Brian Finegan, Mike Whitney and Tim Montgomery hit consecutive one-out singles to produce the first run before Whitney scored on a Yury Santana throwing error to take a 2-0 lead.
Sanchez, who opened the season with nine straight wins, has a 5.50 ERA in the first inning, allowing 11 runs in 18 starts. He is 1-2 with a 6.39 ERA in three starts against the Captains, allowing 15 runs (nine earned) on 20 hits.
The top four of the Captains' batting order went 9-for-17 with four RBI and four runs scored. Finegan went 4-for-4 (all singles) with a walk while Whitney finished with three hits. Lake County had 11 hits in the game.
Lake County took a 5-1 lead in the second as Wyatt Toregas led off with a double and Jose Ortega reached on third baseman Grant Psomas' fielding error. Juan Valdes drove in one run with a groundout and Trevor Crowe followed with an RBI double. He later scored on Jesus Flores' throwing error.
The Suns (50-41, 8-13) had a chance to tie the game at 2-2 in the first inning, but failed in the clutch. Carlos Gomez drew a one-out walk off starter Chuck Lofgren (2-1) and scored on Ambiorix Concepcion's single. Concepcion took second on a wild pitch and was held at third on Mike Carp's single to right, where he was stranded.
"I don't regret not sending him at all," Richards said. "You always second-guess yourself, but we had the potential for a big inning. We had one of the best players in the league (Psomas) batting fifth and in my opinion, I was going to play the percentages. He's not our hottest hitter, but he has come through for us in the past."
The Captains scored a sixth run off Sanchez in the fourth as Valdes drew a one-out walk, stole second and scored on Finegan's third hit.
The Suns got a run back in the fifth when Santana led off with a single and eventually scored on Concepcion's sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to 6-2.
Hagerstown relievers Joe Serfass and Jose Gomez allowed one run in five innings of work to keep the Suns in the game. The Captains got the run off Serfass on a sacrifice fly by Montgomery.
The Suns were thrown out trying to steal three times, twice on failed hit-and-run attempts.
