By Jack Ankony, The Chicago Dogs

After drilling a home run into the bullpen last night, K.C. Hobson upped the ante on Tuesday with a home run over the bleachers, crashing into the brick wall of the Diamond Club at the U.S. Steelyard.

Hobson’s 10th home run, and fourth in the last four games, gave the Dogs a 3-1 lead in the third. But the wheels fell off in the bottom half of the third and sixth inning, leading to a 16-5 loss for the Dogs against the Gary SouthShore RailCats.

The Dogs allowed six runs in the third and eight runs in the sixth, which lead to their first loss in July. Luckily for the Dogs, the Milwaukee Milkmen and Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks also lost on Tuesday night. This means the Dogs still cling to a one game lead atop the American Association North Division.

Andro Cutura made his Dogs debut on the mound on Tuesday night after beginning the 2021 season with the Lancaster Barnstormers. Cutura exited the game with one out in the third inning and finished with seven earned runs, seven hits, one walk and three strikeouts.

Michael Crouse made it a 7-5 game with a solo home run in the sixth as the Dogs eyed a comeback. John Baker entered in relief of Cutura and tossed 2.2 scoreless frames, allowing four hits, zero walks and one strikeout.

But disaster struck in the sixth inning as the RailCats put up eight runs to put Tuesday’s contest on ice. A double and three singles off the bats of the RailCats in the sixth put an end to the Dogs five game win streak.

Jonathan Crawford allowed three earned runs in a third of an inning. Four runs scored when Harrison Smith took the mound, none of which were earned. Brendan Smith finished the game off for the Dogs, hurling 2.1-inning effort while allowing one run.

At the plate, it was a night of missed opportunities for the Dogs as they tried to keep up with Gary SouthShore’s high-scoring night. Ryan Lidge and Danny Mars led the Dogs’ offensive attack with eight combined hits on Tuesday. The Dogs managed 15 hits on the night but stranded 12 runners.

AJ Jones will take the mound for the Dogs and make his fourth professional start. He will look to build off last week’s impressive performance where he tossed eight shutout innings with just one hit entering the ninth.

Boxscore