After a bitter cold game between the Toledo Mud Hens and the Durham Bulls was called due to snow in the seventh inning on Monday, the chill remained at Fifth Third Field on Tuesday night.
The Mud Hens braved the elements and defeated Durham 2-1 thanks to a seventh-inning home run by Christin Stewart, his second homer of the season.
PHOTO GALLERY: Toledo Mud Hens defeat Durham 2-1
The win improves Toledo’s record to 8-3 and the Mud Hens will go for a series sweep of Durham Wednesday. Tuesday’s game-time temperature was 37 degrees with a 28-degree wind chill.
VIDEO: Jim Adduci on playing in cold weather
VIDEO: Christin Stewart's bomb powers Hens over Bulls
Mud Hens starter Ryan Carpenter gave up one run in the second inning, but was sharp throughout giving up five hits, walking two, and striking out nine.
“My fastball command was a lot better today,” Carpenter said. “Both of my breaking pitches were working for me. I’ve been working on getting behind my slider and getting in the same arm slot of my fastball. I thought tonight was a good first step in the right direction.”
Carpenter stayed around the strike zone, throwing 92 pitches, with 64 for strikes and stymied the Durham lineup that featured five left-handed hitters.
“I was happy to see It for him,” Mud Hens manager Doug Mientkiewicz said. “He’s been battling sickness and has been up and down. His breaking stuff was a lot more crisp tonight than it was the first two starts. You definitely saw the breaking stuff that we all remember and I think it came at the right time for him. He was in total control for the most part. When you see the strikeouts mount against the right-handed hitters, you know his stuff has the sharpness that it normally does.”
In the second inning, Carpenter gave up a walk and two hits with two outs as Durham cashed in with an RBI single by Jake Cronenworth to take a 1-0 lead.
The Mud Hens tied the score at 1-1 in the bottom of the sixth inning after Durham committed three consecutive errors, with two on one play.
Toledo’s Dawel Lugo lined the ball off the glove of Bulls’ shortstop Willy Adames to reach base. Then Jim Adduci hit a hard grounder down the first base line, which went under the glove of Jake Bauers and into right field. The right fielder Justin Williams missed the cutoff man on the throw to the infield allowing Lugo to come around to score.
Leading off the bottom of the seventh inning, Stewart blasted a ball down the right field line near the foul pole. Initially the umps did not know whether to rule the ball fair or foul. After a meeting between the umpire crew, it was ruled a fair ball and Stewart’s second home run of the season.
“It was hard to see,” Mientkiewicz said of the home run. “The ball was hit to the stratosphere. It was a gray sky. You commend them for getting together and I think they got it right. I saw it fair from where I was and they got together and got it right.”
Kevin Comer pitched 1⅔ innings of relief and struck out five hitters with just one walk to earn the win. Louis Coleman pitched the final 1⅓ innings with a walk and two strikeouts to earn his second save of the season.
It was another cold night at the ball park, but the conditions were nothing new to the Mud Hens’ players.
“We’ve been through cold weather the whole year,” Hens outfielder Mikie Mahtook said. “When I was up in Detroit, I think the average temperature was 36 or 37 degrees. So it’s nothing different here. You just have to go out there and try to stay warm and take some good at bats. It’s not as easy and you don’t get as loose. You just have to figure a way to push through it and play.”
Contact Brian Buckey at bbuckey@theblade.com, 419-724-6110, or on Twitter @BrianBuckey.
First Published April 18, 2018, 2:10 a.m.
