The Bowling Green Hot Rods looked ready to thoroughly rattle Lansing (Mich.) starting pitcher Osman Gutierrez on Wednesday night at Bowling Green Ballpark.

The Hot Rods had the imposing Nicaraguan right-hander in the worst sort of bind for a pitcher – bases loaded, no outs, cleanup hitter striding to home plate.

Not good – muy malo, even.

Gutierrez didn’t rattle. The 6-foot-4, 230-pounder fanned No. 4 hitter Jesus Sanchez with three pitches, then needed just three more pitches to sit down Robbie Tenerowicz before getting Miles Mastrobuoni to fly out to end the treacherous top of the first inning without allowing a run. Gutierrez tossed six more less eventful scoreless innings afterward, leading the Lugnuts to a series-opening 8-0 victory.

The loss snapped the Hot Rods’ five-game winning streak, all road victories. But after scoring at least four runs in each of those previous five games, Bowling Green (54-52 overall, 23-16 second half) managed just six hits in the shutout loss.

Only four of those came against Gutierrez, who fanned a season-high 10 batters in earning his fourth win of the season.

“He was challenging our hitters and we couldn’t make the adjustments,” Ruiz said. “He did a really good job.”

That first-inning scoring whiff may have made Gutierrez even more effective, Ruiz said, as the early frustration seemed to carry over with less-than-stellar at-bats by his team.

“I think that was the difference right there, when we had the bases loaded and no outs and we couldn’t score any runs,” Ruiz said. “That hurts. I think that hurt us the entire game.”

Lansing (53-52, 16-23) broke through in the top of the second with a two-out rally against Hot Rods starter JD Busfield. Lugnuts first baseman Nash Knight plated the first run with an RBI single, then another run scored on a passed ball.

That was just the start of the trouble for Busfield, a right-hander making his 18th start this season. Busfield, a seventh-round pick out of Loyola Marymount in the 2016 MLB draft by parent club Tampa Bay, gave up two more unearned runs in the fourth and then three more runs in the fifth – another RBI single by Knight and then two sacrifice fly RBIs.

Busfield was done after the fifth, having allowed seven runs (four earned) while losing his fifth straight decision.

The Hot Rods got strong relief from hard-throwing right-hander Peter Bayer over the next three innings. The 2016 ninth-round pick allowed just a walk while striking out three over three scoreless innings.

“He’s been throwing hard all year long,” Ruiz said of Bayer. “Today was one of the best outings that he’s had. His command was really good today and that’s key. He was around the zone and when you throw 98 and 97, you’re going to get people out.”

The Hot Rods didn’t muster much offense on a damp night – the game was delayed an hour by rain, which was still falling in the early innings. Bowling Green center fielder Josh Lowe had two of the Hot Rods’ six hits, and catcher Rene Pinto’s seventh-inning double was the only extra-base hit of the night for the Hot Rods.

Lugnuts center fielder Edward Olivares paced his team’s eight-hit night with a 3-for-5 effort.

Up next

Game 2 of the three-game series is set for 6:35 p.m. Thursday at Bowling Green Ballpark. The Hot Rods will start left-hander Kenny Rosenberg, who’s fanned 98 batters this season in 79 innings. Lansing is set to start righty Justin Maese, whose last win came five starts ago on May 24.