PEORIA, IL – The West Michigan Whitecaps enjoyed an excellent night from starting pitcher Dylan Smith, while the offense tallied 17 base hits as part of a 9-1 win over the Peoria Chiefs on Friday night at Dozer Park.
The ‘Caps enjoyed an outstanding performance in high-leverage situations, going 9-for-21
PEORIA, IL – The West Michigan Whitecaps enjoyed an excellent night from starting pitcher Dylan Smith, while the offense tallied 17 base hits as part of a 9-1 win over the Peoria Chiefs on Friday night at Dozer Park.
The ‘Caps enjoyed an outstanding performance in high-leverage situations, going 9-for-21 with runners in scoring position in the contest. Smith (1-0) twirled a season-best six innings while allowing just one run on seven hits without walking a batter and striking out six to earn his first win as a Whitecap this season. The West Michigan win, combined with losses by the three teams closest to the Whitecaps in the Midwest League standings in Fort Wayne, Dayton, and Lake County, all suffered losses on Friday, putting the ‘Caps divisional lead up to two games with 14 games remaining. Each team has collected a pair of wins through the four games of the series, with Saturday’s winner guaranteed a series split, plus a chance to win the series on Sunday.
West Michigan wasted little time taking a lead they never relinquished, as the newest ‘Caps player, outfielder Seth Stephenson reached on a Peoria error before stealing second base and coming home on an RBI-single by Gage Workman to take a 1-0 lead just two batters into the game. The Whitecaps plated two more runs in the third and fourth innings to charge out in front by a score of 5-0. A run-scoring double from Izaac Pacheco highlighted the third before Brady Allen blasted his 16th home run in the fourth to extend the advantage. After the Chiefs tallied their only run in the sixth, the Whitecaps put Peoria out of reach in the seventh by scoring three more times as Austin Murr delivered a run-scoring single to put West Michigan ahead 8-1. Stephenson added his third hit of the night in the ninth to score the final run and send the ‘Caps to their second win through the first four games of this series.
The Whitecaps improve to 62-54 overall and 30-21 in the second half, while the Chiefs drop to 62-56 and 29-23 in the second half. Chiefs starter Trent Baker (6-9) took the loss after giving up five runs in four innings. Stephenson enjoyed his first game as a Whitecaps by reaching base four times in a 3-for-6 performance while stealing two bases and scoring two runs in the victory. Andrew Jenkins led the offense by going 4-for-5 at the plate with two runs scored and an RBI.
UP NEXT
The Whitecaps play the penultimate game of this six-game series against the Peoria Chiefs at Dozer Park Saturday night at 7:35 pm. Detroit Tigers Top-15 Prospect Troy Melton gets the start for West Michigan against the Chiefs Zane Mills. Broadcast coverage with Dan Hasty begins on the Whitecaps Baseball Network at 7:25 pm. Get your tickets for all 2023 home games now at www.whitecapsbaseball.com.