Hedges Trims TinCaps
SOUTH BEND – After a back-and-forth, action-packed and sloppily-played opener, South Bend and Fort Wayne tightened the screws Tuesday. Trailing 1-0 in the seventh, South Bend vaulted ahead on Yasiel Balaguert’s home run, and the Cubs claimed the 2-1 win behind Zach Hedges’ dominant performance at Four Winds Field.
Monday’s opener lasted 12 innings and ended with Fort Wayne winning, 10-9, after a combined 31 hits and seven errors. But South Bend (7-6 second half, 36-44 overall) rode Hedges to the tight victory over the TinCaps (8-5 second half, 40-41 overall) on Tuesday.
“I think that’s huge,” Hedges said of the bounce-back win. “It’s still early in the season, early in the series. Just getting as many wins as we can right now. Fort Wayne is a good team. Those are some tough games. But it’s really important to come back the next day refreshed and get after it.”
For six-and-a-half innings, Hedges and Fort Wayne starter Chris Huffman cruised. The right-handed Hedges allowed one run over eight innings, walking just one and scattering seven hits in his longest professional outing.
“It was just a great outing,” Hedges said. “The defense was making great plays. And the game plan was to get ahead, get strike one, work down in the zone. The sinker was working great tonight. And I knew the defense would keep making plays for me.”
Huffman, meanwhile, spun six shutout stanzas of two-hit ball. But Balaguert mashed the two-run home run to left field off of Huffman in the seventh, and the Cubs took the lead, 2-1.
“It feels amazing because I was looking for a ball high in the zone and a good swing,” Balaguert said. “And I got my ball and I got a good swing.”
Left-handed reliever Tyler Ihrig fanned two in the ninth to collect the save. The southpaw, who began the season in South Bend and has spent time in Triple-A, Double-A and Advanced-A, was just re-added to the Cubs roster before the game. After missing a morning flight out of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Ihrig was re-booked for an afternoon flight. After waiting out a delay, Ihrig finally landed at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. Following a two-hour cab ride to Four Winds Field, Ihrig sprinted through the front door and made his way to the clubhouse — in the eighth inning.
He quickly went to the bullpen with South Bend ahead 2-1.
“I gave some guys some high-fives and then they told me I was in,” Ihrig said afterward in the clubhouse, next to his still-packed suitcase. “I was like, ‘Alright.’ I kinda thought I would be. So I was ready for it and just went down and warmed up and went out there.”
Hedges faced the minimum in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, benefitting from a double-play ball and a failed TinCaps stolen-base attempt.
Huffman put down 12 consecutive Cubs from the third through sixth innings before Cubs third baseman Jason Vosler jump-started the seventh with a single.
The TinCaps scored in the second when No. 9 hitter Edwin Moreno scorched an RBI single back where it came from, scoring third baseman Luis Tejada and making it 1-0.
South Bend and Fort Wayne meet Wednesday at Parkview Field in Fort Wayne, Indiana, at 7:05 p.m. ET for the second leg of the home-and-home series. Cubs right-hander Erick Leal (5.27 ERA) is scheduled to oppose TinCaps righty Ernesto Montas (3.33 ERA).