Photo: Spencer Griffin connects on the first of his two triples in the Burlington Bees’ 12-1 loss to the Fort Wayne TinCaps on Friday at Community Field. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)
By John Bohnenkamp
Baseball has a way of ruining prosperity.
The Burlington Bees found that out on Friday night, suffering a 12-1 loss to the Fort Wayne TinCaps in a Class A Midwest League game at Community Field.
The Bees (48-43 overall, 9-12 second half) had their five-game winning streak snapped, suffering their worst margin of defeat this season.
“Games like this happen,” Bees manager Jack Howell said.
It was clear right away that it was going to be that kind of night. Bees starter Hector Yan (3-3) had a 33-pitch first inning, giving up a three-run home run to Juan Fernandez.
Yan had been 3-0 with a 2.67 earned run average in his last six starts, striking out 44 in 27 innings.
He wouldn’t make it out of the fourth inning in this game. Yan gave up a two-run home run to Michael Curry, then got a strikeout of Luis Almanzar to end the night.
Yan threw 77 pitches, 46 for strikes. He allowed six hits while walking one and striking out five, and left trailing 6-1.
“He threw strikes,” Howell said. “Yeah, he didn’t get off to the best start. I think the difference was these guys whacked him today. He’s not going to pitch one-hit shutouts all the time. The good takeaway is he threw strikes, he didn’t get wild and start walking people. The takeaway is he went right at him, they just didn’t miss any pitches. But they didn’t miss any all night.”
The Bees had no answer for Fort Wayne’s Omar Cruz (1-0), making his third start for the TinCaps. Cruz had a 5.40 ERA in his first two outings, but held the Bees to one earned run over 5 2/3 innings, striking out 10 while walking one.
The TinCaps (40-49, 7-14) scored in seven of the nine innings, closing the game by scoring five runs over the final three innings.
“Their bats woke up tonight,” Howell said.
Harrison Wenson (9) watches his fly ball in the seventh inning that turned into a double when it fell between three defenders in left field. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)
The Bees had just six hits, two each from Spencer Griffin and Harrison Wenson.
Griffin became the sixth player in the league to have two triples in a game this season. His first one came in the second inning, and he scored on Harrison Wenson’s grounder to shortstop.
The second one could have been even bigger. Griffin’s ball hit off the center-field wall, and the speedy right fielder made it to third base easily.
Howell held Griffin at third instead of letting him try for an inside-the-park home run.
“It is nice with his speed,” Howell said. “It was 6-1 at the time — if it’s a closer game, maybe I try to push it a little bit. At that point in the game, I couldn’t give up a run on a close play (at the plate).”
ON DECK: The Bees open a three-game series with the Lake County Captains with Saturday’s 6:30 p.m. game.
NOTES: Burlington’s Francisco Del Valle had his five-game hitting streak snapped, going 0-for-4. … Fernandez extended his hitting streak to six games. … Attendance was 1,002.
Baseball at The Hive 