Travis Whitmore’s day began on the bench.It ended with his teammates mobbing him between first and second base.FORT WAYNE – Mike Gallic walked down the third-base line to discuss the situation with Fort Wayne manager Shawn Wooten.
The TinCaps had runners on first and second, a one-run lead and no outs in the eighth inning.
Lansing anticipated a bunt. But before Daniel Webb’s first pitch to Gallic, the pitcher was called for a balk. Gallic then made the Lugnuts pay with an RBI single to center.
Fort Wayne scored five insurance runs in the eighth on the way to a 6-1 victory against Lansing in front of 7,830 fans Saturday at Parkview Field.
“I went over and asked, coach you kind of turned away, do you want me to bunt here? He said, ‘Did you see me give the sign?’ I said, ‘No,’ ” Gallic said. “(The runners) ended up moving up, and then I just tried to get a good pitch in the zone and put a good swing on it and it fell in.”
The TinCaps began their final homestand of the regular season with a big win as they fight for the Eastern Division’s final playoff spot.
Fort Wayne (35-26, 65-65 overall) extended its lead for that last postseason position to two games over West Michigan (33-28). The Whitecaps lost at Dayton 2-0.
The TinCaps have nine games remaining in the regular season.
“We have a great group of guys here who are having fun with it,” Gallic said. “We’re playing hard. Whatever happens, happens.”
Gallic finished with three hits, one run scored and the one RBI.
“He had a couple of nice big hits for us,” Wooten said. “It takes 25 guys to win ballgames and that’s what we got today.”
Fort Wayne also received another strong outing from starting pitcher Mark Hardy. The left-hander threw six shutout innings to improve to 10-10.
“I was just using my fastball both sides of the plate and tried to mix in my sliders when I was ahead. I didn’t throw that many change-ups,” Hardy said. “The other two pitches were working. They just seemed to ground out.”
Hardy gave up four hits. He struck out three.
“I’m not going to say he’s been as dominant as (Keyvius) Sampson, but he’s been right on his heels all year,” Wooten said.
“It’s very rare that he’s gone out there and not thrown his five innings. He keeps us in ballgames, he pounds the zone. He has a backup slider that he’s been using very efficiently in the second half.”
Chris Bisson knocked in Connor Powers with a two-out single to center field in the fourth inning to give the TinCaps a 1-0 lead.
Fort Wayne tacked on five more runs in the eighth. Gallic’s RBI single started the rally. Nine batters came to the plate in the inning, which also featured three Lasing errors.
Emmanuel Quiles and Rico Noel also had RBI hits in the eighth.
“Any time you can beat a good team like (Lansing), a playoff team already, it’s a nice way to start off a homestand,” Wooten said.
