Hot Rods double up TinCaps, 14-7

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - For the second time in three days the Fort Wayne TinCaps surrendered a season-high in runs, losing 14-7 on Monday at the hands of the Bowling Green Hot Rods. Bowling Green scored 13 runs between the fifth and eighth innings, earning the win and evening the season series at three games apiece.

Fort Wayne (24-27) starter Ruben Mejia allowed one run in his first start of the year. He tossed four innings, allowing three hits, one walk and striking out five. It was the first start for Mejia since September 3, 2011, with the Eugene Emeralds. The run allowed by Mejia was a second inning solo home run hit by Alejandro Segovia, making it 1-0 Bowling Green (27-24).

The TinCaps notched a run to tie the game in the third on an RBI double from Casey McElroy. Fort Wayne scored three more times in the fourth, taking a 4-1 lead against Hot Rods starter Jake Floethe.

Justin Hancock (0-4) came out of the Fort Wayne bullpen in the fifth inning and surrendered three runs, allowing Bowling Green to tie the game. In total, Hancock allowed seven runs to score, six of them earned. He departed without retiring a batter in the sixth inning.

In his last six outings Hancock is 0-4, and has allowed at least three earned runs in five of those six appearances. Luis De La Cruz entered the game and was battered for four earned runs on six hits in one inning of work. De La Cruz finished the sixth, but did not retire a batter in the seventh, permitting the first four men to reach base. All of them would come around to score. Robert Eisenbach capped off the seventh, facing just three batters, but the Hot Rods led 12-4 at the end of the inning.

Bowling Green reliever Justin Woodall (1-2) quieted the TinCaps in the fifth, sixth and seventh, allowing three hits, two walks and striking out two.

The Hot Rods added two runs against Eisenbach in the eighth, stretching their advantage to 14-4. Fort Wayne put up one run in the eighth on a Lee Orr solo home run in the bottom of the inning. Orr now has a team-high six home runs. Two more TinCaps runs scored in the ninth, setting the final at 14-7.

The run total allowed Monday by Fort Wayne is the most given up in any game this season by the ballclub. The previous high was set on Monday, when Bowling Green scored 11 runs. The 16 hits are also the most allowed in a single game this year.

The series finale is scheduled for 7:05 on Tuesday night at Parkview Field. The scheduled starters are Cody Hebner for Fort Wayne and Felipe Rivero for Bowling Green.