Travis Whitmore’s day began on the bench.It ended with his teammates mobbing him between first and second base.As rain fell Thursday afternoon, Matt Jackson kept telling himself one phrase.
“We’re playing today.”
Jackson wanted to stay mentally sharp if the rain, which had already pushed the first game of Fort Wayne’s opening round series with Bowling Green back a day, let up.
It did. And he was.
Jackson pitch six strong innings, leading the TinCaps to a 6-3 victory against the Hot Rods in front of 1,468 fans Thursday at Parkview Field.
Mike Gallic had two hits, including a home run. Cory Spangenberg and Rymer Liriano added three hits as Fort Wayne grabbed a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series.
Fort Wayne is one win away from advancing to the Eastern Division championship series for the second time in three years. The TinCaps will have to get it done on the road. Game 2 is scheduled for 8:05 p.m. today in Bowling Green, Ky. Game 3, if necessary, is 8:05 p.m. Saturday, also at Bowling Green.
“It’s always important to get Game 1. Now there is that comfort zone,” Jackson said. “Now we need to get one of the two. But you can’t relax, you have to go out and get it.”
The series was originally set to begin Wednesday but was postponed because of rain. Thursday’s contest started after a rain delay of 1 hour, 28 minutes.
The delay didn’t affect Jackson. The right-hander gave up five hits in six innings. He surrendered one run, which was unearned.
“It was just another outing,” Jackson said. “…I don’t look at playoffs or anything like that. I just went out there and tried to compete and give ourselves a chance to win.”
Jackson struck out three and walked one.
“He just knows how to pitch,” TinCaps manager Shawn Wooten said. “He knows what he’s doing. He keeps the ball down.”
Jackson received offensive support early, as Fort Wayne scored twice in the first.
Luis Domoromo and Gallic had RBI singles.
Jackson also started strong. He needed only 11 pitches to retire the side in order in the first inning. He threw 11 more pitches in a scoreless second inning.
The Hot Rods got to Jackson with a run fourth.
The TinCaps got the run back in the bottom of the fourth. Gallic hit his first home run of the season, a line drive to left field, to extend the lead to 3-1.
“It seemed like they were creeping (back) in, but it kind of changed with one swing of the bat,” Wooten said.
Bishop Luers graduate Kevin Kiermaier made sure Fort Wayne’s lead stayed there with a great throw in the fifth inning.
Rico Noel attempted to start a rally with a one-out walk. He reached second with a stolen base. Spangenberg then singled to center. Kiermaier fielded the ball on one hop and then fired home to throw Noel out at the plate.
Fort Wayne has been an aggressive team on the bases all year long. The TinCaps were second in the Midwest League in stolen bases. That aggressiveness led to four base runners getting thrown out while attempting steals Thursday.
But it didn’t hurt Fort Wayne. Not with the way Jackson pitched.
Liriano knocked in two runs with a single in the three-run seventh. The single, his third hit, made it 6-1.
“Any time you can put a nine-pitch bat together in the playoffs, get a bases-loaded knock in a huge situation, you can see why teams voted him MVP,” Wooten said.
Bowling Green got two runs in the eighth, but Kevin Quackenbush pitched a scoreless ninth for the save.
“It gives us a lot of options,” Wooten said of the Game 1 victory, “but (Bowling Green has) done an outstanding job of winning at home (48-22 overall at home).
“But I feel really good about it. We’ve been a lot better on the road the second half (21-14) than we have been at home (19-17).”
Note: Kiermaier went 0 for 2 for the Hot Rods. He also had a sacrifice bunt in the third inning and was hit by a pitch in fifth.
