Pantoja’s two-run homer carries Captains to victory

In some baseball games, less is more.

On the face of it, there wasn’t much excitement on Aug. 24 when the Captains beat the Fort Wayne (Ind.) TinCaps, 2-1, at Classic Park.

Fort Wayne finished with six hits and tallied its only run in the top of the second inning when Kyle Overstreet smacked a leadoff home run off Lake County starter Zach Plesac.

The Captains managed only four hits. They mustered all their run production in what felt like the wink of an eye. Logan Ice coaxed a walk off Fort Wayne starter Adrian Morejon to open the bottom of the fifth inning. Alexis Pantoja followed with a tworun home run to right field.

That was all she wrote for run production on a cool night when pitchers dominated and the hitters tried to capitalize on their few mistakes.

The win snapped a fivegame losing streak for the Captains, who improved to has given up two runs on nine hits. He’s notched 13 strikeouts while yielding only one walk.

Justin Garza (4-6, 5.44 ERA), splitting starts with Plesac on a piggyback basis, blanked the TinCaps on two hits over the remaining 4 1/3 innings to earn the victory.

The 23-year-old righthander is finishing strong.

In his last three appearances covering 12 1/3 innings, he’s given up one run on eight hits with 20 strikeouts and three walks.

“Zach and Justin pitched great and we played great defense behind them. That happens when the pitching is so good,” Day said.

Pantoja also is finishing the season with a flourish. He’s batting .245 overall and .362 in 14 games in August.

Morejon (1-1, 4.76 ERA) took the loss for the TinCaps, who slipped to 37-23 in the second half.

The Captains will be in Indiana on Aug. 25 to open a four-game series against he South Bend Cubs. Their final homestand of the season begins Aug. 30 against the Lansing (Mich.) Lugnuts.