Maple Leafs snap losing skid with win over Brantford

By Rob Vona

The Toronto Maple Leafs snapped their four-game losing streak on Sunday afternoon at Dominico Field with a 12-5 win over the Brantford Red Sox. 

With the win, the Maple Leafs sit at an even 14-14 record on the year. 

“It was nice to get a win today and get that good feeling back in the locker room,” Maple Leafs DH Jordan Castaldo said after the game.

The Red Sox struck first with a ground ball off the bat of first baseman Nick Burdett that scored a run, giving them a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth inning.

Castaldo and the Maple Leafs were quick to respond as he blasted his third home run of the year, a two-run shot over the left field fence that gave his squad the 2-1 lead after four innings of play. 

Brantford tagged Maple Leafs starter Daniel Procopio for another two runs in the top of the fifth inning that were highlighted by a booming double down the left field line from shortstop Gus Wilson as the Red Sox took their second lead of the game, now leading 3-2. 

Maple Leafs right fielder Ryan Dos Santos put up a double of his own in the bottom half of the inning that scored the first of three runs in the frame for the Maple Leafs. Red Sox starter Danny Garcia was done for the day after giving up all five earned runs, taking his fifth loss of the year. 

“We know that we’re better than what we were showing,” said Castaldo. “It was much nicer to see a lot of good swings on balls, hopefully we can just build from here.”

The Maple Leafs bats exploded for six runs in the sixth inning, highlighted by a single from first baseman Garrett Takamatsu, a sacrifice fly from centre-fielder Connor Lewis, a walk from right-fielder Ryan Dos Santos, a fielder’s choice by shortstop Jose Vinicio and a single from Castaldo that scored two runs.

With the single, Castaldo finished with a game-high four RBI, bringing his total to 21.  

After the outpour of runs, the Maple Leafs now led 11-3.

A single from Lewis in the bottom of the seventh inning gave the Maple Leafs their 12th run of the game, extending their lead to nine runs. 

With Adam Marra entering the game in relief for the Maple Leafs in the ninth inning, the Red Sox tacked on another pair of runs to cut the deficit to six, but that was all they would get as the Maple Leafs got back in the win column to get back to .500.

“Today was certainly a day where we didn’t make too many mistakes, they didn’t put too much pressure on us, I thought today was a pretty complete day,” Castaldo said. 

The Maple Leafs will host the Kitchener Panthers on Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. as they look to win back-to-back games for the first time since the beginning of the month.