The Bowling Green Hot Rods added another chapter to their historic season with a 4-3 win Thursday over Lansing (Mich.) in Game 2 of the opening round of the Midwest League playoffs at Bowling Green Ballpark.

Vidal Brujan scored three times and Tommy Romero pitched seven strong innings as Bowling Green swept the best-of-3 series 2-0 to secure the franchise’s first postseason series victory and advance to the Eastern Division championship series.

“It was a tough two games,” Bowling Green manager Craig Albernaz said. “Lansing is a really good team. We played each other tough all year long. They were down to their last out and they still had a chance.

“It’s always great to win a series in front of your home fans. To see the guys have joy after competing and being able to take the series is fun.”

Romero allowed four hits and struck out six over seven innings. The only blemish came on a two-out RBI single in the second inning that gave Lansing a 1-0 lead.

That deficit remained until the fourth when Brujan doubled to lead off the inning – BG’s first hit of the night – and Moises Gomez followed with a towering homer that just cleared the wall in right center off Lansing starter Graham Spraper to give the Hot Rods the lead for good.

Brujan and Gomez hooked up again in the sixth when Brujan tripled to lead off the inning and Gomez followed with an RBI single through a drawn-in infield.

The Hot Rods added one more run in the eighth courtesy of Brujan’s legs. Brujan drew a leadoff walk and moved to third on an errant pickoff attempt by relief pitcher Brayden Bouchey. Two batters later, Taylor Walls hit a chopper to second with the infield in, but Brujan was able to beat the throw home – sliding under the tag to make the score 4-1.

“That’s what Brujan has been doing all year,” Albernaz said. “He gets on first base – the pitcher is worrying about him stealing a bag and leaves a fastball up and (Gomez) hits a home run. Then he hits a lead-off triple and (Gomez) drives him in.

“But that contact play at third, there is not many people that score on that play.”

That run proved big in the ninth when Lansing rallied. Samad Taylor and Norberto Obeso started the inning with singles, with Taylor moving to third on a fly out to right by Chavez Young. Ryan Noda hit a sacrifice fly and Brandon Grudzielanek followed with an RBI single to trim the deficit to one.

The comeback bid ended there, as Tyler Day got Ryan Gold to fly out to center for the final out – allowing the Hot Rods to celebrate on the field after the game.

“To get a series win I think shows that we have a special group of guys over here,” Romero said.

Bowling Green finished with six hits, two each from Brujan, Gomez and Zach Rutherford, while Lansing had seven hits – two by Taylor.

REVERSAL OF FORTUNE

It was a bounce-back start against Lansing for Romero, who suffered his only loss as a Hot Rod to the Lugnuts on Aug. 14 when he allowed seven earned runs and walked four in 4 2/3 innings. In that outing he threw 89 pitches, 51 for strikes. In Thursday’s win, Romero also threw 89 pitches to get through seven innings, with 64 strikes. The right-hander walked one Thursday.

“I didn’t really make many adjustments, it was a matter of executing,” Romero said. “I feel like I had my stuff tonight and the defense helped me out all night. I feel like I could throw my fastball for strikes and my breaking ball for strikes whenever I need to and that’s what helped me out tonight.”

UP NEXT

Bowling Green will play at West Michigan in Game 1 of the Eastern Division championship series at 5 p.m. CDT Saturday. The best-of-three series will then shift to Bowling Green Ballpark, with Game 2 scheduled for 6:35 p.m. Sunday.

Game three, if necessary, will be on Monday.

Bowling Green went 10-3 against West Michigan in the regular season, outscoring the Whitecaps 77-26. The Hot Rods were 5-2 at West Michigan and 5-1 at Bowling Green Ballpark, winning nine straight in the series before West Michigan won the final meeting 2-0 in the regular season Aug. 10 at Bowling Green Ballpark.{&end}