Game Recaps: Sunday 7/26

Pawtucket squeezes past Clippers
Pawtucket beat the Clippers 3-2 on Sunday at McCoy Stadium.

Charlie Zink took the mound for the Pawtucket Red Sox, sporting a knuckleball that baffled the Clippers. He walked a batter in every inning, but kept the bats off the baseball for much of the day.

Both teams got on the board in the second inning with Andy Cannizaro driving in Andy Marte on a double and Chris Duncan drilling a solo homer off Fausto Carmona. Pawtucket scored single runs in the third and fifth innings for a 3-1 lead.

Columbus got to Zink once more in the sixth as Marte continued his torrid month with a solo blast to bring the Clippers to within a run. Zink would exit after the six innings in line for the win.

Carmona pitched well through seven innings, but left on the hook. He allowed three runs on six hits with two walks, striking out 4 batters. He suffered his third loss in four decisions. Rafael Perez pitched a scoreless eighth in relief of Carmona.

The Clippers had chances throughout the game, with runners in every inning except the ninth. They could not capitalize when it mattered, leaving nine runners on base, and going 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

Monster first paces Curve over Aeros
Altoona won its first series against the Aeros in six tries this season, defeating Akron in the rubber match of this three-game series Sunday afternoon by the final score of 7-3 in front of 2,451 fans at Canal Park. Five runs in the very first inning against Aeros lefty Bobby Livingston would be all the offense the Curve would need as Akron’s late-inning chances fell short. The victory improved Altoona to 21-20 in their past 41 games and 40-62 on the season, while the Aeros dropped to 61-41.

It was a quick start for the Curve offense against Livingston, as Brian Friday led off the game with a single and Gorkys Hernandez followed with an RBI double to right-center. Jose Tabata tripled home Hernandez before Jason Delaney and Miles Durham collected RBI doubles and Ray Chang capped the inning with a run-scoring single as the Curve batted around. Livingston settled down from there and retired 15 straight hitters following Chang’s hit, but Altoona’s Yoslan Herrera had too much of a head start.

Herrera allowed only an infield single and a hit batter through the first 13 hitters before Akron got on the board in the bottom of the fourth, as Beau Mills lifted a towering solo home run just inside the right field four pole. It was Mills’ eight home run of the year, but just his second of the season at Canal Park. The Aeros scored again in the fifth inning when Herrera hit Armando Camacaro with one out and Cristo Arnal followed with a run-scoring double to right-center before he was thrown out trying for third on the play.

The drama was just beginning however, as three members of the home side were thrown out in a three-batter span to close out the bottom of the sixth inning. The frame began with a single from newcomer Jesus Merchan and a walk to Nick Weglarz, but Matt McBride popped up and Mills struck out looking, leading to a heated exchange with home plate umpire John Conrad that ended only when both Mills and manager Mike Sarbaugh were ejected. Jerad Head drew a two-out walk to load the bases, but Curve reliever Michael Dubee then entered and got a called strike three on John Drennen to end the inning. Drennen also disagreed with Conrad’s strike zone, and he too was kindly asked to leave. Dubee got into a bases loaded jam of his own making in the seventh, but got Weglarz on a fly to left and McBride on a grounder to third to end the inning as the Aeros finished 0-9 with runners in scoring position on the day.

Carlos Santana, who replaced Mills as the designated hitter for Akron, made it 5-3 when he kicked off the top of the eighth inning with a solo home run to right field, his third home run in as many days and 18th of the season. The Curve responded with a pair of runs in the ninth inning against Akron reliever Josh Judy however, as Gorkys Hernandez poked a two-run single inside the first base bag to provide the final margin.

Herrera (7-0) stayed perfect in Double-A by limiting Akron to four hits and two walks over 5.2 innings, while Livingston took the loss and fell to 1-4 with a 7.88 ERA in five starts for the Aeros. Scott Nestor worked the final two innings for Altoona for his sixth save. Santana became only the second Aero to homer in three straight games this season, as Weglarz also did so June 23rd-25th against Trenton. Arnal went 2-4 on the day with his fifth double, while Drennen’s hitting streak ended at eight games.

Blue Rocks defeat K-Tribe
Wilmington started the scoring in the top of the third inning when Moustakas hit a three-run home run off of Kinston starter Alexander Perez. It was his team leading eleventh homer of the year. Moustakas would get to Perez again in the fifth inning, driving home another run on an RBI single. Moustakas would score later in the inning on an RBI single from Eric Hosmer. Perez had his roughest outing of the season for Kinston, giving up five earned runs on seven hits in 4 1/3 innings. Perez (1-2) walked three and struck out four.

The K-Tribe mounted a comeback, scoring their first run of the game in the bottom of the fifth when Ronald Rivas scored on an RBI groundout by Ryan Blair. Kinston broke through in the seventh inning when Adam Davis scored on a passed ball. Down 5-2, Lonnie Chisenhall cut the Wilmington lead to one with a two RBI single later in the inning. Chisenhall (1-for-4) now has 69 RBI on the season, the second most in the Carolina League. The K-Tribe’s scoring would stop though, as Kinston managed just four hits for the game. It was the 25^th one run loss for Kinston this season.

Reliever Ray Liotta (4-2) picked up the win for Wilmington. Dallas Cawiezell, Santo Frias and Kyle Landis combined for 4 2/3 innings of scoreless work from the K-Tribe pen, allowing just two hits.

Captains slow down Hot Rods
Chris Jones fired six scoreless innings and every Captains in the line up reached base as the Lake County Captains defeated the Bowling Green Hot Rods 8-2 on Sunday. The Captains have won four of five on the road trip and four games in a row.

The Captains scored a run off of Hot Rods starter Chris Andujar in the bottom of the second inning when John Allman scored from third base when Karexon Sanchez got himself in a run down between first and second base and it was 1-0. The Captains struck for five more runs in the top of the fourth inning when Allman double and scored on a triple from Karexon Sanchez. Sanchez scored on a sacrifice fly by Chris Nash. With two outs, Jeremie Tice walked, Adam Abraham single him to third. Mark Thompson followed with a single to score Tice and move Abraham to second. Delvi Cid doubled scoring both runners and the Captains led 6-0.

The Captains tacked on two more runs in the top of the seventh inning when Bo Greenwell scored on a throwing error by the catcher and Donnie Webb scored on single Nash to make it 8-0. The Hot Rods runs came in the bottom of the ninth inning off of Captains reliever Matt Langwell on RBI singles by Jason Corder and Anthony Scelfo.

Captains' starter LHP Chris Jones (4-2) got the win going six scoreless innings and allowing four hits, walking one and striking out five. Francisco Jimenez pitched two scoreless relief innings and Matt Langwell gave up the two runs in the ninth inning. Andujar (9-3) took the loss pitching five innings allowing six runs on six hits, walking four and striking out four.

Scrappers walk off with win
The Scrappers completed a two game sweep of the Williamsport Crosscutters on Sunday night 8-7. With the sweep the Scrappers now lead the Pinckney division by two full games over the Cutters.

The game was a back and fourth battle that saw the Cutters jump out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first. The Scrappers made there comeback in the second when Kyle Bellows hit his fourth home run of the season. Then Scrappers added one run in the third and then two more in the fifth to take the lead for the first time at 4-3.

The Cutters tied the game at 4-4 in the top of the eighth, only to see the Scrappers respond with a single run in the bottom of the inning and take the lead back 5-4.

In the ninth, the Cutters scored three run and took a 7-5 lead going to the bottom of the ninth. The Scrappers then loaded the bases in the ninth and with two outs received three straight bases loaded walks to win the game 8-7.

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