Dickey homers again, but Lugnuts lose 6th straight

EASTLAKE, OH – Jared Dickey swatted a two-run homer for the second straight night – but for the second straight night, the swing provided the Lansing Lugnuts’ (11-16, 47-46) only runs in an 8-2 loss to the Lake County Captains (15-12, 50-43) on Thursday night at Classic Auto Group.

The Lugnuts have lost six consecutive games coming out of the All-Star Break: three at home to West Michigan, and three to open up their six-game series at Lake County.

The Captains scored two runs in the second, one in the fourth, two in fifth, one in the sixth and two in the seventh in a balanced attack against Jake Garland (2 2/3 innings), Jack Mahoney (three innings) and Jake Christianson (1 1/3 innings) before Henry Gómez twirled a perfect eighth.

In contrast, Captains starter Josh Hartle held the Lugnuts to one hit, a Tommy White fourth-inning single, over five scoreless innings.

Robert Wegielnik followed with a two-out walk to White in the sixth, setting up Dickey’s sixth home run of the season, landing on the berm in right.

But the Nuts were held hitless from there by Wegielnik in the seventh and former Major League outfielder Tyler Naquin, now converted to pitching, in the eighth and ninth.

The Lugnuts send right-hander Grant Judkins to the mound for the fourth game in the six-game series, taking on Lake County lefty Tugboat Wilkinson at 7 p.m. Friday.

The Nuts play the Captains through Sunday, returning home from July 29-August 3 to host Cedar Rapids. Tickets are available for purchase at the stadium box office, (517) 485-4500 or online at milb.com/lansing.

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