South Bend pitcher Dylan Cease threw five shutout innings in spite of a Cubs 6-4 loss to Lansing Friday night. (Photo by Tim Reilly)

SOUTH BEND – After Dylan Cease threw five scoreless innings, the South Bend Cubs blew a 2-0 lead and lost their sixth consecutive game by a score of 6-4 to the Lansing Lugnuts in the first of a seven game home stand at Four Winds Field.

The Cubs are now 1-8 since the beginning of the second half, a stark contrast to their 39-30 record through the first half of the 2017 season.

Tyler Peyton was charged with the loss while allowing four earned runs on 11 hits in just four innings pitched. He is now 2-2 on the season with a 4.32 ERA in 33.2 innings pitched.

Roberto Caro got the offense going in the bottom of the first with a leadoff double. Then, in an attempt to lay down a sacrifice bunt, Vimael Machin safely made his way to first after Lugnuts pitcher, Andy Raval and Lugnuts catcher, Javier Hernandez failed to communicate on the softly bunted ball.

From there the Cubs fell just short of getting anything going in the first inning as Alberto Mineo followed by grounding into a double play and Kevonte Mitchell’s deep fly ball held up just enough for Joshua Palacios to make the catch on the warning track in left-centerfield.

After three and one half innings of scoreless ball, the Cubs finally broke through in the bottom of the fourth inning after Luis Ayala beat the Lugnuts’ left-handed defensive shift by hitting a two-RBI opposite-field single to give South Bend a 2-0 lead.

Then in the fifth inning, with a runner at third and one out, the Cubs literally ran themselves out of the inning without scoring a run. After Machin flew out to centerfield for the second out of the inning, Michael Cruz was caught at the plate trying to tag up at third for the final out of the frame.

The Lugnuts took advantage of the Cubs pitching change when Tyler Peyton came in to relieve Cubs starting pitcher Dylan Cease. On three singles and an error, Lansing scored three runs in the top of the sixth inning to take the 3-2 lead.

With their second defensive miscue coming in the top of the eighth, the Lugnuts added three more runs thanks to five singles in the inning.

With the score now 6-3 in the bottom of the eighth inning, Machin hit a RBI-double to score Roberto Caro from first making it a 6-3 ballgame. Then, thanks to a throwing error on a 1-3 pickoff attempt, Machin scored to cut the Cubs’ deficit to two runs.

South Bend then put runners on first and third with two outs for Luis Ayala, who coming into tonight’s game was hitting .345 with runners in scoring positing and two outs, but the Cubs could not capitalize on the opportunity.

Though the Cubs put runners at first and second in the ninth, they could not overcome the 6-4 deficit.

Cease turned a potentially bad start into something positive after working out of a one-out jam with a Lugnuts runner on third. To get out of the inning, Cease managed to pick up back-to-back strikeouts of the Midwest League’s top-hitter, Bo Bichette and the Toronto Blue Jays No. 1 Overall Prospect, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Overall, Cease threw five scoreless innings while only allowing three hits and striking out six. His season ERA is now 2.47 and he has totaled 71 strikeouts in just 47.1 innings pitched.