Coming off a walk off homerun win, the Mud Hens looked to get their first back-to-back wins of the season. Michael Pineda took the mound for the Hens, after Toledo took a trip to Iowa for a six-game series.
The first three innings began as a pitching duel, when Pineda
Coming off a walk off homerun win, the Mud Hens looked to get their first back-to-back wins of the season. Michael Pineda took the mound for the Hens, after Toledo took a trip to Iowa for a six-game series.
The first three innings began as a pitching duel, when Pineda went three shutout innings to start the game. In the top of the fourth, the Mud Hens would strike first. Zack Short would start out with a double, following an RBI single hit by Kody Clemens. The RBI single gave the Mud Hens a 1-0 lead over the Cubs.
Heading into the fourth inning, Pineda looked to keep his shutout going. However, the Cubs would hit a grand slam off Pineda to take a 4-1 lead over Toledo. This would end the night for Pineda, and the Cubs would snag three more runs in the inning. Toledo would trail Iowa 7-1 after the fourth inning. The Cubs would score their final run in the sixth inning, increasing their lead 8-1.
The Mud Hens were not going to go down easy. In the top of the eighth inning, Zack Short hit his second double of the game, scoring Ryan Lavarnway to give Toledo another run. Then in the ninth inning, The Mud Hens would try to get a rally going. The rally began with a single by Willi Castro. Kreidler would walk, leading to an RBI double hit by Josh Lester to give the Hens another run. At this point, the Hens would trail 8-3. Later in the inning, Jacob Robson would hit a two-run shot to left center field, making the score 8-5, in favor of the Cubs. The Mud Hens rally would come up just short, as Toledo would not score anymore runs.
Despite the loss, all the Mud Hen batters improved in this game. The team increased their batting average with running in scoring position, going three-for-seven in the ball game. The Hens also had a total of four extra base hits (three doubles and a home run).
The Mud Hens will look to keep the bats going in the series and are looking forward for game two of the series.