Rodriguez Walkoff Clinches Twinbill Split
August 28, 2024 - Midwest League (MWL)
Lansing Lugnuts News Release
LANSING, Mich. - CJ Rodriguez singled home Josh Kuroda-Grauer in the bottom of the seventh inning, and the Lansing Lugnuts (25-31, 57-64) walked off to halve a doubleheader with the Fort Wayne TinCaps (20-36, 48-74), winning 2-1 after losing 9-5 in the opener on Wednesday night at Jackson® Field™.
In Game 1, the TinCaps scored five runs in the first inning off Wander Guante, watched Lansing pull within 5-4 with a run in the first and three in the second, and then pulled away for the victory behind three RBIs from 18-year-old Ethan Salas.
In defeat, Ryan Lasko, Jared Dickey and Nate Nankil each went 2-for-4 and Lasko added a two-run single.
Game 2 was much more dramatic. Lansing lefty Will Johnston struck out eight over five dominant scoreless innings and Diego Barrera fired a scoreless sixth, but Fort Wayne right-hander Enmanuel Pinales matched them with goose eggs - until Nankil delivered a two-out RBI double in the bottom of the sixth for a 1-0 Lugnuts lead.
In the top of the seventh, however, Nick Vogt grounded a two-out RBI single up the middle off Barrera to tie the score.
Kuroda-Grauer, the 2024 Big Ten Player of the Year at Rutgers, who was playing in his first Lugnuts games after getting called up from Single-A Stockton on Monday, led off the bottom of the seventh against Harry Gustin with his first Midwest League hit, a double to right field. Danny Bautista, Jr. followed by punching a single to right, moving Kuroda-Grauer to third.
Rodriguez worked the count full against Gustin before grounding a single through the left side of the drawn-in infield, scoring Kuroda-Grauer for the Nuts' fifth walkoff win of the season.
Only four home games remain in the 2024 Lugnuts season. Next up: Golf Night on a special Coors Light Thirsty Thursday, with a special appearance from actor Christopher McDonald. Gates open at 6 p.m. for a 7:05 p.m. matchup between Lansing right-hander Jake Garland and Fort Wayne southpaw Jagger Haynes. For further information, visit milb.com/lansing or call (517) 485-4500.
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