Fort Wayne’s winning streak ended at 10 games Thursday after the TinCaps lost 7-4 to the Hot Rods at Bowling Green Ballpark.

The TinCaps had a late lead, taking a 3-2 advantage into the bottom of the 8th inning. But that’s when the Hot Rods revved up their offense, rallying for five runs that included a three-spot scored on a controversial home run by Cade Gotta that the umpires ruled stayed fair. It was Gotta’s second home run of the game.

The TinCaps had a chance to tie the game in the top of the 9th inning. They loaded the bases with no outs, but managed to score only one run.

As noted in my last post, Fort Wayne’s 10-game winning streak tied a franchise record achieved twice by the 2009 TinCaps, who went on to win the Midwest League championship title. The current squad leads the Eastern Division, 2.5 games ahead of the West Michigan Whitecaps, with 18 days left in the regular season.

The TinCaps have a 34-18 record in the second half, and a 66-54 overall record.

Turner called up by Nationals

The Washington Nationals announced today that they called up shortstop Trea Turner, who was playing for the TinCaps at this time last year. The 22-year-old is considered one of the top prospects in baseball.

Turner got his playing career off to a slow start with a .228 batting average in 23 games for the short-season Eugene Emeralds last year, but completely turned it around after being promoted to Fort Wayne, where he finished the season batting .369 with 4 HR, 22 RBI and 14 SB in 46 games.

He has played in 116 games so far this season, splitting them evenly between the San Diego Padres and Nationals organizations. He played 68 games in Double-A and 48 games in Triple-A, cumulatively batting .322 with 8 HR, 54 RBI and 29 RBI.

The Nationals acquired Turner on June 14 to complete a three-team trade between Washington, San Diego and the Tampa Bay Rays in December.

Trea Turner played for the Fort Wayne TinCaps last year. (Photo from BaseballAmerica.com)