Game One: Dogs 8, RailCats 6

GARY, Ind. — The Chicago Dogs resumed a fog-suspended game that began on June 6th in the bottom of the third down by a run but ended up winners on the back of eight unanswered runs to beat the Gary SouthShore RailCats 8-6 on Saturday afternoon at the U.S. Steel Yard.

Jordan Dean, Keon Barnum and Victor Roache all contributed with longballs, driving in a combined five runs, and Jake Dahlberg (W, 5-3) racked up nine strikeouts in seven innings of work.

Gary SouthShore had plated four in the first as Randy Santiesteban and Colin Willis each drove in a run, and rookie sensation Tom Walraven mashed a two-run shot to give the RailCats an early lead.

Back in June, the Dogs brought themselves within striking distance on a Keon Barnum solo shot, Victor Roache RBI double, and a Carlos Zambrano groundout to push the score to 4-3 before it was called due to fog.

Chicago jumped on RailCats de facto starter Jumpei Akanuma (L, 5-6) immediately in the fourth inning once the game resumed on Saturday. David Olmedo-Barrera and Rey Gonzalez reached, and with one out, Dean roped his seventh homer of the season to left to give the Dogs a 6-4 lead.

The Dogs tacked on two more runs courtesy of Roache’s 13th home run in the fifth and an RBI single off the bat of Edwin Arroyo in the sixth, which made it eight unanswered for Chicago and put them ahead 8-4.

In the bottom of the sixth, a Danny De La Calle double and a John Price, Jr. triple plated two runs to allow the RailCats within two.

Casey Crosby and Kyle Halbohn each worked scoreless relief innings to put a bow on the win, with Halbohn notching his ninth save in as many tries.

Game Two: Dogs 2, RailCats 0

The Chicago Dogs offense quieted down a bit but Wes Torrez spun a scoreless gem in a 2-0, seven-inning win over the Gary SouthShore RailCats on Saturday night at the U.S. Steel Yard.

David Olmedo-Barrera extended his hitting streak to 20 games with a clutch double late to back Torrez (W, 1-2) in his first win of the season.

Torrez and his starting pitching counterpart Trevor Lubking (L, 5-6) were locked into a scoreless pitcher’s duel into the sixth, each having thrown fewer than 65 pitches through their first five innings.

Tony Rosselli led off the sixth with a single and hustled all the way home on Olmedo-Barrera’s double to center to give the dogs a 1-0 lead. After an Edwin Arroyo sacrifice bunt pushed him to third, Olmedo-Barrera scored on Keon Barnum’s RBI single to double up the RailCats, leaving them ahead 2-0.

Torrez threw just the second complete game of the Dogs’ season, a seven-inning, five-strikeout shutout to clinch the fifth straight series win for Chicago.

The Dogs will wrap up the series on Sunday in their final regular-season game of 2019 against the RailCats. First pitch is set for 2:10 PM and will feature LHP Austin Wright (4-5) against RHP Justin Sinibaldi (3-4) for Gary SouthShore.

Fans can tune in to The Chicago Dogs Baseball Network for a radio feed of all Dogs road games. For more updates, follow @TheChicagoDogs on social media and use the hashtag #TakeABite.

Game 2 Boxscore

By Sam Brief