Louisville Bats 2, Toledo Mud Hens 1 (box)
Toledo and Louisville combined for just nine hits in the series finale, and each team had just 32 plate appearances. Low-offense days mean good things for the pitching staff, but the Mud Hens haven’t fared well in these low-scoring games this weekend. Toledo dropped the series 4-3 with a 2-1 loss.
Both of Louisville’s runs came in the first inning off Sawyer Gipson-Long. Noelvi Marte and JJ Bleday hit a double and a two-run home run with two outs, and that ended up deciding the game. Both guys are
no longer considered prospects, and Marte was recently demoted to Triple-A after 10 games with the Cincinnati Reds. If someone on the Bats is going to beat you, it’s going to be these two.
The good news is that Gipson-Long was better after that. He retired seven of the next eight batters he faced and induced a double play after allowing two consecutive baserunners in the fourth. The off-speed stuff worked well with Gipson-Long working a 50% whiff rate or better on his slider and changeup. The fastball remains hittable as his velocity hasn’t returned to pre-Tommy John levels yet. He ended the day with six of Toledo’s 10 strikeouts.
Drew Sommers got the sixth and started the seventh, but he was pulled after walking the leadoff man. Cole Waites cleaned things up despite hitting a batter, and Burch Smith went 1-2-3 in the eighth. Overall, it was a good day for the staff, but that first frame proved costly with little to no offensive support.
The Mud Hens struggled to string anything together against Davis Daniel Gage Workman singled in the first, and Ben Malgeri singled in the third after Max Burt walked. Max Clark stranded both runners in the third with a pop-up to second base. Jace Jung singled in the fourth, and that was it for a few innings. Daniel settled in and retired the next seven batters he faced. He ended the day with eight strikeouts and just the one walk to Burt through seven frames.
Lyon Richardson went 1-2-3 for Louisville in the eighth, but Toledo had a chance in the ninth against Luis Mey. Malgeri led off with a single, and Clark moved him to third with a 105.8 exit velocity base hit.
Workman did a job and brought in Malgeri with a sacrifice fly, but Eduardo Valencia and Jung couldn’t bring Clark around to extend the game.
It’s a bit rare to see minor league teams pitch this well in a series finale, but both teams were solid.
Clark: 1-4, 2 K
Malgeri: 2-4, R
Workman: 1-3, RBI, 2 K
Gipson-Long (L, 0-2): 5.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K
Coming Up Next: Toledo is at home against Omaha next week, starting on Tuesday at 6:35 p.m. ET.
Erie SeaWolves 9, Harrisburg Senators 5 (box)(Gm 1)
Erie’s suspended Saturday game first, which was left at a 1-1 tie in the top of the second. The SeaWolves added eight runs on as many hits on Sunday to beat Harrisburg, 9-5. (The Twitter admin might be a bit confused…)
Moises Rodriguez took over for Dariel Fregio, with two outs and two on, and struck out Cayden Wallace to keep Fregio’s line where he left it yesterday. Rodriguez returned for the third after a 1-2-3 frame for the offense and worked around a leadoff walk. So far, so good.
John Peck broke the tie in the third. He reached on a one-out double, stole third base and made his way home after an errant throw from Harrisburg’s catcher. Unfortunately, Colin Fields couldn’t hold that lead very long, as he gave up a three-run homer in the top of the fourth. Fields put himself in a jam with a one-out walk and hitting a batter before the big fly from Seaver King.
Fields didn’t make it out of the third, allowing another single and a two-out walk. Wandisson Charles had to clean things up for him.
The SeaWolves’ offense had Fields’ back, though. E.J. Exposito and Joe Campagna hit back-to-back doubles to make it a 4-3 game. Campagna scored on an Aaron Antonini groundout after advancing on a passed ball. Seth Stephenson tripled, and Peck homered to give Erie a two-run lead.
Both teams got on base in the fifth, but neither scored. Charles worked through the sixth inning for Erie, stranding a runner on third after allowing a double and balking. Peck scored again after singling, stealing, and a throwing error on a potential double-play ball. Justice Bigbie made it a four-run game with a sacrifice fly later in the sixth.
Yosber Sanchez struggled in the seventh, hitting the first batter he faced and walking the next. A single loaded up the bases, and Sanchez walked in a run before inducing a ground ball back to the mound and getting the first out at home on a force play. He struck out King before getting the hook, and Luke Taggart struck out Wallace to leave the bases loaded.
Taggart got the seven-out save, working around a leadoff error in the eighth. Peck added another run in the eighth with his second homer and fourth hit of the day. What a day for the former seventh-round pick after a bit of a sluggish start to the season.
Peck: 4-5, 2 HR (2), 2B (3), 4 R, 3 RBI, K, 2 SB (5)
Stephenson: 2-5, 3B (1), 2 R, 2 SB (11)
Taggart (S, 1): 2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K
(F/7) Harrisburg Senators 1, Erie SeaWolves 0 (box)(Gm 2)
Erie outhit Harrisburg, 5-2, over seven innings in the second half of the doubleheader, but the Senators scored the lone run of the game to take the win and the series 4-2.
The SeaWolves stranded all 10 baserunners in this one. Their best chance to score came in the third with Justice Bigbie up and the bases loaded, but he flied out to center. Bigbie had two hits in this game. He just couldn’t get it done when the team needed it most. Brett Callahan also left the bags full in the fourth after a pair of walks and a single from Peyton Graham. All five of Erie’s hits were singles. Brett Callahan and Peck’s base hits came in the third.
Sean Hunley took the loss as the starter. He went just two innings, but Harrisburg got to him in the second. Hunley walked the leadoff man and moved him to second on a wild pitch. A groundout and a fielder’s choice brought the run in. He loaded up the bases with another walk and a hit batter, but got out of the inning before any more damage was done.
Harrisburg only had one more baserunner for the rest of the day. Eric Silva was excellent in relief, allowing one hit over four innings. He only struck out a pair, but outs are outs. Tanner Kohlhepp went 1-2-3 in the seventh, but Erie didn’t have any offense over the final two frames.
Bigbie: 2-3
Silva: 4.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K
Coming Up Next: Erie is in Binghamton next week, starting Tuesday at 6:07 p.m. ET.
West Michigan Whitecaps 12, Lansing Lugnuts 4 (box)
West Michigan extended its win streak to seven games with a dominant 12-4 victory over the Lansing Lugnuts on Sunday.
The Whitecaps had eight hits and 11 walks in the series finale. Cristian Santana had the biggest hit of the day, with a grand slam in the second to open the scoring.
Lansing answered in the third with a pair of runs off Gabriel Reyes, but those came on the only two hits he gave up all day. Reyes had some command issues with four walks, so he left in the fourth with two outs.
West Michigan put up a three-spot in the fifth, scoring all of those runs on an Andrew Sojka home run. Sojka led the team with three hits on the day.
Juan Hernandez scored and Samuel Gil scored in the seventh. Gil reached on a double, but both came across the plate on walks. Lansing gave up five free passes in the inning, between two pitchers.
Inohan Paniagua was good for 2 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of Reyes. He struck out three and didn’t give up a walk or hit — Paniagua did hit a batter, though. Carlos Lequerica took over in the seventh. Lansing got to him for two runs on four hits and a walk, most of which came in the eighth.
The Lugnuts had three straight hits off him before recording an out in the eighth, but Lequerica had plenty of cushion to work with. He still walked in a run, which isn’t great.
Nolan McCarthy and Hunter Dobbins both doubled in insurance runs in the ninth for good measure. Weins closed things out in the bottom of the ninth.
West Michigan is cruising right now, but Lansing’s pitching staff didn’t help itself out in any way.
Santana: 2-4, HR (2), 5 RBI, BB
Sojka: 3-4, HR (2), 3 R, 3 RBI, BB
Paniagua (W, 1-0): 2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K
Coming Up Next: The Whitecaps are at home next week against Lake County, starting Tuesday at 6:35 p.m. ET.
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels 5, Lakeland Flying Tigers 0 (box)
Lakeland put up a goose egg against Fort Myers, dropping the series finale to end things in a 3-3 tie on the week.
Alistair Tanner took the loss, giving up three runs over two innings. He had a nice debut a few weeks ago, but things haven’t been great for him since. Tanner balked in a run in the first, and three walks and a two-out base hit led to two more in the second.
Jatnk Diaz was mostly fine in relief for three innings, but a leadoff error from Jack Goodman at shortstop led to an unearned run crossing in the third.
The Flying Tigers didn’t record a base hit until the fifth, when Beau Anekeney led off with a single. The next three batters struck out, and then Ankeney struck out in the sixth with the bases loaded. Carson Rucker and Zach MacDonald had leadoff singles in the seventh and ninth, respectively, but that’s pretty much all the offense did on Sunday.
Jan Carabello pitched the sixth and seventh for Lakeland. He gave up a run on two hits and two walks in the sixth before working around a one-out walk in the seventh. Andrew Pogue worked around a leadoff walk in the eighth.
This was a pretty boring game aside from a few defensive gems. Thayron Liranzo only had two at-bats, being replaced midway through the game for a pinch runner.
Liranzo: 0-1, BB, K
Diaz: 3.0 IP, 3 H, R, 0 ER, 0 BB, K
Coming Up Next: Lakeland is at home against Tampa next week, starting Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. ET
