Guardians Baseball Insider

August 8th, 2015 Mahoning Valley Scrappers

On this date in 2015, not only did the Mahoning Valley Scrappers exist, but they took out the Batavia Muckdogs in a solid win. Playing at home, Jared Robinson made the start in his final year as a starter. Interestingly enough, if you took the run began with this game and nothing else, there would have been an argument to keep him in the rotation. Against the Muck Dogs, Robinson went seven shut out innings with five hits, no walks and seven strike outs.

This start came off of Robinson’s worst of the year with six runs (four earned) allowed in four innings against the Williamsport Crosscutters. Following this start, however, he held the opposition scoreless for the next three games. Combined, he pitched 24.2 innings, walked eight, gave up 12 hits and struck out 16. He had an infinitesimal line of .150/.227/.188 during the four game set and, despite transitioning into the bullpen, never really matched that success until 2018 with Lynchburg.

Back to the August 8th game specifically, the Scrappers got ahead early as Robinson was keeping them off the board. Mark Mathias walked with two outs to start things off, then Daniel Salters made up for his error in the top of the inning with an RBI double. Salters then moved up and scored on consecutive wild pitches.

Both teams threatened in the middle innings as Batavia had two hits in the top of the second, but a double play ended the inning, then the Scrappers loaded the bases in the third. Willi Castro singled followed by a Ka’ai Tom double, but after Mathias walked Salters fouled out and Juan De La Cruz flew out to end the inning. Castro would try to get things going again in the fifth and this time would be more successful.

In a nearly identical inning, Castro singled, but this time stole second and went to third on a wild pitch. By moving up, he was able to score when Tom doubled this time, but again Mathias walked and the runners were stranded when Salters and De La Cruz went down via K.

The Muck Dogs gifted the Scrappers their final run in the sixth when Kyle Keller hit Nathan Winfrey with a pitch. He went to second on a Connor Marabell sacrifice, then scored on a Silento Sayles single that was fumbled by Yuniel Ramirez in left.

After recording his last two K’s in the seventh, Robinson was pulled for Dominic DeMasi (pictured at top). He struck out one in a perfect eighth, then finished the game with two more strike outs in the ninth. He did have to work around some trouble as Castro had a throwing error and Brad Haynel singled to move the runner to third, but Austin Fisher managed to grab the final ground ball and end the game 4-0.