(Cont.) Toledo Mud Hens 16, Lehigh Valley IronPigs 3 (box)
Toledo picked things up from yesterday’s suspended game with a 6-3 lead in the top of the sixth. Although the Mud Hens couldn’t add more to the six-run sixth, they scored multiple runs in all three of the following innings, winning the game, 16-3.
All three of the seventh-inning runs scored by Toledo came with two outs. Akil Baddoo and Jace Jung walked to set up Eduardo Valencia for his second three-run homer of the game — he did the same in the sixth, albeit nearly 24 hours prior.
Lehigh Valley made
a pitching change in the eighth, but it led to a five-run frame. Gage Workman welcomed Daniel Harper to the game with a leadoff double off the wall in right-center. Workman moved to third on a Riley Unroe single and scored on a Hao-Yu Lee sacrifice fly. Baddoo singled, and Jung doubled in him and Unroe to make it 12-3.
Valencia then hit his third home run of the game, increasing his RBI total to eight.
Andrew Navigato singled in run No. 15 with one out in the ninth. Lee hit another sac fly to make it 16-3 before the offense finally called it quits.
The IronPigs only had one baserunner after the delay, a harmless leadoff single in the ninth. Drew Sommers went 1-2-3 in the sixth. Alex Lange retired all five batters he faced after taking over in the seventh. Tanner Rainey got the final four outs for Toledo.
Valencia: 3-5, 3 HR (10), 3 R, 8 RBI
Lee: 2-4, 2B (22), 1 R, 2 RBI
Jung: 2-3, 2B (23), 3 R, 4 RBI, 2 BB
Lehigh Valley IronPigs 8, Toledo Mud Hens 7 (F/10)(box)
Lehigh Valley got its revenge against Toledo in Friday’s regularly scheduled game, 8-7, in 10 innings. It was a long night in Allentown.
Neither team wasted time getting on the board. Workman hit a two-run home run in the top of the second, only for former Detroit prospect Brewer Hicklen to take the lead with a three-run shot of his own in the bottom half of the inning.
Mud Hens starter Randy Dobnak never really settled in. The IronPigs got to him for five runs on nine hits, including Hicklen’s blast. Five of those hits came on balls hit 95 mph or harder, and Dobnak added two walks. He lasted through the sixth, giving up runs in the third and fifth — both on RBI singles.
Toledo’s offense didn’t have the same success against Alan Rangel. Workman’s two-run homer was the only real excitement until Rangel came out of the game. He left in the seventh with two outs and two on. Ryan Cusick moved both runners into scoring position with a wild pitch, but he managed to escape the inning.
Andrew Bechtold came out for Lehigh Valley as the setup man in the eighth, but all four of the batters he faced reached base. Baddoo walked, Valencia singled up the middle and Max Anderson snuck one by the shortstop to load the bases. Workman drove in the first two runners with a double to the corner in right. Anderson held up at third, and Bechtold came out of the game without recording an out.
Trei Cruz hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game five apiece, and Lehigh Valley’s new arm, Nolan Hoffman, plunked Navigato. Unroe doubled in the go-ahead run, and Brian Serven extended the lead with a sac fly.
The IronPigs answered immediately with back-to-back homers in the bottom of the eighth. Paul McIntosh and Rodolfo Castro both took Ryan Boyer deep, more than 430 feet to left field. That’s the only trouble Boyer had over three innings in relief of Dobnak, but it allowed the game to go into extras.
The Mud Hens loaded the bases in the ninth, but Navigato came up a few feet short of an opposite-field grand slam. They loaded the bases again in the 10th, but Valencia flew out to right. Wilkel Hernandez took the loss thanks to a pair of sac flies. Toledo loses in walk-off fashion.
Workman: 2-4, HR (12), 2B (15), 2 R, 4 RBI, BB
Lee: 0-6, 3 K
Unroe: 3-5, 2B (9), 1 RBI, 1 K
Dobnak: 6.0 IP, 9 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 2 K; 96 pitches (58 strikes)
Erie SeaWolves 10, Portland Sea Dogs 1 (box)
Max Clark and Kevin McGonigle set the tone early in Erie’s 10-1 win over Portland on Friday. Detroit’s two top-ranked prospects went back-to-back in the first inning, sparking a seven-run outburst.
After McGonigle’s home run, Josue Briceno walked, and Justice Bigbie singled to right. Briceno went to take third, triggering a bad throw from Portland’s right fielder. He scored standing up, and Ben Malgeri kept things going with an infield single.
Carlos Mendoza finally gave the Sea Dogs their first out of the game, but Eliezer Wlfonzo walked to load the bases. Danny Seretti nearly ended the rally with a double-play ball to second base, but he beat the throw to first, securing a fourth run. Seth Stephenson flared one out to right for an RBI double.
Portland changed pitchers as Clark came back up to the plate. Clark grounded to first for what should have been the third out. The second baseman ended up fielding it behind the first baseman, giving Clark time to beat the underhand toss to the pitcher attempting to cover. It was an awkward play, no doubt, but Clark’s 70-grade speed was on full display there, and it led to two more runs coming across.
The hardest part about Garrett Burhenn’s day might have been waiting for the scoring to stop so he could finally take the mound. Or maybe it was escaping a bases-loaded jam with no outs in the second. The latter is more impressive, but Burhenn still deserves credit for staying locked in. Any delay can interrupt the routine.
Portland got to Burhenn for a run in the third, but he finished his outing with 11 consecutive outs. Six innings, one run, five hits, no walks and five strikeouts. What more can you ask for?
Erie tacked on three more insurance runs throughout the night. Stephenson hit another RBI double in the fifth, and Carlos Mendoza tripled in a run in the seventh. Mendoza scored on a sac fly from Alonzo, bringing the score to 10-1.
Tanner Kohlhepp took over for Burhenn in the seventh. Despite giving up three singles in the inning, he worked around the trouble with a double play and a strikeout. Kohlhepp loaded the bases in the eighth, forcing Blair Calvo to come on for the third out. Calvo retired all four batters he faced, striking out three.
Kohlhepp tried his bests to make this interesting, but no dice.
Clark: 2-6, HR (7), 1 R, 3 RBI, 2 K
McGonigle: 1-5, HR (10), 1 R, 1 RBI
Briceno: 1-3, 1 R, 2 BB
Stephenson: 2-4, 2 2B (3), 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 BB
Burhenn (W, 13-3): 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K; 85 pitches (64 strieks)
Fort Wayne TinCaps 6, West Michigan Whitecaps 1 (box)
One bad inning spelled doom for West Michigan Friday night, as the Whitecaps fell to the Fort Wayne TinCaps, 6-1.
Jonathan Vastine’s grand slam put an exclamation point on Fort Wayne’s five-run third inning, which ended up being the difference on the scoreboard. Preston Howey worked through baserunners in the first and second, but he was pulled with the bases loaded in the third. Duque Hebbert came in and gave up the salami. All but one of the five runs scored in the inning went on Howey’s record.
Both offenses stayed fairly quiet for the rest of the game. Luke Cantwell homered in the top of the fifth, the second of the day off Hebbert. Woo-Suk Go faced the minimum in the sixth and got the first out of the seventh. CJ Weins replaced him but left the game early after suffering an injury. It appeared to be a lower-body issue, possibly the right quadriceps or hip. Whatever happened came on the landing. It’s not great, but at least it’s not an elbow or shoulder.
Haden Erbe was next out of the bullpen. He went 1.1 innings, giving up just one base hit. Carlos Lequerica pitched a 1-2-3 ninth.
West Michigan’s only run came in the eighth after a trio of singles. Austin Murr hit a sacrifice fly, but the Whitecaps needed more than that to get back into it. No extra-base hits, 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and one walk doesn’t make for a fun day of offense.
Murr: 2-3, 1 RBI
Bastidas: 2-4, 1 K
Pacheco: 1-4, 1 R
Howey (L, 4-6): 2.2 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 2 K; 54 pitches (30 strikes)
Lakeland Flying Tigers 10, Jupiter Hammerheads 6 (box)
Lakeland was on its way to a 10-1 victory, but things got interesting in the ninth. The Flying Tigers still won, but a five-run outburst made it a 10-6 final.
Four of Jupiter’s hits came in that five-run ninth. Luke Stofel and Luke Hoskins kept the Hammerheads at bay through the seventh, allowing one run on three combined hits. Eliseo Mota worked around a leadoff single in the eighth, but he’s responsible for all but one run scored in the final frame. They just started hitting him, and Jorger Petri had to come in to close it out. Petri wasn’t particularly sharp, but all he needed to do was get three outs.
It took one time through the order for Lakeland’s offense to get going, but the runs came consistently after the third inning. Carson Rucker opened the scoring with a two-run single in the third, and Sergio Tapia drove in another with a base knock in the fourth.
Cristian Santana made good on a bases-loaded opportunity in the seventh, clearing the bases with a line drive double to left. Jesus Pinto made it 7-1 in the eighth with a base hit, and Jupiter made a pitching change. Mistake.
Luis De La Cruz promptly hit Stephen Hrustich with the bases loaded and gave up another run on a wild pitch. A walk reloaded the bases, and Jude Warwick’s sacrifice fly made it 10 runs for Lakeland. That got ugly….
Goodman: 3-5, 2 R, 1 K
Santana: 1-3, 2B (11), 1 R, 3 RBI, 2 BB
Rucker: 3-5, 2 R, 2 RBI, 1 K
Stofel (W, 7-4): 6.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K; 81 pitches (50 strikes)
