Toledo Mud Hens 3, St. Paul Saints 0 (box)
Toledo’s pitching staff threw a two-hit shutout against St. Paul on Saturday, as the Mud Hens put up three runs in the fifth to secure the win.
It wasn’t a high-offense day with just nine hits between both teams. Ben Malgeri and Gage Workman had multi-hit days with two apiece. Malgeri hit his second triple of the season. Trei Cruz, Cal Stevenson and Max Burt each had one hit, giving the bottom third of the lineup some life.
Cruz
led off the deciding fifth inning with a line drive to right-center. It was the third time in five frames that Toledo got the leadoff man on, but this time the Mud Hens strung something together to actually score. Stevenson and Burt made it three singles in a row and brought in the first run of the game. The former grounded it through the right side, but Burt’s ball should have been caught. It was a standard pop-up to shallow right, and no one got there for St. Paul.
Max Clark grounded into what should have been an inning-ending double play. His speed forced a bad throw to first, and Stevenson scored on the error. Clark moved up to second on the throw and went to third on a wild pitch. Workman’s second single of the day brought Clark across. Even on a 0-4 day, Clark managed to do something productive.
Toledo didn’t record a hit for the rest of the day and struck out 12 times overall. That’s not the kind of offensive performance that usually wins ball games, but the pitching staff kept St. Cloud off the bases for most of the evening.
It was a bullpen day for the Mud Hens, which makes the performance all the more impressive. Sean Guenther got the start, and Brenan Hanifee relieved him after two innings. Hanifee threw two frames of his own before turning things over to Matt Seelinger, who got the win. Burch Smith was the only arm to throw a single inning, and Ricky Vanasco got the six-out save.
Vanasco had a team-high four strikeouts, without drawing a single whiff. He landed 10 called strikes, spread relatively evenly across his pitch mix. Vanasco is now up to 8 2/3 innings of scoreless ball. He’s struck out 18 batters and walked just three this season. He’s just painting corners and confusing hitters with good sequencing.
Hanifee had three strikeouts and was missing barrels all day. He drew six whiffs on 13 swings and had five first-pitch strikes. Guenther also landed a good amount of first-pitch strikes — doing so on five of the six batters he faced. His velocity was up from its season, around two miles per hour all-around.
Malgeri: 2-3, 3B, BB, K
Clark: 0-4, R, K
Workman: 2-4, RBI, 2 K
Vanasco (S, 2): 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K
Coming Up Next: It’s a 2:05 p.m. ET start on Sunday with the Mud Hens leading the series 3-2.
Chesapeake Baysox 4, Erie SeaWolves 1 (box)
Erie struggled to get on base consistently, and Chesapeake did not, leading to a 4-1 loss for the SeaWolves.
The BaySox reached base in every inning but the sixth by way of 10 hits, two walks and a hit batter. Six of those hits came off Erie’s starter, Carlos Pena, who wasn’t bad overall. He struck out six and allowed just one run, but he still took the loss. Walks and leadoff base hits put Pena under stress for most of his 4 1/3 innings. He gave up leadoff singles in three of the five innings he started, but only Frederick Bencosme scored in the fifth.
Sean Hunley relieved Pena and immediately started giving up extra-base hits. A double from Aron Estrada and a three-run home run from Ethan Anderson decided this game. It would’ve been nice to see Pena try to work out of the fifth. He was only at 77 pitches, and Hunley wasn’t too sharp out of the bullpen. He settled down after that, but the damage was already done.
Yosber Sanchez pitched the final two frames for Erie. He gave up a solo home run to Bencosme on his second pitch of the night, but the rest was fine. He hit a batter and gave up a single with two outs in the eighth before retiring the side.
The SeaWolves’ lone run came in the top of the seventh. Joe Campagna reached on catcher interference and moved around the bags on a Bennett Lee walk and Brett Callahan single. John Peck also singled, but Lee was thrown out at the plate to end the inning. Tough break there.
Erie’s other three hits came from Justice Bigbie, Campagna and Chris Meyers — all singles that came before the seventh. The SeaWolves didn’t put up much of a fight in the final two frames, striking out five times. At least they scored the run off our old friend, Micah Ashman.
Bigbie: 1-4, K
Callahan: 1-3, RBI, BB
Pena (L, 0-1): 4.1 IP, 6 H, R, ER, 2 BB, 6 K
Coming Up Next: It’s a 1:05 p.m. ET start on Sunday, with the Baysox leading the series 4-1.
Great Lakes Loons 9, West Michigan Whitecaps 4 (box)
West Michigan tried to fight back after a sloppy start from Rayner Castillo, but the Loons would not be denied, as they scored on every pitcher the Whitecaps threw.
Castillo bounced back from a run in the first with a 1-2-3 second, but he was knocked out with one out in the third after giving up four more runs. A leadoff home run spiraled as Castillo loaded the bases on a pair of singles and a walk. He induced a pair of soft grounders, but the only play on the first one was at first base. The second should’ve been an out at third, but Samuel Gil didn’t get the ball to Junior Tilien in time for the tag. A two-run single ended Castillo’s day.
Duque Hebbert took over and was fine until the fifth. He gave up a leadoff double to Jose Meza in the fifth and spiraled from there. Are we sensing a theme here? Hebbert hit Nico Perez and threw away the ball on a pickoff attempt. Another double made it 7-1 before he got the final two outs.
Inohan Paniagua and CJ Weins each threw two innings. Paniagua gave up a run on a wild pitch after a double, and Weins gave up a solo homer in the ninth. Just a rough night for the entire staff.
Offensively, the Whitecaps battled, recording eight hits and walking six times. Nine batters left on base is the blemish, though. West Michigan stranded the bases loaded after scoring in the first — Roberto Campos singled in Jackson Strong. They didn’t get another baserunner until the sixth, when Gil led off with a single. A double play ended that threat.
Hunter Dobbins hit a two-run homer in the seventh, but the Whitecaps couldn’t make anything happen after a pair of walks later in the inning.
Garrett Pennington homered in the eighth, but solo home runs aren’t going to erase a four-run deficit. West Michigan had the bases loaded with two outs in the ninth, thanks to a trio of walks, but Pennington couldn’t strike twice, ending the game with the bags full— womp womp.
Pennington: 2-5, HR (2), R, RBI, K
Dobbins: 2-4, HR (1), R, 2 RBI, 2 K
Castillo (L, 0-2): 2.1 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, BB, 2 K
Coming Up Next: The Whitecaps and Loons play at 2:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, with the Loons leading the series 4-1. Just watch golf instead.
Daytona Tortugas 8, Lakeland Flying Tigers 4 (box)
Caleb Leys’ second appearance did not go as well as his first, and the Lakeland Flying Tigers never really bounced back from a seven-run second inning. It’s their first loss of the season.
After Bailey Horn worked a 1-2-3 first while on a rehab assignment, Leys gave up five runs on four hits in the second. Four extra-base hits in five batters is never good, and catcher interference piled on before he could get out of the inning. Carlos Rodriguez wasn’t much better in relief of Leys, giving up three more hits, including a ground-rule double and a triple. Just like that, it was 7-0 in favor of Daytona.
Beau Ankeney tripled to lead off the second, looking to spark a rally, but nothing happened after he scored on a sacrifice fly.
Carson Rucker did the same in the fourth, scoring on a groundout, but Daytona was more than happy to trade runs for outs after scoring an eighth run in the top of the fourth off a Jorger Petri wild pitch.
Not much happened after that. Zach MacDonald got hold of one in the seventh for a two-run shot, cutting the deficit to four runs. But Lakeland couldn’t string anything together offensively after that — a single here, an error there, but no more runs.
Despite the wild pitch, Petri was probably Lakeland’s best arm of the day. He struck out four and went three full innings. Donye Evans wasn’t bad either, throwing two hitless frames. Pedro Garcia struck out the side in the ninth. All three drew five or more whiffs — Garcia did so on seven swings for a 71% rate.
Rainer: 0-3, 2 K
MacDonald: 1-4, HR (2), R, 2 RBI, 2 K
Ankeney: 1-3, 3B (1), R, BB
Leys (L, 0-1): 0.2, 4 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 0 K
Petri: 3.0 IP, R, ER, 0 BB, 4 K
Evans: 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, BB, K
Garcia: 1.0 IP, BB, 3 K
Coming Up Next: It’s a 12:00 p.m. ET start in Lakeland on Sunday, with the Flying Tigers leading the series, 4-1.
