Victory Field - Indianapolis Indians

Iowa Cubs (CHC) @ Indianapolis Indians (PIT)

September 11, 2025

Cubs 6, Indians 2

W: Michael Soroka
L: Jack Little

S: Gavin Hollowell

HR: Hayden Cantrelle (IOW), Jack Suwinski (IND)

Attendance: 8,205
Time of Game: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Indianapolis, IN
Opened: 1996
Capacity: 12,230
Level: Triple A
League: International

The last minor league baseball game for me in 2025 took me back to Indiana for a game in downtown Indianapolis.  While it would have made sense to include Indianapolis on my June tour of the Midwest, I opted to skip it because the Indians were only home the second week of that trip which would have forced me to do some backtracking.  So instead, I saved it for my next trip back to Indiana in September on my way to South Bend for a Notre Dame football game.  This was not my first game at Victory Field.  I saw the Indians host the Charlotte Knights in a game back in 2016.  I think that may have been the first time I ever saw a game in a AAA ballpark, so I didn't have much of a frame of reference for judging the park at that time.  After this stop, I actually thought the park was quite a bit nicer than I had remembered.  But that could just be because I didn't remember much from that first visit.

Victory Field is located in the heart of downtown Indianapolis.  With the exception of Charlotte, I think it might have the best city skyline view of any minor league park I've seen.  The most distinguishing aspect of that is the JW Marriot hotel rising above the stadium beyond left field.  The primary entrance to the park is in center field which leads to a concourse that circles the entire stadium and provides views of the field throughout.  The outfield features exclusively lawn seating, ranging from pole to pole.  There are picnic and patio areas down each line.  There is an extensive second deck of seating in foul territory that features regular reserved seating, plus a club seating area behind the plate and plenty of suites as well.  The listed stadium capacity of 12,230 doesn't include all of the extra people they can accommodate in the outfield lawn areas, so this is a quite large stadium by minor league standards.  For a park that was built before the turn of the century, Victory Field has aged quite nicely.  And fans seem to enjoy visiting it as well.  The crowd for this Thursday night game in September was over 8,000.  I think there were more butts in seats (or on grass) for this game than the MLB game in Washington, D.C. that I attended a week earlier.  Of course, they weren't all rooting for the Indians as there is no shortage of Cubs fans in the Indianapolis area either.  This wound up being a perfect night for baseball.

With this game taking place just about a week before the end of the minor league season, both teams seemed to have pretty strict innings limitations placed on their pitchers.  Southpaw Jordan Wicks, who has been up and down between Iowa and Chicago the past three years, got the start for the Cubs.  He was opposed by another lefty Hunter Barco who made his MLB debut with the Pirates not long after this game.  Barco, along with Bubba Chandler who I saw pitch for Indianapolis in June, hope to join Paul Skenes in giving the Pirates an exciting young rotation.  Barco ran into trouble in the second inning, loading the bases with nobody out, but managed to escape the inning without allowing a run.  For the game, he gave up a pair of hits with no runs and three strikeouts in his three innings of work.  Wicks also pitched three innings, but did give up a lone run in his final inning.  That run scored on a flared ground rule double down the right field line by veteran Nick Solak.  Iowa got on the board for the first time in the fifth inning when the top three hitters in their lineup strung consecutive hits together.  James Triantos, who went to high school just down the road from me in Vienna, VA, singled up the middle.  Then Cubs top prospect Owen Caissie hit one off the top of the wall in right field for a RBI double.  It was the first of two doubles for Caissie in this game.  He was promoted to Chicago for his second MLB stint right after this game.  Jonathon Long followed Caissie with another double to right to give Iowa a 2-1 lead.  Rehabbing pitcher Michael Soroka, who got hurt in his first outing with the Cubs after being traded from the Nationals, pitched 2 1/3 innings of relief for Iowa.  He was pretty dominant, but did allow a game tying home run to fellow rehabbing big league veteran Jack Suwinski on the first pitch of the bottom of the sixth.  While this was technically a rehab stint for Suwinski, he actually played more games for Indianapolis than Pittsburgh this season.  The Cubs retook the lead in the top of the seventh on a two out RBI single by catcher Carlos Perez, his third hit of the game.  They added two more runs in the eighth on a two run homer by Hayden Cantrelle.  One more run in the ninth inning made it a 6-2 final score in favor of Iowa.  Indianapolis was perhaps a tad fortunate this scoreline wasn't even uglier.  The Cubs outhit them 16 to 4 and left 13 runners on base.

So that brought an end to my second season of touring minor league baseball.  Just like 2024, in 2025 I made it to games in 20 different ballparks, bringing my total to 40 so far.  I do plan to keep it going in 2026, with the Southern League and other affiliated clubs in that league's footprint being my primary target.  I also intend to finish up the rest of the Eastern and South Atlantic League stadiums that I have not yet visited.  Until then, I bid adieu.

Photo Album

Next ballpark: TBD 2026

Virginia Credit Union Stadium - Fredericksburg Nationals

Fayetteville Woodpeckers (HOU) @ Fredericksburg Nationals (WAS)

August 24, 2025

Woodpeckers 6, Nationals 3

W: Raimy Rodriguez
L: Victor Farias

HR: Brenner Cox (FBG), Jorgelys Mota (FBG)

Attendance: 3,661
Time of Game: 2 hours, 31 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Fredericksburg, VA
Opened: 2021
Capacity: 5,000
Level: Single A
League: Carolina

After Spending Saturday night in Norfolk, I began my trip back home the following day.  Along the way, I stopped in Fredericksburg to see the Nationals Low A affiliate play in a ballpark I had yet to visit.  Following the pandemic cancelled 2020 minor league season, the Potomac Nationals moved from Woodbridge to Fredericksburg, about 30 miles south, making it a slightly longer trip from DC and also from where I live.  I attended a few games in Woodbridge over the years.  While this additional distance to the commute makes it a little less convenient for me to take in a game, I retroactively wholeheartedly agree with the decision to move the franchise because Virginia Credit Union Stadium is such a massive upgrade over old Pfitzner Stadium.  This Sunday evening game started with clear skies and comfortable temperatures.  It didn't quite end that way though.

Virginia Credit Union Stadium is located just off of I-95 in Fredericksburg.  On one hand, that location makes it easily accessible from a route standpoint.  On the other, I-95 is best to be avoided at most times due to usually excessive traffic, particularly the stretch between DC and Fredericksburg.  It is a relatively small and unassuming facility from the outside.  It actually reminds me a great deal of the only other Low A ballpark I've visited so far in this two year minor league tour:  Atrium Health Ballpark in Kannapolis, NC.  No frills in the design of the park, but an open and well laid out concourse that encircles the entire park.  I'm starting to discover that having bullpens outside the field of play in the outfield isn't as rare in the minors as I had previously thought.  This stadium has that setup.  On top of that, there is a very unique field box section in left field that allows patrons to peer into the home bullpen and look through the left field fence to watch the game at field level.  Right field houses a picnic area and a scoreboard deck with a manually operated scoreboard, providing a bit of an old fashioned flare to an otherwise very modern park.  Down each of the baselines are full service terrace boxes.  Thanks to a work colleague, I was sitting at a table in the left field terrace section for this game.  The upper level contains party decks on each end with suites in between.  This is a pretty cozy facility on the whole, so virtually every seat in the park is quite close to the field of play.  My only real complaint with the stadium is the fact that they chose to make the playing surface artificial turf.  It makes no sense to me for a brand new facility in this part of the country not to have a natural grass field.  Hopefully that is something they can rectify down the road.

While I planned this stop well in advance, the timing turned out to be quite fortuitous.  With the first overall pick in this July's MLB Draft, the Nationals selected shortstop Eli Willits.  It was a bit of a surprise selection at the time as most figured they would be targeting either fellow prep shortstop Ethan Holliday or LSU pitcher Cade Anderson.  Willits is only 17 years old, so he's even quite young by high school draftee standards.  That made it uncertain if the Nats would send him to a full season affiliate to get his professional career started this year.  They did indeed send him to Fredericksburg just a few days before I arrived.  He got off to a hot start with three hits in his debut and at least one knock in each of the games leading up to this one.  In this game, he recorded a single as well.  But his most impressive moment actually came in a strikeout, which I will get to later.  Things were looking pretty good for the FredNats early in this one.  They had multiple hits in each of the first three innings off of Woodpeckers starter Cody Bolton who was on a minor league rehab assignment and has some big league experience over the past few years.  The Nationals scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the second on a two out triple to the left-center gap by Luke Dickerson, scoring Willits who had singled right ahead of him.  Then in the third, leadoff man Brenner Cox started the inning lining a Bolton fastball the opposite way over the left field fence to give Fredericksburg a 2-0 lead.  Unfortunately for the FredNats, the offense completely dried up after that.  They did not have another base runner until the ninth inning.  Fayetteville bulk reliever Raimy Rodriguez was dominant.  He pitched four scoreless, hitless innings.  Meanwhile, the Woodpeckers offense finally got to work in the sixth inning, with a whole lot of help from the Fredericksburg pitchers and defense.  The frame started with an error by third baseman Jorgelys Mota.  Then FredNats pitcher Victor Farias beaned the next two batters.  The latter of those was the third time Woodpeckers shortstop Kyle Walker was hit by a pitch in this game.  Next came a bases loaded liner by German Ramirez that Willits almost made a leaping catch, but couldn't quite hang onto it.  He got a force out at third, but the first Fayetteville run of the game scored on the play.  Farias then reloaded the bases with yet another beanball.  That was the third hit batter of the inning and sixth of the game by Nats pitchers.  Farias was mercifully pulled after that one.  He was relieved by Ryan Minckler who was rudely greeted with a two run single by Brandon Forrester on the first pitch he threw.  A couple walks pushed in another run to make it a four run frame for the Woodpeckers.  This was very much a Low A minor league kind of inning.  Forrester, the nine hole hitter for Fayetteville, kept his big game rolling in the seventh with another RBI single, scoring the second of two Woodpeckers runs in that inning.  So in two innings, the Woodpeckers turned a two run deficit into a four run lead.  During that seventh inning rally, rain began to fall.  It was a fairly light but consistent drizzle for the remainder of the game.  Fayetteville turned to Leomar Rosario to pitch the final two innings.  He was throwing gas, touching 100 MPH on the radar a few times.  To start the ninth, he surrendered an absolute bomb by Mota off the roof of the bar in left field, cutting the lead to three.  A walk allowed Willits to bat one last time with two outs in the ninth.  Rosario kept throwing heaters that Willits kept fouling off.  Eventually, the impressive nine pitch battle ended on Willits swinging at a pitch in the dirt for his first professional strikeout, which ended the game as a 6-3 Fayetteville victory.

At such a young age, I would expect Willits to spend most of next season in Fredericksburg as well.  So perhaps I will go down there to see him play again at some point.  It was a nice cherry on top of this weekend trip in Virginia.  That left me with just one more minor league game to attend in 2025:  a stop in Indianapolis on my way to South Bend for a Notre Dame football game.

Photo Album

Next ballpark: Victory Field in Indianapolis, IN

Harbor Park - Norfolk Tides

Charlotte Knights (CHW) @ Norfolk Tides (BAL)

August 23, 2025

Tides 4, Knights 2

W: Jose Espada
L: Zach Franklin

HR: Jose Barrero (NOR), Livan Soto (NOR)

Attendance: 8,241
Time of Game: 2 hours, 22 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Norfolk, VA
Opened: 1993
Capacity: 11,856
Level: Triple A
League: International

A week after I saw the Orioles AA ballclub play in Bowie, I drove down to Norfolk to see their AAA squad in action.  This was not my first visit to Harbor Park.  In 2017, Norfolk was my first stop on a trip down south to see each of the White Sox full season affiliates, including Charlotte, who were playing in Norfolk during the start of that trip.  This year's game in Norfolk was also against Charlotte, my fourth time seeing the Knights in person this season.  Despite having lived in Virginia for over two decades now, I am a bit of a novice when it comes to the Tidewater region.  So it was nice to finally make it back down there.

Interestingly, the three highest levels of the Orioles organization, starting with the big league ballclub, all play in facilities that opened in a three year span from 1992-1994.  Camden Yards is the gem of the trio, of course, but Harbor Park in Norfolk has aged quite well too.  It is located right on the banks of the Elizabeth River in downtown Norfolk.  The river is not too far beyond the right field fence.  Many points from within the park provide scenic views of the river and surrounding shipyards.  The area beyond left field was a parking lot last time I was there, but will soon be the site of a riverside casino.  There are no regular seating areas in the outfield.  Only a picnic area in left field and a party deck immediately down the right field line.  This does leave space for two large video boards, including one of the largest I've ever seen in any park, much less a minor league one, in right field.  Both boards have been greatly enhanced since my last visit here.  One unique feature of the park is a full service indoor restaurant down the first base line with windows allowing patrons to watch the game while having a meal.  The lack of outfield seats in the park is made up for with an extensive second deck covering much of the area down each of the baselines and suites on the upper level behind the plate.  The main seating bowl is split into two sections with a walkway between them.  An expansive concourse runs above the lower level.  Harbor Park has a very impressive variety and quantity of concession areas all along the concourse.  There was a very large crowd on hand for this Saturday night game on a nearly perfect weather day.

Jonathan Cannon was the starting pitcher for Charlotte in this game.  He had spent almost the entire season in the White Sox rotation before being demoted to AAA a few weeks prior to this game.  For the most part, he's been struggling for Charlotte since the demotion, but had a solid outing on this night.  He was opposed by Carson Ragsdale, a tall righty who the Orioles claimed off waivers from the Giants a few weeks prior.  Neither offense was firing on all cylinders for this game.  From a contact perspective though, it was a tale of two halves of the game for the Knights.  They were able to consistently put the ball in play against Ragsdale, who did not record a strikeout in his four innings of work.  But then in the final four innings, Charlotte did almost nothing other than strike out at the plate.  Neither team scored until the fourth inning.  In the top of the fourth, Knights slugger Tim Elko led off with an opposite field double off the right field wall.  Ragsdale had a good chance of stranding him on base.  However, with two outs and runners on the corners, Jacob Amaya blooped one into shallow center that centerfielder Jordyn Adams got a poor read on and the ball clanked off his glove on a sliding catch attempt, turning it into a two run single.  That would turn out to be the Knights fourth and final hit of the ballgame, and the only two runs they would score.  Norfolk answered with a run in the bottom of the fourth on a solo home run by Jose Barrero.  He lined an 0-2 fastball into the picnic area in left.  That was the only damage done against Cannon who pitched into the seventh inning.  Neither team did much of anything during the next four and a half innings.  Tides relievers struck out 10 Knights hitters in the final four innings, including the last eight who stepped up to the plate.  As it turned out, Charlotte could have used a few more runs.  For the first time all game, Norfolk put multiple runners on base in the bottom of the ninth, facing Zach Franklin who was looking for the save.  Former Knight Ryan Noda walked with one out, followed by TT Bowens reaching on an infield hit on an excuse me swing chopped back to Franklin who slightly bobbled the ball before making a late throw to first.  Noda and Jud Fabian, who pinch ran for Bowens, successfully executed a double steal to put the tying and winning runs in scoring position with just one out.  A strikeout then set the stage for Livan Soto with the game on the line.  He crushed a first pitch fastball into the bullpen beyond the right field fence for a three run walk-off homer.  It was just Soto's third home run of the season and he entered the game hitting well below the Mendoza line, so probably safe to say that was the biggest moment of his season.

This was definitely not the first time I've witnessed a White Sox org team lose to an Orioles org team in excruciating fashion (for a Sox fan).  In fact, it seems to happen almost every time I see the Sox play in Baltimore.  So perhaps this was a fitting conclusion to this game.  Despite how it ended, it was an enjoyable night in Norfolk.  Next up was a game in Fredericksburg on my way home the following day.

Photo Album

Next ballpark: Virginia Credit Union Stadium in Fredericksburg, VA

Prince George's Stadium - Chesapeake Baysox

Erie SeaWolves (DET) @ Chesapeake Baysox (BAL)

August 16, 2025

Baysox 10, SeaWolves 7

W: Juaron Watts-Brown
L: Kenny Serwa

S: Carter Rustad

HR: Justice Bigbie (ERI), Kevin McGonigle (ERI), Max Clark (ERI)

Attendance: 5,125
Time of Game: 2 hours, 38 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Bowie, MD
Opened: 1994
Capacity: 10,000
Level: Double A
League: Eastern

When the Potomac Nationals moved further south to Fredericksburg in 2021, the Bowie Baysox became the closest affiliated minor league club from where I live.  However, I had never been to a game at Prince George's Stadium in Bowie until last Saturday.  The team changed its geographic moniker from Bowie to Chesapeake this year, choosing to go with the name of the bay that sits about 20 miles to the east.  Bowie is a unique minor league location in that it is essentially a suburb of Washington, D.C., but also very close to a second big league city of the parent club Baltimore Orioles.

Bowie is a densely populated city, and Prince George's Stadium is in a very commercially developed neighborhood.  However, you wouldn't know either of those things were true while inside the confines of the stadium where the seats look out to a forested area beyond the outfield.  It is on the older end of stadiums I've visited the past two years, having opened in 1994.  The exterior of the park around the main gate doesn't particularly give off the appearance of a baseball stadium.  In fact, weirdly, the name of the stadium isn't even displayed there.  I have seen photos where this was not the case though, so perhaps they are in the process of renovating this part of the park.  They are definitely in the midst of constructing new team clubhouses and offices in a building down the third base line of the park.  There are absolutely no outfield seats or fan areas beyond the outfield walls, which is not uncommon for the minor leagues, but pretty rare for the upper levels.  The main seating area on the lower level is quite large.  It is bisected by a walkway and then the main concourse is at the top of those sections.  Most of the seats above this walkway are general admission bleacher sections, except for the few sections behind the plate.  Interestingly, the press box is at the top of the lower level rather than on the second level which contains suites and other premium seating areas.  I would think that makes this one of the closest press boxes to field level in the minors.  Two of the most distinct aspects of the park are located down the first base line:  a replica lighthouse and an active carousel amidst a kids' play area.  The field of play seems pretty hitter friendly with it being just 309 feet down each line, without a tall wall to compensate.  The fences do shoot out fairly quickly from there, but I could still imagine a lot of cheap homers down the lines each way.  It is a respectable 405' to dead center though.  A nice crowd took in this Saturday night game in which the Baysox took the field as the Bowie Pit Beef.

During my June trip to the Midwest, I saw a trio of top Detroit Tigers prospects playing for West Michigan.  In early July, infielder Kevin McGonigle, outfielder Max Clark and catcher/first baseman Josue Briceno were all promoted to AA Erie.  So I got to see all of them play again on this night at a level closer to the big leagues.  Due to graduations and his own ascension, McGonigle has become one of the top prospects in all of baseball.  Clark remains a consensus top 10 prospect in his own right.  Both of them showed why on this evening.  The only bummer is that Clark was once again relegated to designated hitter, so I'm still yet to see him play in the outfield in my three in person views.  Another interesting aspect of the SeaWolves lineup for this night was starting pitcher Kenny Serwa, who is a rare breed these days as a knuckleballer.  That uniqueness probably serves him well most of the time as most players are not used to seeing knuckleballs.  However, on this particular evening, it may have worked against him.  He was facing Chesapeake for the fourth time in just over a two month span.  Therefore, many of the Baysox hitters had faced him before and it showed.  They ambushed him early in the count in the first inning to the tune of five hits, including three doubles.  Enrique Bradfield Jr doubled on the first pitch Serwa threw in the bottom of the first and then Max Wagner knocked him in with a double of his own on pitch number two.  Pitch three resulted in a ground ball that was booted by the second baseman for an error.  It turned into a rather prolonged inning from there in which the Baysox sent 10 men to the plate and scored six runs.  Yet Serwa only threw 25 pitches in the frame and had a whole lot more to go after that.  On the other side, the starting pitcher for Chesapeake was Juaron Watts-Brown who the Orioles acquired from the Blue Jays in the Seranthony Dominguez trade a few weeks ago.  Watts-Brown was not exactly dominant either, but was effective enough after being staked to an early big lead.  After the six run bottom of the first, Justice Bigbie launched the first Watts-Brown pitch of the second inning into the trees beyond left field.  The Baysox got that run back with another one of their own in the bottom half with three more hits off of Serwa.  In the third, the SeaWolves used the long ball again to get themselves back into the game.  McGonigle crushed a first pitch fastball that appeared to bang off of the scoreboard in right-center for a two run homer to cut the Chesapeake lead to 7-3.  McGonigle had a large cheering section behind the Erie dugout, a fairly short trip for friends and family of his to make from his hometown in the Philadelphia area.  In the fifth inning, it was Clark's turn.  He soared one the opposite way that just snuck over the left field wall for a solo home run.  After Watts-Brown was replaced in the top of the sixth, Erie tacked on two more runs to cut the lead down to one.  Somehow, Serwa was still in the game for the SeaWolves in the bottom of the sixth when the Baysox started to knock him around again.  They picked up a pair of runs on four hits, highlighted by Wagner's second RBI double of the game.  Serwa's final line is one you just never see in minor league baseball these days:  6 IP, 14 H, 9 R, 7 ER, 1 BB, 1 K.  Only a knuckleballer would be allowed to put up a line like that.  Both teams would score one more run after the sixth to end it with a Baysox 10-7 victory.  While the SeaWolves stars shined, so did the top prospect in the Chesapeake lineup.  Bradfield Jr had a pair of hits, runs and stolen bases to help lead the Baysox to the win.

With this game in the books, I can now say I've been to a game in every affiliated minor league ballpark that is both east of Chicago and north of Washington, D.C.  I still have a visit to make to Indianapolis next month, but I already went to a game in that stadium last decade.  Next up this month are a couple games in Virginia:  Norfolk and Fredericksburg.

Photo Album

Next ballpark: Harbor Park in Norfolk, VA

Day Air Ballpark - Dayton Dragons

Great Lakes Loons (LAD) @ Dayton Dragons (CIN)

July 19, 2025

Loons 4, Dragons 1

W: Joel Ibarra
L: Adam Serwinowski

S: Christian Ruebeck

HR: Cameron Decker (GL), Connor Burns (DAY)

Attendance: 8,046
Time of Game: 2 hours, 37 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Dayton, OH
Opened: 2000
Capacity: 6,831
Level: High A
League: Midwest

When the game in Dayton was rained out during my June Midwest trip, I figured I probably would not return to see a game there until a future year.  I did go ahead and exchange my ticket for a game in mid-July to at least give myself the option of making another trip to Dayton this summer though.  The week leading up to that Saturday night game, I went back and forth on whether or not to make the fairly lengthy drive with a less than ideal weather forecast once again.  Ultimately, I decided to go for it, figuring even if the Saturday night game were to get rained out, I could stick around until Sunday and skip the stop in Pittsburgh I had planned to see a White Sox/Pirates game on my way home.  As it turned out, it started to pour just a matter of minutes after I arrived in Dayton.  Fortunately, this was several hours before scheduled first pitch and the rain did not last long.  They did delay the game about a half hour to give themselves more time to get the field ready.  It turned out to be a nearly perfect summer night for baseball.

The Dayton Dragons are perhaps best known for holding the North American professional sports record for most consecutive sellouts, a streak that began the day the franchise arrived in Dayton in 2000 and remains in tact today at over 1,600 consecutive games.  The caveat is that this excludes the 2021 season which had limited attendance due to pandemic restrictions.  This is a baseball loving city and it certainly helps being in close proximity to the parent club in Cincinnati as well.  Day Air Ballpark is a gem of a stadium located in the downtown area of the Gem City.  There are a plethora of bars and restaurants in the Water Street district where the ballpark is located, just a few blocks from where the Miami and Mad Rivers meet.  Like many of these other downtown minor league parks, there is a residential high rise looming over the park across the street from center field.  There is also an apartment building rising above the home plate area and an old brick warehouse building in left.  These all create a cozy environment despite it being a pretty good sized High A facility.  There are no regular seats in the outfield, but the concourse does encircle the entire park.  There are a couple party areas in left and center, plus lawn seating in right and down both baselines.  This allows them to accommodate far more fans most nights than the official seating capacity of about 6,800.  There is a legit second deck with a bunch of sets of stairs leading up to it from the concourse.  And then there is a suite level above that.  There is construction underway on the upper level to add another party deck in the future, it would appear.  One thing that the sellout streak affords the team is to not need to put together an extensive set of promotions.  I think they are the only minor league team I've checked out the past two years that doesn't have a published set of promotions on their website for every game.  Also, the in-stadium advertising is quite limited compared to most minor league (and MLB, for that matter) parks.  I think this might have been the first summer weekend night minor league game I've attended the past two years that didn't have postgame fireworks.  None of this is a complaint at all.  It's just noticeably different than what I've experienced elsewhere and almost certainly because they don't need any of that to fill the park.

This was my third time seeing the Dodgers Midwest League affiliate Great Lakes play this summer and second for the Reds' Dayton.  Both Dayton games have featured tall left handed pitcher with a funky delivery, Adam Serwinowski, starting on the mound for the Dragons.  He happened to get traded last week to the Dodgers as part of a three team trade in which the Reds acquired pitcher Zack Littell from Tampa Bay.  Serwinowski was added to the Great Lakes roster this past weekend and will presumably make his debut in the Dodgers organization in the next couple days, pitching for the team he faced on this particular night.  He was very good in this game for the first four innings before running into trouble in the fifth.  Great Lakes starter Payton Martin also pitched well, but must have been on a pitch count limit because he was pulled in the fourth inning having only allowed one run.  That run was a solo home run by nine hole hitter, catcher Connor Burns, who lofted one into the Dragons Lair party area just above the wall in left.  The Loons did not have a hit against Serwinowski until the fifth inning.  Two batters after a double by Wilman Diaz, leadoff man Kendall George tied the game with a base hit to left.  George would then steal second and third.  He and Josue De Paula came around to score on a big two run single by Logan Wagner.  That gave the Loons a 3-1 lead and knocked Serwinowski out of the game.  In the next inning, Loons first baseman Cameron Decker hit a solo home run to almost the exact same spot in left as the Burns dinger.  That was the fourth and final Great Lakes hit of the game.  All four led to the runs in the fifth and sixth innings, so they made them count.  It would also wind up being one more hit than the Dragons could muster in the game.  The Dragons did load the bases with one out in the bottom of the seventh, but a strikeout and a flyout extinguished the threat.  Dayton would not get another runner on base in the game, so they dropped this one by a final of 4-1.  With the victory, Great Lakes improved to 3-0 on the season in games I've attended, which should make them my 2025 minor league tour champion since no other team will have the opportunity to reach three wins without a loss.

FYI, the linked photo album below contains photos from both my June stop in Dayton before the rainout as well as this return trip in July.  I am now up-to-date with these minor league ballpark recaps.  At the moment, my next scheduled visit is a day trip to the other side of Washington, DC in Bowie, Maryland for a Chesapeake Baysox game a couple weeks from now.

Photo Album

Next ballpark: Prince George's Stadium in Bowie, MD

Canal Park - Akron RubberDucks

Harrisburg Senators (WAS) @ Akron RubberDucks (CLE)

June 28, 2025

RubberDucks 4, Senators 2

W: Dylan DeLucia
L: Dustin Saenz

S: Zane Morehouse

Attendance: 7,260
Time of Game: 2 hours, 46 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Akron, OH
Opened: 1997
Capacity: 7,630
Level: Double A
League: Eastern

The grand finale of my nearly two week trip was in Akron, Ohio.  This last drive between stops was the shortest of the trip, with it being just over 40 miles between Eastlake and Akron.  The Akron RubberDucks are the AA affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians, which meant I visited all of the three highest level Cleveland affiliates on this trip, all within a few hours of each other in the state of Ohio.  Canal Park was the first and only AA stadium I visited on this trip.  Akron is the westernmost franchise in the Eastern League, most others of which I visited a year ago.  It is not a dramatic geographic outlier in that league though, as Erie and the other Pennsylvania teams aren't too bad of a trek from Akron.

Canal Park opened in 1997 and has aged nicely, I would say.  It is yet another downtown ballpark, but is a bit more secluded from its surroundings than many of the other urban parks I have visited recently.  While some of the downtown skyline is visible from inside the park, the only structure in the immediate perimeter that looms over the park is a children's hospital down the third base line.  There are very few outfield seats in this park, with right field instead containing a tiki bar and adjacent terrace seating.  There is an indoor premium club area above the concourse in right field as well.  On the other side of the stadium is a large picnic area down the third base line.  Akron joins West Michigan as a rare minor league park where the bullpens are not in the field of play, but rather beyond the right field wall.  A vast majority of the regular seats in this ballpark are on the first base side.  That is also where the team store is located.  It is not a large store, however.  I think this is the first time I've had to wait in line to enter such a shop at a minor league park, and this was probably 45 minutes before first pitch.  There was a huge crowd on hand for this Saturday night game with postgame fireworks, about a week prior to Independence Day.  The RubberDucks took on the identity of the Galley Boys with special uniforms for this game, an ode to the burgers served at popular local chain: Swenson's Drive-In.  While I'm sure this promotion was a hit for the locals, it was a bit disappointing for me not to hear them referred to by their pretty cool regular nickname, RubberDucks, inspired by Akron's prominence in the tire industry.

In a rarity for any level besides AAA, the Harrisburg lineup featured a couple of players with extensive MLB experience:  rehabbing infielder Paul DeJong and outfielder Delino DeShields Jr, who signed a minor league deal with the Nationals in May mostly so he could play for his father, Harrisburg manager Delino DeShields Sr, who is a former MLB All-Star outfielder in his own right.  The senior DeShields got hit by a line drive foul ball in the first inning, but seemed to shake it off pretty quickly.  Junior had a rough game too, striking out all three times at bat.  Another Senator who had a tough evening was starting pitcher Tyler Stuart, who was visibly upset and in pain following a pitch he threw to the fifth batter he faced in the bottom of the first.  He was taken out of the game and has not pitched since.  I later read that it was a reoccurring elbow injury that also delayed his start to the season.  This injury happened one batter after Guy Lipscomb had a base hit to knock in the first run of the game.  Akron starting pitcher Dylan DeLucia had an excellent game.  He only allowed one run in six innings, and while it was officially credited as an earned run, it wasn't entirely his fault.  In the top of the third, a Harrisburg base runner moved into scoring position when a balk was called because the catcher tried to call timeout even though DeLucia had already used his two disengagements during the at bat.  Nats first round pick from a year ago, Seaver King, took advantage with a single to tie the game at one.  The RubberDucks immediately retook the lead in the bottom of the third.  Angel Genoa bounced one up the middle for a RBI single to make it 2-1.  From there, neither team did much of anything with the bats for the next few innings.  In the bottom of the seventh, Akron scored a pair of runs on an unfortunate play for the Senators.  Lipscomb hit a routine fly ball to left that should have ended the inning.  But left fielder Phillip Glasser lost the ball in the twilight sky and it landed 10 feet from him, ruled as a two run double.  The way this game was going for Harrisburg offensively, those two gift runs were going to be too much to overcome.  The Senators did score once in the top of the eighth, another somewhat generous run.  DeJong had a RBI sacrifice fly, scoring King who reached on an error, making this an unearned run.  Then during the next plate appearance, the Akron pitcher got called for a balk for a third unsuccessful pickoff attempt.  Not sure I've ever seen a team tagged with two balks for too many disengagements in the same game since that rule was implemented a couple years ago.  This one didn't wind up costing them though.  Without a couple of defensive mistakes, this could have been a shutout for the RubberDucks.  Instead, they would settle for a 4-2 victory.

And with that, this trip's home team losing streak came to an end.  It was also the first victory for a Cleveland affiliate on this journey, following three losses.  Canal Park was a really nice ballpark to conclude the trip with.  I spent one last night in Ohio before making the Sunday drive home.  In total, I saw 10 games in 12 days.  Really the only downer was missing the game in Dayton.  But I made up for that with a return trip to Ohio a few weeks ago.  So I'll be writing about that one soon too.

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Next ballpark: Day Air Ballpark in Dayton, OH

Classic Park - Lake County Captains

West Michigan Whitecaps (DET) @ Lake County Captains (CLE)

June 27, 2025

Whitecaps 8, Captains 4

W: Preston Howey
L: Matt Wilkinson

HR: Austin Murr (WM), Peyton Graham (WM), Kevin McGonigle (WM), Christian Knapczyk (LC)

Attendance: 3,919
Time of Game: 3 hours, 3 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Eastlake, OH
Opened: 2003
Capacity: 7,273
Level: High A
League: Midwest

I started off the final weekend of my Midwest trip with a Friday night game in Eastlake, Ohio.  Eastlake is an Eastern suburb of Cleveland that is situated along Lake Erie, although Classic Park is a few miles from the lakeshore.  Being less than 20 miles from Progressive Field, this is one of the closest affiliated minor league franchises to the parent club.  Of the ones I've visited the past two years, the only one that is closer is Brooklyn and the Mets, which call the same city home.

Perhaps it is a bit unfortunate in my judgement of Classic Auto Group Park that it was the seventh and final Midwest League venue that I visited on this trip and the six that preceded it are all very nice facilities.  If I were to rank all of them, this one would easily finish last.  That's not to say it is a dump or anything.  It's just a very generic minor league park.  The only outfield seating, at least on this night, was of the lawn variety.  There is a stand-alone bleacher section in left field, but it was covered with what appeared to be a regularly used tarp adorned with advertising.  Perhaps that comes off when large crowds are expected.  There are the typical party areas down both the left and right field lines.  There is ample traditional stadium seating covering most of foul territory.  There are suites and party decks on the level above the concourse.  On a positive note, the main concourse is spacious.  Classic Park is quite lacking on the technology front compared to its contemporaries in the Midwest League.  The video board badly needs to be replaced as it has many blacked out and pixilated squares.  It doesn't provide nearly as much information as most video boards either.  This is the first park I can recall visiting that didn't have a pitch speed indicator anywhere.  Nor could you tell who was pitching based on any info board in the stadium.  These are things I never would have considered mandatory prior to starting my minor league tour.  But it is quite noticeable now since literally every other ballpark I've visited has them.  So this would be a straightforward upgrade for Lake County to make which would put it more in line with the rest of its league.

This game featured a pair of teams that I had already seen once prior on this trip.  The starting pitcher for West Michigan, Joe Miller, was actually the same pitcher who threw a bulk of the innings in their home game that I was at the previous Saturday.  Unfortunately, it was the second straight time in which I wasn't able to see elite prospect Max Clark play in the outfield as he was once again the designated hitter for the Whitecaps.  Lake County got on the board first in the bottom of the third when Christian Knapczyk won the lefty-on-lefty battle with Miller by hitting an opposite field homer to left that just snuck over the wall.  It did not take long for the Whitecaps to answer.  In the top of the fourth, in another lefty-on-lefty battle, Austin Murr took Matt Wilkinson deep to the pull side this time for a no doubt two run homer.  I actually saw Murr play a couple times for AA Erie a year ago.  The 26 year old seems to be an org player at this point since he has spent most of this season back down in High A, but also some time in AAA as well.  Immediately following Murr, Peyton Graham made it back-to-back with a home run to left.  That gave the Whitecaps a 3-1 lead.  The Captains came right back in the bottom half with a pair of runs.  The latter was scored on a double by Knapczyk, his third hit of the game off of Miller, leaving him just a triple shy of the cycle with more than half the game remaining.  He would not add to that hit total, however.  Unfortunately for the Captains, the Whitecaps just kept scoring after this.  In the top of the fifth, top infield prospect Kevin McGonigle hit yet another left-on-left home run off of Wilkinson, an opposite field shot that landed on the tarp covering the bleachers.  This wound up being McGonigle's last home run for West Michigan as he was promoted to AA Erie about a week and a half later.  The Whitecaps added another in the sixth and three more in the seventh to open up an 8-3 lead.  The seventh inning rally started with four straight singles to begin the inning.  West Michigan didn't just get it done with the bats though.  Center fielder Seth Stephenson made one of the best catches I've ever seen in a minor league game in the sixth inning.  He raced back on a ball hit deep to the right-centerfield gap and made a leaping grab as he banged into the wall on what would have been at least a double, and possibly a home run.  That, along with effective relief pitching made the Whitecaps lead hold up.  An unearned run on a passed ball in the seventh would be the Captains only tally against the West Michigan bullpen.  The Whitecaps won this by a final of 8-4.

That extended the home team losing streak on this trip to four games.  With the win, West Michigan joined Great Lakes as two time winners on my trip, while Lake County became the only team I saw lose twice.  Just one game remained, a short drive to the south in Akron on Saturday night.

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Next ballpark: Canal Park in Akron, OH

Fifth Third Field - Toledo Mud Hens

Charlotte Knights (CHW) @ Toledo Mud Hens (DET)

June 26, 2025

Knights 12, Mud Hens 9

W: Mike Clevinger
L: Keider Montero

HR: Colson Montgomery 2 (CLT), Hao-Yu Lee (TOL), Brewer Hicklen (TOL)

Attendance: 4,736
Time of Game: 3 hours, 16 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Toledo, OH
Opened: 2002
Capacity: 10,300
Level: Triple A
League: International

On Thursday, I made the short trip from Fort Wayne to Toledo, which took me back to the state of Ohio for the final leg of the Midwest trip.  After five straight Midwest League games, it was back to the AAA International League.  This was my second stop on the trip at a ballpark I had previously visited.  In this case though, I had only been to Fifth Third Field one prior time and it was at least a decade ago.  At the time, it was probably the nicest minor league park I had ever visited.  While that is no longer the case, this is still a very nice park that likely served as an inspiration for many of the newer parks built in the years since, particularly those situated in downtown locals like this one.  Toledo is the long time AAA affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, a logical pairing since it is less than an hour drive between the two cities.

Fifth Third Field is located in Toledo's Warehouse District.  The brick exterior gives the park a classic feel which melds perfectly with the older brick buildings in the neighborhood.  Most vantage points from inside the stadium provide a nice view of the downtown skyline.  Pedestrians walking past the stadium in the outfield can peer inside to catch a glimpse of the game while in progress.  There are very few outfield seats, but a bunch of different picnic, party and special seating areas out there, including along Hessman Alley above the left field wall.  That is named after former Mud Hens slugger Mike Hessman, who is Minor League Baseball's all-time home run leader.  The lack of outfield seats is compensated by having a legit second deck above the concourse spanning most of foul territory, plus a suite level above that.  The Mud Hens team store rivals Durham's for having one of the most extensive product inventories I've seen.  Makes sense because this is another one of the flagship minor league franchises.  There was a decent sized crowd on hand for this Thursday night game, which was delayed about 20 minutes due to "weather in the area".  Perhaps there were a couple rain drops before the scheduled start, but this seemed to be an unnecessary delay.

For the second time this year, veteran Mike Clevinger got the start for Charlotte in a game I attended.  He was slightly more effective this time around, but still far from dominant.  Just like his start in Charlotte, Colson Montgomery was the star of the game for the Knights.  Montgomery has had well documented struggles in AAA for the past two seasons, but not when I've been in the house.  This was the second time I've seen him hit multiple home runs in a game.  This particular game started a week long hot streak for him which ultimately led to him making his major league debut about a week later.  He got the scoring started in this game by launching a breaking ball from Toledo starter Keider Montero out to deep right center for a homer.  The Knights really roughed up Montero in the third inning.  They started the frame with four straight singles.  Immediately after the Mud Hens went to the bullpen, Corey Julks delivered a two run single to make it a five spot for the inning, increasing the lead to 6-0.  Toledo got three of those runs back in the bottom half of the inning though.  Rehabbing Matt Vierling had a RBI single followed by a two run opposite field homer by Hao-Yu Lee.  The Mud Hens got within one in the sixth inning on a two run single by Gage Workman, against the organization he briefly played for earlier in the season.  Workman was an offseason Rule 5 pick by the Cubs, was traded to the White Sox before eventually being returned to his original organization of Detroit.  That hit made it 6-5 Charlotte.  That's as close as Toledo would get though as the Knights put up another five spot in the top of the seventh.  Charlotte had five hits in the inning including three doubles.  They sent 10 men to the plate in the frame while taking an 11-5 lead.  For the second time in the game, the Mud Hens answered a five run inning with three of their own in the bottom half.  This time, the runs were all scored on a three run bomb by Brewer Hicklen that banged off the video board.  It probably would have reached the street outside the stadium if the board wasn't there.  So that made it 11-8 Knights after seven.  Charlotte added one more in the eighth on Montgomery's second homer of the game, a lefty-on-lefty 417 foot blast to nearly dead center field.  That completed a 3 for 4 night with two homers, three RBI and four runs scored for Montgomery.  The Mud Hens tacked on a run in the bottom of the ninth, but that was not nearly enough as the Knights won this one by a final score of 12-9.

That made it three straight games on this trip in which the road team won by scoring double digit runs.  This was the most competitive game of the three though.  Following this game, I made the trek across Northern Ohio to Eastlake for one final Midwest League game on this trip.

Photo Album

Next ballpark: Classic Auto Group Park in Eastlake, OH

Parkview Field - Fort Wayne TinCaps

Great Lakes Loons (LAD) @ Fort Wayne TinCaps (SD)

June 25, 2025

Loons 11, TinCaps 0

W: Roque Gutierrez
L: Harry Gustin

HR: Mike Sirota (GL), Jake Gelof (GL)

Attendance: 3,669
Time of Game: 2 hours, 55 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Fort Wayne, IN
Opened: 2009
Capacity: 8,100
Level: High A
League: Midwest

With Michigan in my rearview mirror, it was back to Indiana on Wednesday.  While my first stop of the trip in the state of Indiana was in a city that I was intimately familiar with, that was definitely not the case on the second stop.  As best as I can recall, this was my first ever visit to Indiana's second largest city of Fort Wayne.  Perhaps I will make it a point to visit more often in the future because I thoroughly enjoyed my stay.

Parkview Field may be the new leader in the clubhouse for my favorite High A ballpark.  I really liked everything about it.  If it were located in the footprint of one of the AA leagues, it would fit right in at that level and would still probably be one of the best facilities in the league.  It has a nice downtown location surrounded by hotels and other mixed use buildings.  The brick exterior of the home plate gate area provides a nice classic ballpark feel as you enter the stadium.  Once inside though, its about as modern as they come.  There are spacious concourses and walkways throughout the park, particularly in the outfield area which doubles as a public park when games aren't being played.  There are a bunch of different types of group and premium seating areas scattered all around the park, including the home run porch in left field, high top table seating down the third base line, a picnic pavilion in right field, an indoor club beyond the batters eye in straight away center, and second level suites.  Oh, and there are also rooftop seats above the building in right field, although they call them treetops instead.  There is plenty of traditional stadium seating as well.  One particularly unique feature is the ability to peer into the TinCaps batting cage which is located right off of the main concourse on the first base side.  I watched several players taking swings about an hour before the game started.  Most minor league parks don't open their gates early enough for fans to watch batting practice, so this is a pretty unique alternative to that.

Interestingly, this game in the heart of the Midwest featured affiliates of Southern California rivals, the Dodgers and Padres.  For the second straight night, I watched a home team take a bit of a beatdown.  This one was much worse than the one in Lansing though.  Fort Wayne's plans were derailed early when starting pitcher Harry Gustin departed with the trainer mid-at bat to the first batter he faced in the second inning.  It was Gustin's first start of the season after pitching exclusively out of the bullpen, so they probably weren't expecting a complete game out of him, but surely were hoping for more than an inning.  Loons outfielder Mike Sirota got his big game started with a run scoring double in the top of the first for an early 1-0 lead.  Things started to spiral out of control for the TinCaps in the fourth.  Great Lakes scored a pair in that inning, thanks in part to a pair of walks and a wild pitch.  The Loons added another run in the fifth and two more in the sixth on a no doubt bomb to left by Sirota, over the home run porch.  Then the Loons tacked on another run in the seventh to make it 7-0 after having scored in four straight innings.  Pretty much every pitcher Fort Wayne used in this game had trouble throwing strikes.  They issued at least one walk in every inning of the game except for the eighth and a ghastly total of 12 for the game.  On the flip side, Great Lakes starter Roque Gutierrez and three relievers were all excellent.  They combined to allow six hits and three walks while striking out 11 and keeping the TinCaps off the scoreboard.  As is often the case in these minor league blowouts, Fort Wayne opted to use a position player on the mound for the final inning.  It was pretty ugly.  Infielder Victor Duarte was definitely not trying to impress anybody with his versatility on the mound.  He was lobbing in pitches at < 50 MPH.  Jake Gelof, brother of Athletics infielder Zack Gelof, took advantage of the situation with a three run homer.  During the next at bat, the Fort Wayne manager seemed to be quite perturbed as he was yelling something in the direction of the plate.  Unclear if he was upset at the Loons hitter for not swinging at pitches in the same area code as the strike zone, or at the ump for not calling said pitches strikes.  When the inning was mercifully over, the Loons had increased their lead to 11-0.  Quite a contrast occurred in the bottom of the ninth when Loons flamethrower Reynaldo Yean was hitting triple digits on the radar gun.  He completed the shutout victory for Great Lakes.  The lone bright spot for Fort Wayne was Padres top prospect Leo De Vries, who had half of his team's six hits, including a pair of doubles.

As I was taking in this game, I couldn't help but think the White Sox should make a serious attempt to get Fort Wayne as their High A affiliate the next time those negotiations take place.  I know the Sox have preferred to have all of their affiliates closely located to one another.  But being the only Midwest MLB team without an affiliate in the Midwest League is just weird.  If nothing else, throw your local fans a bone and let them occasionally drive a couple hours to see some of the up-and-coming prospects.  Or maybe even make some new fans in a neighboring state.  Fort Wayne would certainly make a lot more sense for a team from Chicago than San Diego.  Oh, and this also happens to be an excellent facility, even better than the Sox current High A affiliate of Winston-Salem, in my opinion.  Just a thought.  Speaking of Sox affiliates, it was off to see Charlotte play in Toledo the next night.

Photo Album

Next ballpark: Fifth Third Field in Toledo, OH

Jackson Field - Lansing Lugnuts

Dayton Dragons (CIN) @ Lansing Lugnuts (ATH)

June 24, 2025

Dragons 13, Lugnuts 8

W: Joseph Menefee
L: Steven Echavarria

HR: Carter Graham (DAY), CJ Rodriguez (LAN), Casey Yamauchi (LAN), Tommy White (LAN)

Attendance: 1,638
Time of Game: 2 hours, 56 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Lansing, MI
Opened: 1996
Capacity: 9,500
Level: High A
League: Midwest

Prior to this trip, knowing my one scheduled day off was going to be in Central Michigan, I asked a few people I know with far more knowledge of the state than me on how I might occupy my time on this Monday off day.  I didn't get a lot of concrete suggestions.  It seems this is not exactly the most touristy part of the state.  As it turns out, that was just as well as I probably would have opted against any outdoor recommendations anyway.  While it wasn't quite as hot as Sunday, the heatwave was still in effect and I decided to spend virtually all of the day either inside or in my car.  By Tuesday, temperatures returned to a far more tolerable level, particularly by first pitch of this evening game in the state capital city.

Jackson Field is located just a few blocks east of the state capitol building in downtown Lansing.  The ballpark is nestled in a tight city block and oriented directly south to north from home plate out to center field.  Because the park runs right up against city streets to both the east and west, the dimensions down each of the lines are quite short.  305 feet to be exact.  Tall walls jut out quickly from the foul poles on each side.  However, the dimensions are still quite short to both straight away left and right as well.  Only fly balls hit to center field might not cause a pitcher's heart to sink.  While the fit in the city block is tight on those two sides, there is actually quite a bit of open space leading up to the home plate entrance on the south side.  This is yet another minor league ballpark with a residential building overlooking the outfield.  Tenants of that building on the ballpark side no doubt have a great view of the game from their balconies.  The lower level of the building houses a picnic area and a bar that are within the ballpark's perimeter.  A concourse circles the entire park even though the only outfield seating available is of the lawn variety.  There is a considerable amount of seating on the lower level in the infield with bleachers down the first base line and a party porch on the third base side.  The second level consists of suites and the press box.  There was a small, but lively crowd for this Tuesday night contest.  Unfortunately for most of those fans, the home team didn't give them a whole lot to cheer about.

Because of the quirky and generally short dimensions of this field, I would imagine there are a lot of high scoring games played at Jackson Field.  This was one such game.  Steven Echavarria got the start on the mound for Lansing and was opposed by lefty Adam Serwinowski for Dayton.  I actually saw Serwinowski pitch for a second time this summer just a couple days ago in Dayton.  He wasn't terribly effective in either game.  Nor was Echavarria or pretty much any other pitcher in this particular game though.  A total of nine pitchers appeared in the game and only the last Lansing pitcher, Henry Gomez, didn't give up at least one run.  The defenses didn't help the cause much either, especially the Dragons.  The left side of their infield committed four errors, all of the throwing variety.  Each team scratched out a single run in the first inning.  Then the offenses really got rolling starting with Dayton's half of the third.  With a runner on second and two outs, Yerlin Confidan hit a chopper that took a huge hop off the infield dirt to somehow bounce over the second baseman's head and he raced into second for a RBI double.  That was the second of four RBI hits on the night for Confidan, two of which were doubles.  That was followed by a run scoring single by Carlos Sanchez and then a two run homer by Carter Graham onto the hill beyond the shorter wall in left field.  It was a tough luck four run inning allowed by Echavarria who would have been out of it unscathed if not for that bad infield hop.  However, the Dragons took a 5-1 lead.  Then they did more damage in the fourth.  Echavarria was pulled after issuing a hit by pitch and walk to start the inning.  Both of those runners came in to score on a triple to the right centerfield gap by Carlos Jorge.  By the end of the top of the fourth, Dayton had a comfortable 8-1 lead.  It didn't stay comfortable though.  In the bottom half of the inning, the Dragons leaky defense allowed Lansing to answer with three of their own.  Two nearly identical plays on consecutive pitches were the primary culprit.  With one out and runners at the corners, a ground ball to Sanchez at third base could have been an inning ending double play with no runs scoring.  Instead, Sanchez made a poor throw to second that got away and allowed a run to score and another runner to advance to third.  On the very next pitch, a slightly harder hit ball to third allowed Sanchez the chance to redeem himself.  Instead, the throw to second got away again.  Sanchez was charged with the error again, but from my vantage point I thought the second baseman should have been able to catch it.  Regardless, the Lugnuts wound up scoring three runs in the inning, only one of which was earned and possibly none would have scored if the first play had been made.  So it was now an 8-4 lead for the Dragons.  The Lugnuts didn't make much out of this gift though as they surrendered two more runs in the fifth and a single run in the sixth to make it 11-4.  At this point the game was not really in doubt.  However, the Lugnuts did provide some further offensive highlights.  In the bottom of the sixth, two different Lugnuts hit their first home runs of the season.  CJ Rodriguez homered to the hill in left.  Then two batters later, Casey Yamauchi sliced one down the right field line that right fielder Confidan made a lunging attempt at, but was unable to come up with it.  The ball caromed off the side wall and along the outfield wall as Yamauchi rounded the bases and made it all the way home for an inside the park home run.  It was the first home run of his professional career and one of the softest hit homers I've ever seen.  Not as softly hit was a bomb to center by Tommy White to lead off the bottom of the ninth.  Tommy Tanks, as he's often called, was a college baseball hero at NC State and LSU.  Now he's hitting tanks for Lansing.  This one wasn't nearly enough for the Lugnuts though as they dropped the game by a score of 13-8.  The Dragons filled up the line score with 13 runs on 17 hits and 4 errors.

This concluded my three stop tour of Michigan's Midwest League affiliates.  Three nice parks, but in very different surroundings.  I think I get why the Tigers currently go with West Michigan as their High A affiliate since the Grand Rapids area seems to be the most supportive of their team, with the caveat that the weather certainly kept people away from the park in both Great Lakes and Lansing on the days I was there.  It was back to Indiana for me the following evening.

Photo Album

Next ballpark: Parkview Field in Fort Wayne, IN