During Monday’s make-up game at Impact Field in Chicago, Illinois, the Chicago Dogs (36-21) beat the Gary SouthShore RailCats (23-33) by a score of 8-3 as the ‘Cats lost their fifth straight.
Jordan Kipper earned the win for Chicago after six innings on the mound, allowing one run on six hits and one walk with six strikeouts.
For the RailCats, John Sheaks took the loss with three innings of five-run baseball, allowing seven hits while striking out four.
In the opening frame, Brennan Metzger laced a lead-off double down the left-field line and came around to score the first run of the game just two batters later a Danny Mars single to right, just the first of three hits on the day for Mars who tallied two runs and two RBI in the win.
Later in the inning, Ryan Lidge blasted his fourth home run of the year, a two-run shot to give the Dogs a 3-0 lead after one.
Lidge added a 3-for-3 day at the plate and fell a triple short of the cycle as he drove in three runs en route to eclipsing a league-leading .400 batting average on the season.
Fast forward to the third, Lidge drove in another with an RBI-double that kicked off the top of the right-field wall as the Dogs would add two more in the frame.
Tommy McCarthy opened the fourth with a drive to deep left that nearly escaped the mini-monster, but the first baseman would have to settle for a lead-off double. McCarthy would later score on a Zach Welz RBI-single, Welz’s first of two hits on the day, the other a triple.
Chicago would extend its lead in the bottom of the fourth and fifth innings, and then Anfernee Seymour jacked a solo-home run in the seventh to make it 8-1.
Gary SouthShore would rally in the ninth and slice into the lead with a Daniel Lingua two-RBI single, but it was a case of far too little far too late as the Dogs won the make-up contest 8-3.
The loss culminates a 10-game road trip as the RailCats dropped their final five games on the road.
With the win, Chicago is now tied atop the North division with the Milwaukee Milkmen.
The Gary SouthShore RailCats will head home for a six-game home stand that begins with three against the Cleburne Railroaders on Tuesday, July 20 at 7:10 p.m. at the Steel Yard in Gary, Indiana.