(TIMBER RATTLERS) – GRAND CHUTE, WI – The West Michigan Whitecaps put one ball in play in the top of the ninth inning on Tuesday night against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers at Neuroscience Group Field. They still managed to rally for four runs to erase a 4-3 deficit to defeat the Rattlers 7-4. There were five walks, two wild pitches, and a throwing error on a play at the plate for a potential force play that cost the Rattlers a win in game one of the series against the East Division leaders.
Seth Stephenson put West Michigan (15-7) in front in the top of the first inning when he hit a solo homer to left with one out.
Wisconsin (8-14) answered with two runs in the bottom of the first inning. Hedbert Pérez and Jadher Areinamo opened the inning with consecutive singles. Eduardo Garcia drove in Pérez with a single to tie the game.
Areinamo used some alert base running to give the Rattlers the lead. First, he raced for third on a pitch in the dirt that didn’t get too far from catcher Bennett Lee with Matt Wood as the batter. Then, Wood hit a flyball to shallow right field. Areinamo challenged the arm of Brett Callahan and scored easily to make it a 2-1 advantage.
The Whitecaps almost erased that advantage in the top of the second as they loaded the bases with no outs on a dropped fly ball to right by Pérez and back-to-back walks by starting pitcher Ryan Birchard. However, Birchard rebounded with two straight strikeouts and a flyout to center to deny West Michigan.
Blake Burke laced a line-drive to the Whitecaps bullpen beyond the wall in left-center field in the bottom of the third for his second home run of the season and a 3-1 Wisconsin lead.
Birchard worked four scoreless innings and racked up a professional, single-game high for strikeouts with seven. However, 81 pitches in four innings ended his night.
Anthony Flores pitched a scoreless fifth and got a fly ball to right to start the sixth. However, Pérez had trouble with this ball, too and misplayed it for an error to bring the tying run to the plate. Izaac Pachecho would make the Rattlers pay for this miscue with a two-run home run to center to even the score 3-3.
Kenny Serwa, the West Michigan reliever, entered the game in the sixth inning and retired the first eight batters he faced. However, he walked Pérez and Areinamo with two outs in the eighth. That brought Burke to the plate, and Burke singled through the left side of the infield to score Pérez with the go-head run.
Flores pitched around a two-out single in the top of the eighth inning and turned the one-run lead over to Yerlin Rodriguez.
The top of the ninth started with Rodriguez walking Bennett Lee, the number nine batter in the lineup who had been 0-for-3 with three strikeouts in his first three at bats. Then, Max Clark walked to put the tying and go-ahead runs on base.
Rodriguez came back to strike out Stephenson for the first out but fell behind Josue Briceño 2-0 before throwing a wild pitch. Wisconsin elected to walk Briceño intentionally to load the bases.
Johnny Peck stepped in an got the benefit of the doubt on a close check swing call with the count at 2-1 to the frustration of the Rattlers dugout. The next pitch missed for ball four to force in the tying run.
Wisconsin had the infield in, and the strategy almost worked. Brett Callahan sent a grounder to second. Daniel Guilarte fielded the ball and threw home but threw wildly to allow two runs to score.
There was a strikeout for the second out before one more wild pitch scored one more run for the Whitecaps.
The Timber Rattlers went down quietly in the bottom of the ninth as Trevin Mitchell, who got the final out of the eighth, pitched a perfect ninth to earn the win thanks to his team’s rally in the top of the ninth.
Wisconsin is 4-for-11 in save opportunities this season. Tuesday was the third time they have lost a game when leading after eight innings this season and the fifth time an opponent has won a game in their last at bat.
Game two of the series features a pair of Major League rehabbers as the starting pitchers. Brandon Woodruff continues his rehabilitation assignment for the Milwaukee Brewers as the starting pitcher for Wisconsin. Beau Brieske is scheduled to start for the Whitecaps on a rehab assignment for the Detroit Tigers. Game time is 12:10pm.
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