Guardians Baseball Insider

Scoreboard

Triple-A – Columbus Clippers 2, Iowa Cubs 9
Double-A – Akron RubberDucks 7, Altoona Curve 5
High-A – Lake County Captains 8, Fort Wayne TinCaps 5
Low-A – Lynchburg Hillcats v Delmarva Shorebirds x2 PPD

Highlights

Oscar Gonzalez (Akron, RF): 3/4, HR, 5 RBI – Gonzalez just put together his second consecutive three hit game and his sixth of the season, a solid showing of consistency for someone known more for his strike out rate than his batting average. He did strike out in his first at bat (and has at least once in 13 of his last 14 games), but came through with an RBI single in the fourth that gave Akron the first lead of the game. His next at bat featured another RBI single in the sixth, bringing the Ducks back to within a run after a rough fifth. In the eighth, Oscar was a bit more of his normal self as he came through with a first pitch, three run home run to return the lead to the Ducks. He now has 8 home runs and 23 RBI on the season.

Tanner Burns (Lake County, SP): 5 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 3 BB, 6 K – The Captains grabbed an early lead against the TinCaps and Burns made it stand up with five shut out innings. He allowed two base runners in the first, but used a double play to keep them from scoring. He added two strike outs in a perfect second, then three K’s in the third to work around two walks and two steals allowed. He kept things more simple with perfect innings in the fourth and fifth before being pulled after 74 pitches.

Quentin Holmes (Lake County, CF): 3/5, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI, SB – Holmes hasn’t been back with the Captains long, but he has made the most of his first week of baseball. After a four hit game on Wednesday, he added three more last night including his first home run since 2019. This is incredibly impressive as since his career began in 2017, he had just a trio of three hit games over his career before this week. His hits last night were a single and steal to lead off the first that lead to the Captains first run, a two run home run in the fourth and a two out single in the sixth.

Best of the rest

Shane McCarthy (Akron, SP): 4.1 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 4 K, 0 BB – McCarthy and the Ducks got off to a great start last night as the only Curve hitter to reach base prior to the Ducks grabbing a one run lead in the fourth did so on catcher’s interference. Up one in the fourth, McCarthy did allow a single and a steal, but struck out two to keep up his shutout. Things fell apart quickly after this. Up 3-0 in the fifth, the first Curve hitter reached on a Marcos Gonzalez error before two singles and back-to-back homers quickly flipped the lead in Altoona’s advantage. This all happened so quickly the Ducks had to scramble the bullpen and McCarthy allowed one more single before Zach Draper was able to get warm and replace him. Draper managed a quick double play, however, to limit McCarthy’s damage.

Zach Draper (Akron, RP): 2.1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 BB, K – As mentioned moments ago, Draper really saved the day for the Ducks with a double play in the fifth, but he stayed on for a couple innings after that as well. He struck out one in a perfect sixth, then retired two quickly in the seventh before he was pulled due to injury and replaced by Juan Mota. This was Draper’s first appearance with Akron since his demotion from Columbus Thursday.

Juan Mota & Aaron Pinto (Akron, RP): 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 4 K, W (Mota), S (Pinto) – Despite two rapid, unpredictable pitching changes, the RubberDucks bullpen was fantastic. Following Draper, Mota and Pinto managed to hold onto the lead that was given to them by Oscar Gonzalez by shutting out the Curve over the final two innings. Each pitcher struck out two and earned a decision for their efforts.

Ernie Clement (Columbus, 2B): 2/4, 1 R – There wasn’t much to talk about for the Clippers offense last night (probably because Bobby Bradley is bashing baseballs in the bigs), but much of what was came from Clement. He singled to lead off the second and scored on a two out hit by Connor Marabell for the first run of the game. After the Clippers were outscored 9-0 until the eighth, Clement came through again. This time, Andres Gimenez and Tyler Krieger were hit by pitches to start the inning, then Clement singled to load the bases. The Clippers second run then scored on a passed ball, something that wouldn’t have happened without Clement as the next two batters struck out and popped out.

Bryan Lavastida (Lake County, DH): 1/3, BB, 2 R, SB – Lavastida continued his strong start to 2021 last night as he scored two more runs giving him seven in his last four games. He singled in the first to knock in the Captains first run, then stole second (his sixth of the season) and scored on Jose Tena’s triple. He then walked in the third and ultimately scored on a bases loaded walk.

Victor Nova (Lake County, LF): 1/3, 2 RBI, BB – The Captains offense had a huge night and it started in the first with four runs. Nova knocked in the last of those four with a single although he was then caught stealing to end the inning. He knocked in the next LC run as well, albeit in a less conventional way when he walked with the bases loaded in the third.

Robert Broom (Columbus, RP): 1.1 IP, 3 K, BB, 0 H, 0 R – Columbus pitching had similar issues to both other Indians affiliates last night and only Broom was able to escape unscathed. He entered with two outs in the fourth following a Dee Strange-Gordon homer that put the Cubs up 6-1. A quick K ended the inning and he struck out two more in the fifth to work around a walk and a Nolan Jones error. He was pulled before the sixth and Iowa immediately went back on the offensive.

The Hillcats are having a round time getting games in this week due to the weather, so here’s a bit of an update on what happened. After Wednesday’s game was suspended after two innings, they were able to finish the full nine inning game on Thursday. However, they were not able to play the originally scheduled Thursday game, moving it to another double header Friday. Rain continued Friday, however, and neither games were played. They will try this again on Saturday as one game will potentially be made up as part of a double header while the other has been postponed until the next time Delmarva comes back to Lynchburg on June 30th.