HOT RODS AT CAPTAINS

The new-look Lake County Captains are heading down the home stretch of the regular season toward an assured spot in the Midwest League playoffs.

By finishing second in the Midwest League’s Eastern Division in the first half, the Captains punched their ticket to the postseason and a first-round playoff series against the Great Lakes (Mich.) Loons.

Of the 25 players in uniform at Classic Park on Aug. 21 for a 5-4 loss to the Bowling Green (Ky.) Hot Rods, only eight were on the active roster when the Captains opened the 2019 season at home April 4 with a 4-0 whitewashing of Great Lakes.

In the 142 days between the home opener and the start of the three-game series against the Hot Rods, the Captains’ roster has been substantially reshaped by 124 moves involving 64 players.

The eight holdovers who Aug. 22, 7 p.m. Classic Park

Hot Rods, 35-23; Captains, 29-29

Hot Rods, TBA; Captains, Shane McCarthy (4-3, 4.01 ERA) captainsbaseball.com; allsportscleveland. net

were in uniform on that chilly April night are catchers Bo Naylor and Josh Rolette, infielders Jose Fermin and Ulysses Cantu, outfielder Quentin Holmes and pitchers Alex Royalty, Eli Lingos and Shane McCarthy.

Naylor, Cantu and Holmes were in the starting-line up against the Hot Rods in Game 127. Royalty (5-8, 4.47 ERA) was the starter and eventual loser on a balmy, late-August evening, giving up four runs, three earned, on three hits in five innings.

The most damaging of those three hits was a threerun home run by Bowling Green left fielder in the top of the first inning.

Cantu and McCarthy recently were restored to Lake County’s active roster after long stays on the injured list.

The former played in five games in early April before going down with a damaged ligament in his left thumb.

It has been an especially long hall for Cantu, who was with the Captains in 2018 and missed the second half of the season with a right wrist strain.

“It’s really good to be back here, no doubt,” said Cantu, the Indians’ sixthround pick in the 2016 draft out of high school in Texas. “When you are rehabbing that long, you have to keep grinding and stay positive.”

McCarthy was 4-3 with a 4.01 ERA in nine starts before going to the injured list May 24 with a strained muscle on his right chest wall. He was selected by the Indians in the 18th round of the June 2018 draft out of Seton Hall University.