The Lansing Lugnuts continued its strong start to the second half by taking three of four from the West Michigan Whitecaps in a four-game, home-and-home series.
The Lugnuts (7-4 second half, 44-37 overall) won the first three games of the series before losing 6-5 in a 15-inning marathon Sunday at Fifth Third Ballpark in Comstock Park. The game lasted 4 hours and 36 minutes.
The game fell 12 minutes shy of setting a new Lugnuts’ record for longest game. Lansing’s longest game was a 17-inning, 2-1 win against the Fort Wayne Wizards on April 18, 1997.
With the score tied at one entering the 14th inning, Lansing put four runs on the board only to watch the Whitecaps (3-8, 44-37) respond with four of their own.
The Lugnuts went scoreless in the top of the 15th inning, then Pedro Olivero (2-2) surrendered the game-winning run to give West Michigan the win.
“Hopefully they’ll have a short memory,” Lansing manager Julio Garcia said. “It’s a tough loss. We’ll see what happens.”
But Garcia said the defeat can’t take away from the overall series.
“We’ve been playing pretty good,” he said. “Anytime you can get three out of four it’s good.”
The Lugnuts were outhit in the first two, but managed 1-0 and 5-3 victories Thursday and Friday, respectively, at Oldsmobile Park, 505 E. Michigan Ave.
“It’s good to outhit them, but obviously the score is the one that counts,” Garcia said. “We were able to manufacture runs, where in the past we hadn’t been able to do it.”
The pitchers also are doing their part with runners on-base. The Whitecaps stranded 31 base runners during the series.
In game one, left-hander Felix Sanchez (2-4) scattered five hits over six innings and Steve Ellis finished the deal with his seventh save of the season.
In game two, after the Whitecaps scored two runs in the top of the first inning, the Lugnuts responded with a run in the bottom of the inning and a four-run third.
Lansing first baseman Brad Bouras knocked in the go-ahead run in the third inning with an RBI-double off the wall in left. Bouras finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored.
“I was just doing my job,” Bouras said. “Someone’s on-base, I was just trying to get a hit.”
In the third game, Lansing shutout the Whitecaps for the second time in the series, 2-0.
At one point Lansing right-hander B.J. Benik (4-1) retired 14 consecutive batters while allowing just two hits in seven innings of work. Ellis recorded his second save of the series and eighth of the season.
Lansing returns home Friday against the Clinton LumberKings (5-4, 33-42).
