Loons fall to Whitecaps, 5-4

The Great Lakes Loons lost a back-and-forth battle at Dow Diamond Monday night, winding up on the wrong side of a 5-4 score against the West Michigan Whitecaps.

The Whitecaps broke a 2-2 tie with three-runs in the fifth inning, forcing out starter Thomas Melgarejo (0-2). The big blow in the inning was a two-run homer by Tigers’ center field prospect Gorkys Hernandez, his first of the season.

The Loons (15-22) pulled to within two runs in the bottom half of the fifth inning on a double steal. With runners on the corners, Preston Mattingly took off for second base and Francisco Lizarraga swiped home, the first steal of home in Loons’ franchise history.

Eduardo Perez’s solo home run in the eighth inning cut the West Michigan lead to 5-4. But Brett Jansen slammed the door on the Loons in the ninth inning to record his seventh save.

Lauren Gagnier (2-4) picked up the win for the Whitecaps. The Loons received 4 2/3 innings of scoreless relief from their bullpen duo of Francisco Felix and Garrett White. Felix continues to lead the Midwest League in ERA (now 0.76) and has not allowed an earned run in 20 1/3 innings of relief work.

The two teams meet again in the series finale Tuesday night at 7:05 p.m. at Dow Diamond. The Loons will not return to Dow Diamond again until May 27.

A box score of Monday’s game is available at milb.com.