On Thursday evening, I tuned in to the Great Lakes Loons game on 100.9 FM radio with play-by-play announcer Chris Vosters and his broadcasting partner Brad Tunney.

It soon became one of those games, the likes of which you have not seen or heard before. The Dodgers Low Single-A affiliate has had a bit of a difficult time at the plate during the 2017 season thus far with a team aggregate batting average of .233 ahead of only the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers who hold down last spot in the league with a .222 average.

Before I could really settle in the game instantly became like a home run derby. The Loons scored 11 runs in the top of the first inning and hit five home runs in the process. Both center fielder Cody Thomas and right fielder Carlos Rincon hit two home runs each in the inning. They, in fact, went back-to-back twice in the inning. The fifth home run was a three-run shot to left center field by third baseman Jared Walker.

Loons announcer Chris Vosters reports that the only other recorded instance of two players hitting consecutive home runs multiple times in one inning occurred at the Major League level on May 2, 2002 when Bret Boone and Mike Cameron went deep in back-to-back at-bats twice in the first inning of a 15-4 win for the Seattle Mariners over the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park II.

“I was definitely very excited, but shocked at the same time,” Great Lakes manager Jeremy Rodriguez said. “I’ve never seen that before, so it was nice to see those two guys do what they did tonight and have the success that they did.”

The Loons bats then went silent until the fifth inning when lightening struck again. Jared Walker led off the inning with his second home run of the game and his sixth in the last five games with the Loons. Not to be out done, Cody Thomas hit his historic third home run of the game, a no doubter to right center field.

Thomas down played his performance by giving a Yogi Berra-like explanation of his night.

“It was just ‘see ball, hit ball.’ Keep it simple,” Thomas said. “They gave me good pitches to hit early in the count and I just attacked them. The result was the result, but nothing too crazy, didn’t overthink it.”

However, the left-handed hitter from Colleyville, Texas did a bit more than that as the Loons came up with a pregame plan to use against Dragons starter Anthony DeSclafani who has a five-pitch mix.

“Obviously, you got to eliminate some of those and really just trying to stick to your plan,” the 22-year-old explained. “I think that’s what we did a good job of, keeping it simple and attacking the fastball early in counts.”

Cody Thomas
(Photo courtesy of Great Lakes Loons)

The Loons tacked on two more runs, one in the sixth inning on an error and another in the ninth inning on a Gavin Lux double.

The game turned out to be a record setting game with several Loons franchise records going into the books:

• Most team home runs in a game – 7
• Most personal home runs in a game – 3 by Cody Thomas
• Most RBI in a game – 7 by Cody Thomas
• Most total bases in a game – 13 by Cody Thomas

Thomas had without question the best offensive performance in Loons franchise history. He and Carlos Rincon now both have 18 home runs. No pair of Loons hitters have ever had at least 19 home runs each so another Loons record may well soon he set.

The Loons came away with a 16-5 win over the Dayton Dragons moving them to within five games of a wildcard play-off spot.

Right-hander Jordan Sheffield was having the game of his life through six innings having allowed only one hit and striking out nine. He ran into trouble in the seventh inning after getting the first out in the inning but then giving up four hits and one walk. he was charged with five earned runs as reliever Andre Scrubb allowed two inherited runners to score.

Also of note, outfielder 18-year-old outfielder Starling Heredia made his Loons debut and had one hit in four plate appearances with a single in the sixth inning.

The Loons square off with Dayton again on Friday evening looking for a three-game sweep of the Dragons. The Great Lakes starter has not yet been named.