Fort Wayne gave away any chance at a Midwest League victory on Thursday, at Parkview Field as it issued a season-high nine walks to Beloit batters in a 6-2 defeat.
As poor as the TinCaps' pitching was, the Snappers' was that much better. Beloit starter Ryan Wheeler pitched a career high-tying eight innings, holding Fort Wayne to five hits during his outing and notching his 10th win of the season.
Fort Wayne (42-48) starter Adys Portillo (6-6) worked four innings, allowing four hits, three earned runs, walking three batters and striking out two. In his 17 starts, it was just the third time he had walked more batters than he struck out. He exited with the score 3-1 in favor of Beloit.
TinCap catcher Austin Hedges hit his eighth home run of the year, a solo blast, in the second inning.
The TinCaps narrowed the Beloit (9-11 second half, 47-43) lead to one run in the sixth inning, as Jace Peterson tripled to right field and came in to score on a fielder's choice by Yeison Asencio. Fort Wayne, though, had only one-third as many chances with runners in scoring position as did the Snappers.
The TinCaps were 0-5 in such situations.
Wheeler (10-4) became the second Midwest League pitcher to earn his 10th win of the season, tying Burlington's Drew Granier. In his outing, Wheeler gave up two earned runs, walked one and struck out five.
The Snappers put up two more runs in the seventh and one in the eighth, as they pulled away from the TinCaps to even the series at one game each. Fort Wayne reliever James Needy walked one batter, Luis De La Cruz walked three and Daniel Cropper walked two, giving Beloit an abundant amount of scoring chances.
The Snappers rarely capitalized, going 2-11 with runners in scoring position and leaving 11 runners on base. Johnny Barbato, who worked a perfect ninth, was the only TinCaps reliever to not issue a free pass.
