Louisville Bats 4, Toledo Mud Hens 2 (box)
Toledo only scored two runs, but that’s impressive considering they only had three hits. Nine walks and a Louisville error helped move things along, but that’s minor league baseball for you. Still, three hits aren’t going to win any ball games, and Louisville had eight.
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The Bats plated three runs in the fifth off Toledo’s starter, Lael Lockhart, who was mostly good until that point. Two of the four hits and two of the three walks he allowed came in the fifth. He should’ve been out of the inning before the third run scored, but Gage Workman made a throwing error to keep things going. Unfortunately, that means Lockhart takes the loss.
After Lockhart, Ricky Vanasco went 1 1/3 hitless innings, striking out one and walking another. Sean Guenther pitched the seventh, but he gave up a two-out triple and an RBI single. Gunther also gave up a double, but he stranded both runners in scoring position, which is a plus. Tanner Rainey got the eighth. He struck out two and gave up one hit and one walk.
Five of Toledo’s walks on offense came in the ninth inning off Trevor Kuncl. That’s how Toledo scored its second run, and it probably should have been more had it not been for Ben Malgeri getting picked off. The other run scored in the eighth off a Max Burt single. Tomas Nido walked to open the inning and moved to second on a wild pitch to set up the scoring opportunity.
Burt had all three hits for Toledo today, one in the third and one in the fifth, and his walk was the one that scored the run in the ninth. Fun, yet depressing, stat.
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Injury note: Trei Cruz left the game in the fifth with an apparent injury to his right leg. It looked like a knee. Cruz fell after checking his swing.
Clark: 0-4, 2 K
Burt: 3-3, 2 RBI, BB
Lockhart (L, 1-1): 4.2 IP, 3 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 3 K
Coming Up Next: Toledo can tie the series on Sunday at 1:05 p.m. ET.
Erie SeaWolves 1, Harrisburg Senators 1 (box)(Susp. T2)
Erie’s game was suspended in the second inning with the score tied 1-1. The SeaWolves and Harrisburg Senators will pick things up at 12:05 p.m. ET and play a doubleheader.
Dariel Fregio threw 1 2/3 innings, giving up one run on two hits and three walks. The run came off a leadoff home run from Seaver King. He’ll be responsible for the two runners on base, both of whom were walked. It was wet, so I guess Fregio gets a pass?
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The offensive sequence went like this: Seth Stephenson singled and stole second; John Peck struck out swinging; Stephenson stole third; Andrew Jenkins struck out; Chris Meyers was hit by a pitch; Justice Bigbie blooped an RBI single into right field; and Izaac Pacheco struck out. If it’s not raining, Bigbie’s ball gets caught.
West Michigan Whitecaps 9, Lansing Lugnuts 5 (box)
West Michigan came to hit on Saturday, and the Whitecaps did exactly that. Everybody in the lineup had a base hit for a grand total of nine on the day.
The bulk of West Michigan’s runs came in the middle innings, but the first run of the game came in the second off the bat of Nolan McCarthy, who hit a sacrifice fly to bring in Juan Hernandez. The first crooked number of the game came in the fifth, when Junior Tilien (single) and Jackson Strong (double) scored on a Ricardo Hurtado single.
Lansing answered with a four-spot in the bottom of the fifth. Jalen Evans was responsible for all four runs, three of which came almost immediately. He gave up a double, walk and three-run homer to make it a 4-3 game, and two more hits set up an RBI groundout from Davis Diaz.
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The good news is that the rest of the Whitecaps pitchers performed well. Rayner Castillo gave up one run on three hits and two walks over four innings. A leadoff home run in the fourth was the only issue with an otherwise decent start. Luke Stofel gave West Michigan two innings of scoreless ball, allowing a base hit and a walk, and Logan Berrier closed things out in the ninth. Not a ton of strikeouts today — just six total — but outs are good. Stofel’s ERA dropped to 1.13 on the season.
Lansing’s two-run lead was short-lived. Andrew Sojka homered to open the sixth, and Tilien drove in a pair to give West Michigan the lead back in the sixth.
Even though Evans gave up most of the runs today, he ended up getting the win because of that three-spot. Baseball has some dumb rules, and this one bothers me the most. He didn’t win anything, and that’s why no one cares about pitcher wins, just team wins.
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Garrett Pennington hit his second double of the day to score Hurtado in the seventh.
Clayton Campbell hit his first home run of the year to make it a 9-5 game in the same inning.
Sojka: 1-4, HR (1), R, RBI, K
Campbell: 1-4, HR (1), R, 2 RBI, BB, K
Pennington: 2-5, 2 2B (4), R, RBI, 2 K
Castillo: 4.0 IP, 3 H, R, ER, 2 BB, 3 K
Coming Up Next: It’s a 1:05 p.m. ET series finale as West Michigan goes for the sweep on Sunday.
Lakeland Flying Tigers 9, Fort Myers Mighty Mussels 2 (box)
Lakeland had one more hit than West Michigan today (13) and the same amount of runs in a 0-2 win over the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels.
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The Flying Tigers had hits in each of the first two frames, but they didn’t score until the third, when Zach MacDonald tripled in Thayron Liranzo, who had two hits in his first rehab start.
MacDonald’s been racking up the extra-base hits this season with five home runs, three doubles and now a triple, while posting top shelf exit velocities. It’s quite a good start for a guy who finished last season with a .627 OPS between the Complex League and Single-A.
Jesus Pinto doubled in MacDonald in the next at-bat, and Carson Rucker hit one of his four singles on the day to make it a three-run third inning.
Bryce Rainer doubled off the wall in center field to score Anibal Salas in the fourth. Rainer hit the ball 103 mph, which we love to see. However, that .575 OPS is surprisingly low.
Salas scored again in the sixth on a wild pitch, and Rainer came across on a sacrifice fly from MacDonald.
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Lakeland’s pitching staff was sharp through the first five innings. Caleb Leys looked good in his third appearance of the year. He had that disaster outing a week ago, coming in after an opener on a rehab assignment and lasting just 2/3 of an inning. He recovered nicely with four innings of two-hit, scoreless ball on Saturday, striking out five and walking just one batter. Leys started off 11 of the 14 batters he faced with a first-pitch strike and had a 43% called-strike-plus-whiff rate.
Luke Hoskins worked around a pair of hits in the fifth to keep the Mighty Mussels off the board, but Pedro Garcia couldn’t do the same in the sixth. Garcia gave up a leadoff single and then a two-run homer. Those were the only runs of the day for Fort Myers, however. Garcia went 1-2-3 in the seventh, and Yendy Gomez gave up just one hit over the final two frames.
The Flying Tigers scored three more runs in the ninth for good measure. MacDonald led off with a walk and stole second and third base. Rucker singled him in and later scored on a passed ball. A throwing error by the catcher on the same play allowed Edian Espinal to score as well.
Rainer: 2-5, 2B (3), R, RBI, K
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Liranzo: 2-3, R
Rucker: 4-5, R, RBI
Leys: 4.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, BB, 5 K
Coming Up Next: Lakeland goes for a series win, leading 3-2, on Sunday at 12:05 p.m. ET
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