Toledo Mud Hens 9, Rochester Red Wings 6 (box)
Toledo held off a comeback bid from Rochester on Sunday to win 9-6 and end the series tied at three games apiece.
Ty Madden got the start. He had some command issues with three walks, but he only gave up one hit over 2 2/3 innings. Ricky Vanasco got the last out of the third, and then it was Troy Watson for the next four innings.
The Mud Hens put up five runs over the first three innings. Max Anderson sparked a four-single second from the leadoff spot. Tyler Gentry and Andrew Navigato had RBIs. Anderson homered
in the third with Eduardo Valencia on base to make it 5-0.
Corey Julks doubled to open the sixth and scored two batters later on another Gentry single. Max Clark joined the party in the seventh, belting a 411-foot, two-run homer that came off the bat at 105 mph. Valencia drove in the ninth run with a sac fly in the eighth.
Watson gave up back-to-back homers in the fourth, but he was fine after that. He retired eight of the next nine batters he faced before a leadoff walk in the seventh. He came back out for the eighth and got the first out, but an error by Jace Jung and a walk forced him out of the game.
Nick Sandlin couldn’t keep those runs from scoring. He hit the first batter he faced and gave up a two-run double right after. Sandlin hit another batter before the inning ended, but he kept the score at 9-5. Tanner Rainey got the ninth. He gave up a solo homer to make it 9-6 before closing it out.
Oh, yeah. Max Clark made a silly diving catch in this one. My only question is what kind of outfield shift is he playing?
Clark: 1-4, HR (6), R, 2 RBI, BB, K
Anderson: 3-5, HR (7), R, 2 RBI, K
Watson (W, 3-2): 4.1 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 2 HR
Coming Up Next: Toledo is in Worcester next week, starting Tuesday at 6:45 p.m. ET.
Erie SeaWolves 5, Harrisburg Senators 0 (box)
Erie secured a series win (4-2) over Harrisburg on Sunday with a 5-0 victory. It’s the SeaWolves’ second straight shutout, and they held the Senators to just four hits.
Andrew Sears pitched the first four innings, followed by Wandisson Charles, Moises Rodriguez, Tyler Owens, Luke Taggart and Trevin Michael, all of whom threw an inning apiece in that order.
Sears was great in his second start back with Erie. He struck out five and walked just one batter over four shutout, one-hit frames. So far, so good for Sears. He’s still building up his pitch count, though, throwing just 54 pitches on Sunday.
The bulk of Erie’s runs came in the second inning. After the SeaWolves loaded the bases with no outs, Izaac Pacheco hit a sacrifice fly, and Andrew Jenkins doubled in a pair. Seth Stephenson sent one down the left field line for an RBI double, bringing Jenkins home.
Peyton Graham hit a sac fly in the fourth for an insurance run, and that’s all the scoring in the game. Thayron Liranzo and John Peck each had two hits.
Charles worked around two hits in the fifth. Rodriguez, Owens and Taggart each threw hitless innings, and Michael finished it off without any trouble.
Jenkins: 2-5, 2B (12), R, 2 RBI, K
Liranzo: 2-4, R, BB
Sears: 4.0 IP, H, 0 R, BB, 5 K
Coming Up Next: Erie is at home against Binghamton next week, starting Tuesday at 6:05 p.m. ET.
West Michigan Whitecaps 4, Lansing Lugnuts 1 (box)
West Michigan finished off a five-game sweep of the Lansing Lugnuts with a 4-1 win on Sunday.
The Whitecaps led from the start, scoring three runs in the first inning. Woody Hadeen led off with a walk, and Bryce Rainer and Garrett Pennington hit back-to-back singles to make it 1-0. Rainer swiped third, his 10th steal of the year, and Ricardo Hurtado drove in both runners with a line drive single into right field.
West Michigan only had three more hits for the rest of the day. The one that mattered was Pennington’s triple in the sixth, which led to a run. Thank you, Jackson Strong, for doing a job and hitting a sac fly. Rainer had another single in the eighth. He got picked off trying to steal third again.
Rayner Castillo earned the win. He went five innings and managed to avoid spiraling, which is often his downfall. The fourth inning would have been the one after allowing a one-out triple, but a sac fly got him to two outs, and he worked around a walk to get out of the frame. Lansing had a baserunner in each inning against him, but he handled everything well.
Cole Waites and Thomas Bruss took the sixth and seventh innings, respectively. Neither gave up a hit, but Waites did walk a batter. Logan Berrier worked around a one-out single in the eighth, striking out a pair, and Ryan Harvey went 1-2-3 in the ninth.
Not the most exciting game, but it’s a good win and a great week.
Coming Up Next: West Michigan is in Dayton next week, starting Tuesday at 7:05 p.m. ET.
Dunedin Blue Jays 10, Lakeland Flying Tigers 1 (box)
Lakeland dropped the series against Dunedin 4-2 with a 10-1 loss on Sunday.
The Flying Tigers didn’t do much at all on offense. Beau Ankeney and Edian Espinal both hit doubles in the first for the lone Lakeland run of the day. Dunedin only gave up two more hits through the rest of the game. The Blue Jays retired 23 batters in a row after Carson Rucker’s leadoff single in the second. Espinal broke the streak with one out left in the game. Woo.
Charlie Christensen took the loss, but he was solid through the first four innings. He gave up a two-out triple and balked in the run in the first, but the next three frames were good. Things fell apart in the fifth. Christensen gave up a one-out single, hit a batter and saw Dunedin take the lead on a double play attempt that ended in a bad throw to first.
Antonio Florido took over and was not very good. He walked the first batter he faced and gave up a run on a ground-rule double after. A wild pitch made it 4-1. Florido walked another batter, and JoJo Parker smashed a three-run homer to give Dunedin a six-run lead.
Bryce Alewine had just as much trouble in the sixth. The inning went: single, out, single, single, sac fly, two-run double, lineout. At least there weren’t any walks?
Xiomer Guacache retired six of the seven batters he faced, and Joe Ruzicka went 1-2-3 in the ninth, but the game was already decided. No offense, two bad innings on the mound.
Ankeney: 1-4, 2B (13), R
Espinal: 2-4, 2B (4), RBI
Christensen (L, 2-1): 4.2 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 3 ER, BB, 6 K
Coming Up Next: Lakeland is in Daytona next week, starting Tuesday at 6:35 p.m. ET.
