ bullpen, advancing Ynoa to third; Buss drew another walk; TinCaps shortstop Jonathan Galvez let a grounder scoot beneath his glove to score a run; and a Cavazos-Galvez double and loud out to center from Becker scored two more.
The TinCaps went quietly thereafter, managing just three baserunners across the last three innings.
“This is a real mature team over there,” Flores said.
“They’ve got some mature hitters, so we’ve just got to be able to hit our spots and make our pitches when we need them. And every time they answer, we’ve got to answer ourselves.”
Note: Catcher Jason Hagerty has been named Midwest League full-season All-Star. He is the only TinCap on the list. Hagerty is batting .313 with 14 home runs and 71 RBI. Since the All-Star break, he is batting .383 and has been on base nearly half of his plate appearances (.496 on-base percentage).
