FORT WAYNE – Three games into the Midwest League season, this much we know about the TinCaps: They play baseball considerably better than they sing.
An off-key rendition of “Happy Birthday” for first baseman Tommy Medica came forth from the TinCaps’ clubhouse soon after their 5-0 victory over South Bend on Saturday at Parkview Field.
With Medica, 23, going 3 for 4 with an RBI single and the starting pitching remaining near flawless, the TinCaps won their third game and will close the season-opening series against the Silver Hawks (0-3) today.
“I just explained that to them. It’s easy when everything’s going good and when we’re making pitches and we’re at home,” manager Shawn Wooten said. “The smaller things that we do – the mistakes that we make – aren’t blown out of proportion, but we’re keeping a level idea of what’s going to happen.
“We’re not going to win 140. Obviously, everybody knows that. But we do have a team that’s going to catch the ball, and we have some speed, and we’re going to have some power along the way as we go. It could be a good combination.”
The combination has been lethal so far.
Third baseman Jake Blackwood hit the team’s first home run of the season with a two-run shot to deep left in the first inning. Then Medica, on his third hit, had an RBI single to center in the sixth. And to finish the scoring, Wes Cunningham’s two-out single to center brought in Donavan Tate and Everett Williams, both of whom had sharp singles to left and advanced on a stolen base by Tate and a passed ball.
Medica has started the season 6 for 10.
“I definitely wanted to have a good day,” said Medica, a 14th-round draft pick and a third-team All-America at Santa Clara.
But he has been down this road before, sort of. Last season as a designated hitter in Eugene, Ore., Medica started with a five-game hitting streak, only to finish with a .176 average.
“I never really got comfortable swinging the bat last year,” Medica said. “Not everyone was playing every day, and it was kind of difficult getting into a groove. Hopefully it will help playing every day.”
But as Wooten warned, it can’t be this easy every day – although the starting staff is making look like that.
Starter Matt Branham threw five shutout innings and struck out six to give the three starters thus far a combined 16 2/3 innings with only one run allowed.
“Obviously both those guys who threw in front of me (Keyvius Sampson and Zach Cates), I couldn’t have done much better, so I was like, ‘What am I going to do?’ ” Branham said. “I’ll try to keep it up. We’ve thrown awesome so far. I couldn’t ask for a better start out of all our guys.”
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