Guardians Baseball Insider

Scoreboard

Triple-A – Nashville Sounds 7, Columbus Clippers 6 (10 innings)
Double-A – Akron RubberDucks 8, Bowie Baysox 5 (Akron leads best-of-5 Double-A Northeast Championship Series 2-0)

HIGHLIGHTS

Brayan Rocchio (Akron, SS): 2-3, 2 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 SF, 2 SB, 1 E – Rocchio was stellar both at the plate and on the basepaths.  He now holds unofficial streaks (streaks don;t officially carry over from the regular season to the postseason) of 14 games with a hit and 23 reaching base safely (last failed to reach on August 26 at Somerset).

Jose Fermin (Akron, 2B): 2-3, 2 R, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 SF, 1 SB, 1 E – While three errors in two crucial games is not ideal, he has made up for it at the plate.  Through the first two games of the D-ANECS (Would it bankrupt the Commissioner’s Office to buy the Eastern League name?  This is clunky.), Jose is 5-for-8 with four runs scored and two more driven in.  That’s involvement in nearly half of the ‘Ducks’ runs (6 of 13) this series.

Bryan Lavastida (Akron, DH): 2-5, 1 R, 2 2B, 2 RBI, 2 K – Lavastida has been as hot as molten rock in the series.  He is 3-for-8 with two doubles and a homer while driving in a pair of runs in each game so far.  All of this has led to a team-high 1.444 playoffs OPS this series.

Xzavion Curry (Akron, SP): W (1-0 in playoffs, 9-1 overall in 2021), 5 IP, 2 H, 1 R (earned), 2 BB, 8 K, 1 HR allowed, 1 WP – While the contrast between the end of his regular season and his playoff start is not as stark as it was for Battenfield, Curry also seemed to flip the switch into a higher gear.

BEST OF THE REST

Steven Kwan (Columbus, CF): 1-5, 1 R, 1 SB – Since making his Triple-A debut on September 1, Kwan is slashing .328/.408/.537 with 17 runs scored in 18 games.

Daniel Johnson (Columbus, LF): 2-4, 2 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K – Between the weekend half of the regular season-ending series in Toledo and last night’s Final Stretch opener, Johnson has 15 total bases in his last four games.

Richie Palacios (Columbus, 2B): 2-3, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 Sac Bunt, 1 SF  – Four of Palacios’ five plate appearances last night were either hits or productive outs.

Will Brennan (Akron, LF): 2-5, 2 R, 1 2B – Will Brennan returns to doing Will Brennan things after a quiet Game 1.

George Valera (Akron, RF): 2-5, 1 R, 1 2B, 2 RBI, 1 K – Valera has also been dominant in the postseason, starting the with a pair of two-hit, two-RBI games.