Travis Whitmore’s day began on the bench.It ended with his teammates mobbing him between first and second base.FORT WAYNE – There was a “smack” not often heard at Parkview Field.
It came when Steven Moya’s home run hit off the green awning just below the ballpark’s Treetops section well beyond the right-field wall during West Michigan’s seventh inning.
The sound associated with the start of Fort Wayne’s playoff push? That would be a thud.
The Whitecaps hit two home runs in an 8-4 victory Wednesday against the TinCaps, in front of 3,747 fans.
“I was here in (2009) and Jaff Decker hit one (to the Treetops). I thank God it hit that roof, because it probably would have kept rising,” said TinCaps reliever Robert Lara, who gave up the home run that went about 420 feet.
Fort Wayne (28-23, 58-62 overall) began Wednesday tied with Great Lakes for the final playoff spot in the Midwest League’s Eastern Division.
Both teams lost, with Dayton topping the Loons 5-1. With the win, West Michigan moved within a game of the TinCaps and Great Lakes.
“Especially as good as we’ve been swinging the bats and playing good defense, it seemed like a hangover from our day off (Tuesday),” TinCaps manager Shawn Wooten said. “But (the Whitecaps) had the day off as well, and it didn’t happen to them.”
Nineteen games remain in the regular season. Fort Wayne doesn’t have a day off the rest of the way.
“It’s going to be a fun 19 games,” Wooten said. “Whatever happens, happens. You can’t control any of that stuff. They have to go out and play. We have to do it as a team.”
The TinCaps are trying to return to the playoffs for a third consecutive season. They’ll have to do a better job of closing out innings after West Michigan scored five times with two outs.
Jason Krizan hit a two-out, two-run home run in the fourth inning to give West Michigan a 3-2 lead. The Whitecaps (27-24, 59-61) led the rest of the game.
TinCaps starter Zach Cates gave up six runs on six hits in 5 1/3 innings.
“He had good stuff going, he just made a couple of pitches that were up and they took some good swings,” Wooten said.
Cates struck out eight but fell to 3-9.
“I feel like it was just a few pitches, honestly. I felt like I made good pitches on some of the hits they got,” Cates said. “It’s just baseball, I guess.”
Lara inherited two runners from Cates in the sixth. He gave up a two-out, two-run double to Curt Casali, stretching West Michigan’s lead to 6-2.
Moya hit his home run with two outs in the seventh, finishing a triple short of the cycle.
Notes: Pitcher Robert Eisenbach joined the team from the Arizona League Padres. Stiven Osuna was transferred to San Diego’s Triple-A team in Tucson. … Infielder Cory Spangenberg entered in the seventh as a pinch hitter and remained in the contest. He missed the previous three games with a hamstring injury.
