Columbus Clippers 1, Toledo Mud Hens 5 (box)
Alex Cobb continued his rehab tonight and made another small step in the right direction. His 2 innings in 45 pitches don’t light the world on fire, but going hitless and scoreless with 2 Ks is fine, and he continues to sit in the 90-92 range with his sinker. Tyler Mattison took over with another quiet 2 innings, racking up 2 K’s and runs or no walks.
Toledo took an early lead in the third. Trei Cruz walked, Hao-Yu Lee singled, and then Ryan Kreidler doubled both runs in. That was all they’d get as Jace Jung K’d to end the inning.
From there, it was Keider Montero’s game in a bulk relief role. It went fairly well; 5 Ks and 3 baserunners over 3.2 innings plays well. He ran into trouble in the 7th, giving up his only run, but at that point the game was 4-1 and well in hand.
In the Mud Hens’ 6th, Jung and Max Anderson continued their hitting ways with Toledo. Both hit singles, then scored on a Trei Cruz double. The scoring ended in the 8th, when Anderson went yard for the first time as a Mud Hen – he’s off to a scorching start with a 1.000 even OPS.
Cruz: 1-2, 2 BB, K, 2 RBI
Cobb: 2 IP, 2 BB, 3 K, 0 R
Montero (H): 3.2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
Erie SeaWolves 6, Chesapeake Baysox 15 (box)
Jaden Hamm’s return to AA continues to go poorly. He wasn’t hit very hard, but a bunt single, a walk, a hit by pitch, a wild pitch and a double steal in the first four batters tells the story fairly well. Somehow, only one run came out of that mess, but a more traditional four-hit inning and another hit by pitch led to 3 more in the 2nd.
Tanner Kolhepp came in to clean up his mess, then gave up a home run to lead off the third for a 5-0 lead. It only got worse from there. Blaire Calvo had an inning from hell, giving up multiple walks and multiple home runs en route to an 11-0 lead for Chesapeake. The game ended with Ben Malgeri, the outfielder, giving up 3 runs in the 9th, as things just entirely went off the rails.
Offensively, Erie tried to claw back in the 5th, but it was far from enough. Danny Serretti surprised the world with his first home run to make it 11-2. Max Clark then singled and stole second ahead of a Kevin McGonigal walk; both scored on a Justice Bigbie double. They were quiet until Clark’s 3-run bomb in the 9th put up the final score, 15-6. Both he and McGonigle are raking in AA, just as they did in High-A. Look out, folks.
Clark: 2-4, 2 R, 3 RBI, SB
Burhenn: 5.0 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, BB, 2 K
West Michigan Whitecaps 8, Fort Wayne TinCaps 3(box)
West Michigan has lost all its best hitters to Erie and keeps rolling anyway. Peyton Graham continues to show signs of life with a steal to set up their first run in the first inning. The Whitecaps then piled on in the 3rd, with 4 doubles and a wild pitch putting 4 more runs on the board.
Meanwhile, starter Hayden Minton had himself a day. He gave up two in the 2nd, then nothing else until the 5th. A double and a sac bunt set up Fort Wayne’s 3rd and final run of the day. From there, it was all Whitecaps.
Graham continued his comeback tour with a single and another stolen base before scoring in the 7th. The next inning, Woody Hadeen had a 2-run triple and scored their final run on a groundout.
Freddy Pacheco and Dariel Fregio combined for 3 scoreless, hitless innings with 6 total strikeouts to put this game away.
Graham: 2-4, 3 R, 1 RBI, HBP, 2B
Pacheco: 2-5, R, 1 RBI, 3 K
Minton (W, 5-2): 6 IP, 3 ER, 1 BB, 7 K
Clearwater Threshers 9, Lakeland Flying Tigers 6 (box)
This game was minor league baseball at its best and worst.
Lakeland starter Carlos Marcano, down in Low-A for the first time since 2023, had an unfortunate start tonight. 3 walks, 4 runs, 1 K and 1 inning is a bad way to start the game. He then gave up three more baserunners without an out in the second, but Duque Hebbert stranded two of the three to keep things respectable.
Lakeland countered with 3 runs in the 3rd; Carson Rucker had the knock-out two-run single to cap the inning. They tied it on a Jack Goodman double, who acclimated himself well to professional baseball, and later took a short-lived lead in the 6th. Zach MacDonald pulled a 2-run double to make it 6-4, but the bullpen melted down late.
Luke Stofel’s third inning of work went poorly; 4 walks and a hit by pitch later and the wheels had come off entirely. Ethan Sloan came in to stop the bleeding, but a fielding error let two more runs in to put this game away. To highlight how poorly this inning went, the Threshers batted around with 2 balls in play: an RBI single and the aforementioned error. Wow.
Goodman: 3-5, 1 RBI, 2B, K
Rucker: 1-2, 2 R, 2B, BB, K
Stofel (L, 5-3): 2.1 IP, 5 R, 3 ER, H, 5 BB, K