The Bowling Green Hot Rods rolled to a fourth straight win, bouncing Lake County 11-3 on Wednesday at Bowling Green Ballpark.

Bowling Green (64-55 overall, 33-19 second half) scored in six out of eight innings to win at home for the 18th time in the last 23 games and trim its magic number to clinch a playoff spot to 11.

“The offense was really good tonight,” BG manager Reinaldo Ruiz said.

“They fight every at-bat and they make pitchers work a lot. When they make mistakes, we take advantage of them.”

Jesus Sanchez started the scoring with a three-run home run in the first. Lake County (49-72, 22-30) scored a run in the top of third, but the Hot Rods answered with two in the bottom of the inning to extend the lead to 5-1.

Michael Tinsley’s two-run homer cut the deficit to two in the fourth, but the Captains were unable to get any closer with Bowling Green scoring the final six runs of the night.

Five Hot Rods finished with multi-hit games.

Rene Pinto and Jim Haley had three hits each, while Sanchez, Garrett Whitley and Luis Rengifo added two hits each.

Kenny Rosenberg allowed three runs over six innings to improve to 6-6 on the season. Peter Bayer struck out four in two shutout innings of relief, with Deivy Mendez tossing a scoreless ninth to finish it off.

“(Rosenberg) settled in and gave us a quality start,” Ruiz said. “Then the bullpen came in and did a really good job. That is what we are looking for from the bullpen – to give us shutout innings every time we score. They did a really good job.”

Whitley’s streak

With his two-hit night, Whitley extended his hit streak to 12 games. He is 17-for-45 during the streak with two homers and five RBIs.

“He’s seeing the ball really well lately, swinging at good pitches,” Ruiz said. “He’s close to 300 at-bats and his development is going in the right direction.”

Climbing the record books

Sanchez continued to etch his name in the franchise record books with his homer and three-RBI night Wednesday.

The No. 4 rated prospect in the Tampa Bay Rays system has a Midwest League best 76 RBIs on the season, putting him fourth on the franchise list for RBIs in a season – five behind Brett Sullivan and Derek Dietrich. His 14 home runs put him in a tie for seventh for the most homers in a season in franchise history.

“Sanchez has been consistent all year long,” Ruiz said. “He’s been swinging the bat really well. He has a very natural swing, a simple swing. It’s working for him and hopefully he can keep doing a really good job in the four hole.”

Up next

The Hot Rods will go for the four-game sweep when the series concludes at 6:35 p.m. Thursday. Right-hander Chris Pike (3-4, 4.47) is scheduled to start for the Hot Rods. Left-hander Sean Brady (1-0. 1.00) is scheduled to start for Lake County.{&end}