Jimenez Leads South Bend Slugfest Against Captains

The South Bend Cubs walloped Lake County 11-7 in the rubber match of their 3-game series Friday night in a game that featured plenty of offense.

The Captains got to South Bend’s Kyle Miller early for two runs.  Willi Castro led off the 1st inning with a single, moved to third on a hit-and-run single from Jodd Carter, and scored on a Martin Cervenka sacrifice fly.  Juan De La Cruz sliced a double down the left field line to score Carter and put Lake County up 2-0.

The Cubs stormed right back in the 2nd for a run of their own.  Eloy Jimenez smoked a double to the wall in left center and scored on an RBI groundout from Vimael Machin that cut the Captains lead to 2-1.  In the top of the 4th, Jimenez had another leadoff double and eventually scored on an RBI fielder’s choice from Adonis Paula with the bases loaded to tie the game at 2.

South Bend blew it wide open in the 5th.  The first three batters all reached base, then Jimenez continued his hot night with a grand slam that cleared the left field bleachers and gave the Cubs a 6 – 2 lead.  Captains starter Casey Shane‘s night was done before getting an out in the 5th inning; he left after giving up 6 runs on 8 hits and walking 2.

The long top of the 5th continued after Leandro Linares relieved Shane thanks to an Ordomar Valdez error on a would-be double play ball.  Two unearned runs scored on a Roberto Caro single to push South Bend’s lead to 8-2.  The Cubs tacked on 3 more in the 6th.  Machin singled home Alberto Mineo and Tyler Alamo doubled home Jimenez and Machin to put South Bend up 11-2.

Jimenez paced the high-powered Cubs offense all night.  He finished 4-5 with 2 doubles, a grand slam, a single, 4 RBIs, and 4 runs scored.  The Midwest League All Star is now batting .338 with 12 homeruns and 68 RBIs on the year.

Lake County did their best to claw back in the game, but it was not enough.  The Captains scored 3 in the 6th thanks to a 2-run RBI triple from Jose Medina and RBI double from Valdez.  Cubs starter Kyle Miller finished the night going 5.2 innings, giving up 4 runs, 9 hits and striking out 6 en route to the win.  In the 7th, Juan De La Cruz had a 2-run RBI single to cut the lead to 11-7 but that was as close as they would get.

Lake County falls to 54-49 overall and 14-19 in the 2nd half of the season.  They will now head to West Michigan for a 4-game series starting tomorrow at 7.