Game Recaps: Thursday 8/6

Clippers top Buffalo
The Clippers ended a four-game losing streak with a 9-6 victory over the Buffalo Bisons Thursday night.

Carlos Carrasco pitched into the eighth inning, while collecting his second win in as many starts for Columbus.

Jason Donald hit his first home run with the Clippers, a solo shot in the first inning, to start the scoring.

Buffalo tied the game in the third inning when Carrasco allowed consecutive base hits with two outs.

Columbus regained the lead for good in the fifth. Two Bisons throwing errors allowed Tony Graffanino to bring in a run on a sacrifice fly and Matt LaPorta followed with a RBI single. Mickey Hall raced around the bases to score on a Brantley single in the sixth. Brantley and Donald would later score on a Graffanino double. LaPorta singled and plated Graffanino to give the Clippers a 7-1 lead.

Carrasco started the eighth with only two hits allowed, but struggled in his final inning of work. After a leadoff single, Andy Green doubled to score Castillo. Two infield groundouts were enough to bring Green around to score. Carrasco allowed his second walk of the night, followed by a two-run homer to Nick Evans. Carrasco allowed five runs on five hits, while also striking out five.

LaPorta brought home two more runs in the eighth with a bases loaded single. Graffanino and LaPorta had seven of Columbus' nine RBI. Brantley and Donald scored seven of the runs.

Greg Aquino needed just one pitch to earn the save with the tying run at the plate. Frank Herrmann and Rich Rundles also pitched in relief for the Clippers.

McBride clutch as Aeros walk off with win
The Aeros won in walk-off style for the second night in a row, defeating the Connecticut Defenders 2-1 in front of 2,792 fans at Canal Park Thursday night. All three games in the series were decided by one run, and the match-up between the two first-place teams in the Eastern League might well have previewed this year’s championship series. Matt McBride delivered the game-winner following Beau Mills’ walk-off single the night before, smashing a one-out double to left-center to score a hobbling Carlos Santana all the way from first in the bottom of the ninth. The Aeros improved to a season-best 28 games over .500 at 70-42 with the victory, while the Defenders dropped to 64-47 on the year.

Connecticut struck first in this contest, as Akron left-hander Bobby Livingston struck out Brock Bond to open the game before surrendering three consecutive singles to load the bases. Mike Mooney then popped out, but Brandon Crawford lined an RBI single to left to make it 1-0. Livingston escaped further damage however, getting Ramon Castro on a fly ball to deep right field to end the inning.

Akron managed to get on the board in the bottom of the third inning, as Carlos Rivero extended his hitting streak to a season-high seven games with a one-out double to right-center. Jerad Head followed two pitches later with an RBI two-bagger over Mooney’s head in left field to tie the game at 1-1, and Livingston and Defenders hurler Daryl Maday then settled in for a long night of matching one another pitch for pitch.

Starting with Castro’s fly ball to end the first, Livingston retired 13 consecutive hitters before allowing an infield single to Mike McBryde to start the sixth. McBryde never made it past first base however, as Livingston set the next six hitters down as well before giving way to Steven Wright in the eighth. Maday wasn’t quite as dominant on the opposite side but worked out of trouble by stranding runners on the corners in the fourth before getting double plays to end both the sixth and seventh innings.

The opportunistic Aeros offense took care of things in the bottom of the ninth however, as Santana began the inning with a full-count walk against Defenders lefty Joe Paterson. Mills failed in an attempt to sacrifice Santana to second and eventually flied to left, but that only served to set up McBride’s heroics. The 24-year-old took a first pitch ball, and then drove Paterson’s next offering to the gap in left-center, splitting McBryde and defensive replacement Bobby Felmy and rolling all the way to wall, despite the fact Connecticut was playing the so-called “no doubles” defense. Santana got an excellent read and made it home well ahead of the relay throw, and McBride soon disappeared under a mob of his purple-clad teammates between second and third base.

Wright (9-0) maintained his perfect record by shutting out Connecticut over the final two frames while scattering two hits and striking out two. Paterson (4-5) took the loss as the two starters Livingston and Maday each delivered seven efficient innings of one-run baseball but did not factor in the final decision. Santana’s double in the fourth extended his career-best hitting streak to 14 games.

Young shines, K-Tribe win
Kinston's Russell Young had another fantastic start, as three K-Tribe pitchers combined for the 2-0 shutout of Salem Thursday night at Historic Grainger Stadium.

Young pitched 6 2/3 shutout innings, giving up just two singles. Young (4-5) picked up the win, walking two and striking out three. Relievers Kyle Landis and Santo Frias combined for 2 2/3 innings of one hit work to finish the shutout. The duo from the pen allowed just one hit while not walking a batter.

With the score tied at zero in the bottom of the sixth inning, Adam Davis doubled with two away. Lonnie Chisenhall (1-for-4) then drove Davis home with a double of his own, giving Kinston the 1-0 lead. It was Chisenhall’s Carolina League leading 77th RBI of the season. Davis would hit his seventh home run of the season in the eighth inning for an added insurance run. Davis ended the night 2-for-4 with two runs scored.

The K-Tribe has now won three straight games for the first time in the second half of the season. Kinston is currently just 4 ½ games out of the final playoff spot in the Carolina League Southern Division.

Lakewood hands Captains tough loss
Kyle Lafrenz hit a bases loaded three run double in the bottom of the eighth inning to propel the Lakewood BlueClaws to a 7-5 win over the Lake County Captains Thursday.

The Captains put up a run in the top of the third inning when Delvi Cid singled and stole second. Two batters later he scored on a single by Jeremie Tice and the Captains led 1-0. The BlueClaws tied it up in the bottom of the third inning when Jesus Villegas singled home Anthony Gose to make it 1-1. The Claws grabbed the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning when Troy Hanzawa singled home Jim Murphy and Lakewood led 2-1.

The Captains regained the lead in the top of the fifth inning when Tice doubled home Bo Greenwell and then scored on an infield singe by Donnie Webb. Lakewood tied it up at 3-3 in the bottom of the fifth inning when two Captains errors on the same play allowed a run to score. The Captains took a 4-3 lead in the top of the seventh inning when Delvi Cid scored on a sacrifice fly by Nate Recknagel but Lakewood tied it right back up at 4-4 in bottom of the inning on a sacrifice fly by Anthony Gose.

The Captain got the lead again in the top of the eighth inning when Donnie Webb tripled and came on to score on a sacrifice fly by Michael Valadez and the lead was 5-4.

Captains' starter Nick Hagadone made his Captains debut and did not get a decision going three innings and allowing one run on three hits while striking out five. Chris Jones (5-3) took the loss working 4.2 innings and allowing six runs on seven hits, walking one and striking out four.

BlueClaws starter Trevor May did not get a decision either working 4.2 innings and allowing three runs on seven hits, walking two and striking out seven. Jordan Ellis (3-2) got the win working 3.1 innings and allowing two runs on two hits while striking out five. Ryan Bergh pitched a scoreless inning and got his 12th save.

Scrappers sweep Tri-City
On Thursday afternoon the Mahoning Valley Scrappers completed a three game sweep of the Tri-City ValleyCats with a 2-1 victory. With the win the Scrappers are now undefeated in matinee games.

The Scrappers scored first in the 2nd inning when Kyle Bellows homered for the second straight game, giving him at total of six on the season. Mahoning Valley has set a season high of homering in three consecutive games. In the top of the 3rd, Kyle Smith hit a one out triple and then scored on Greg Folgia's RBI single. The ValleyCats scored their only run in the bottom of the second, due to shutout relief from the Scrappers' bullpen, were unable to make a comeback. The Scrappers recorded their seventh straight victory with the 2-1 over the Tri-City ValleyCats.

Scrappers starter Clayton Cook pitched the 5 1/3 innings and surrendered one run while walking two and striking out four. Nick Kirk pitched the next three innings, walking one and striking out one. Kirk left the game in the bottom of the 9th with runners at the corners and one out, relieving him was Guido Fonseca who retired the final two batters of the game and recorded his second save of the season.

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