Lehigh Valley IronPigs 5, Toledo Mud Hens 4 (box)
A Brant Hurter meltdown in the sixth inning cost Toledo on Saturday, as Lehigh Valley rallied back for a 5-4 win.
The Mud Hens came out of the gate hot. Hao-Yu Lee led off the first with a solo home run, and Akil Baddoo singled in Andrew Navigato after an error extended the second. Gage Workman tripled to open the third, but no one got him home. Still, it’s good contact in all three innings against Walker Buehler.
The offense started to stall after Buehler came out, though. It took until the sixth for Toledo to get another baserunner, and Eduardo Valencia couldn’t get the job done with the bases loaded and two outs. Meanwhile, Lehigh Valley was clawing its way back.
Jose Urquidy tossed three perfect innings before turning things over to Chase Lee. The fourth went fine, but the IronPigs struck back in the fifth, scoring their first run on a two-out liner to center.
Hurter gave up the lead during a four-run sixth. Trei Cruz had a chance to stop the momentum on a grounder with two men in scoring position. He was playing in and had a clear line to the catcher, but Cruz missed and found the backstop, allowing two runs to score. In a one-run game, that play is going to be heavily criticized, but Hurter simply wasn’t very good.
Tyler Mattison and Matt Seelinger got through the seventh and eighth, respectively, without much trouble.
Riley Unroe made it a one-run game with a bases-loaded single in the seventh, but Navigato was caught trying to reach third. That killed the comeback rally, and Toledo didn’t have many opportunities after that.
Lee: 1-4, HR (14), 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB
Unroe: 3-4, 2 RBI, 2 K
Jung: 2-5, 1K
Urquidy: 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K; 39 pitches (28 strikes)
Erie SeaWolves 8, Portland Sea Dogs 3 (box)
Erie steadily built up an eight-run lead on Saturday night, but a three-run outburst from Portland broke up the SeaWolves’ shutout for an 8-3 final.
Josue Briceno set the tone with a two-run homer in the first, and Danny Serretti’s RBI double in the second made it 3-0. Thayron Liranzo traded a groundout for an RBI in the fourth, and Roberto Campos tacked on one more with a single in the fifth. All of this offense came against Portland’s starter, Caleb Bolden, who took a beating through five.
Jaden Hamm got the start for Erie, and the numbers look good. He struck out four of the first seven batters he faced, and both of his walks came during a brief loss of command in the third. He only went 4.1 innings, but Hamm looks like he’s returning to form, at least against Double-A bats. The farm is in desperate need of an exciting arm. Hamm could be it if he stays healthy.
Travis Kuhn finished the fifth for Hamm and got through the sixth without allowing a hit. Trevin Michael went six up, six down in the next two frames, but Portland had that little run at the end of the game. Two of the three runs that scored came on an error, so there’s not too much heat on Michael.
Erie scoring three runs of its own in the top of the inning softened the blow. Seretti got another base knock to drive in Carlos Mendoza, and Max Clark hit a sac fly to score Campos. Briceno added the eighth run with a double to center. Without those runs, it’s a two-run game.
Clark: 2-5, 1 RBI, 1 K
Briceno: 2-6, HR (5), 2B (6), 1 R, 3 RBI, 2 BB
Liranzo: 0-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K
Stephenson: 2-4, 2 2B (3), 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 BB
Hamm: 4.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K; 78 pitches (47 strikes)
West Michigan Whitecaps 6, Fort Wayne TinCaps 1 (box)
West Michigan cruised to a 6-1 win over Fort Wayne on Saturday as the Whitecaps outhit the TinCaps, 10-5.
Most of Fort Wayne’s offense came in the second inning, when Lucas Elissalt allowed four consecutive baserunners to reach — single, walk, walk, single. A run crossed during that sequence, but it was smooth sailing afterward. Elissalt finished off his three innings, and a quarter of relievers held the TinCaps to three hits over the remaining six frames.
Dylan Smith was first out of the bullpen, striking out two over as many innings. Colin Fields was the best of the bunch, striking out four over two perfect frames. Moises Rodriguez got the eighth, and Marco Jimenez closed out the win. All four of these guys have a 1.64 ERA or better. No wonder the Whitecaps never lose.
West Michigan hit consistently throughout the night, but the big swing of the night was Brett Callahan’s three-run homer in the sixth. It came off former Tigers prospect Eiker Huizi, who was claimed by San Diego in the Rule 5 draft.
However, Callahan’s blast came after the Whitecaps took the lead. West Michigan responded to Fort Wayne’s second-inning score immediately, tying the game up in the bottom half on a Bennet Lee single. Austin Murr joined the action with an RBI base knock of his own, bringing in Lee.
Abel Bastidas added an insurance run in the eighth, doubling through the right side and driving in Patrick Lee. That’s win No. 91 for the best team in baseball. The Whitecaps will finish the 2025 regular season on Sunday as one of the winningest minor league teams of all-time. Erie has one more series left before their postseason, while Toledo has two more weeks to go, concluding the regular season on September 21.
Callahan: 2-3, HR (9), 1 R, 3 RBI
Bastidas: 1-4, 2B (4), 1 RBI, 1 K
Pacheco: 0-4, 3 K
Elissalt: 3.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K; 43 pitches (28 strikes)
Lakeland Flying Tigers 14, Jupiter Hammerheads 1 (box)
Lakeland put a beating on Jupiter for a second straight day, winning 14-1.
The weird thing about this one is that it came on just nine Flying Tigers hits. Jupiter’s pitching staff was atrocious, walking 14 batters over eight innings. The defense also made three errors. That kind of team-wide funk isn’t normal…Their offseason looked to have begun two days early.
Lakeland had opportunities to score in every inning but the fifth, going 6-for-22 with runners in scoring position. It could have been better, but who’s complaining about 14 runs?
They came in bunches. Three in the second, three in the fourth and seven in the eighth. Jack Goodman continues to be the offensive sparkplug of this Lakeland team, driving in three runs today on two hits. Beau Ankeney notched his first two hits after being called up at the beginning of the week. Ankeney also walked twice, and drove in a pair of runs.
Six of Jupiter’s walks, on the mound, came during the seven-run eighth inning, including four in a row from a fresh pitcher out of the ‘pen. The same guy threw a wild pitch and hit a batter before being removed from the game. Sometimes, it just feels bad to watch these guys struggle.
The big hit in that inning was a bases clearing triple from Samuel Gil.
I’d like to have more to say about the offense on a day when it scores 14 runs, but this really was like watching a travel ball game of two mismatched opponents. Oh, well.
Pitching was good. Detroit’s 12th-round pick, Cash Kuiper, struggled in his one-inning start. It’s unclear if this was a planned opener situation, or if Kuiper was going to go two like last week, but three walks were enough to bring Zack Lee out for the second.
Lee was excellent, allowing four hits over five scoreless innings. You’d like to see more than just one strikeout, but it’s still a strong outing. The Indy ball product just hasn’t been able to get any traction this season. Ignacio Briceno closed things out with minimal trouble during his three-inning save.
The Flying Tigers hold a 3-2 lead in the series and will look for a series win in the season’s final game at noon on Sunday.
Goodman: 2-4, 2 R, 3 RBI, 2 BB
Ankeney: 2-4, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2 BB, 1 K
Gil: 2-4, 2 R, 4 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K
Lee (W, 9-5): 5.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K; 50 pitches (30 strikes)
