Drennan Delivers As Aeros Win 5-4
Right fielder John Drennen provided a game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning to lead the Aeros to a 5-4 victory over the Richmond Flying Squirrels Wednesday night at Canal Park. A crowd of 3,396 fans in downtown Akron witnessed Drennen and second baseman Jason Kipnis lead the Akron offense while both were oddly dressed in old-fashioned stirrups. The win helped the Aeros (35-36) move just a game behind the Bowie Baysox for second place in the Eastern League’s Western Division while the fifth-place Squirrels fell to 33-39 overall.
Speedy center fielder Jordan Henry began the Akron half of the first inning with a bloop single to left field. Kipnis followed immediately afterwards with a high arching home run to right field against Richmond starter Felix Romero, giving the hosts a quick 2-0 edge.
Aeros starting pitcher Paolo Espino and Romero cruised from there before the Squirrels attacked in the top of the fifth. Richmond started the frame with a single, double and a single to cut the deficit to just a single run. Left fielder Clay Timpner then lined a 3-1 pitch from Espino to the right field bleachers for the final runs of the game for the visitors.
The Akron offense returned the favor in the bottom half of that fifth to tie the score at 4-4. Damaso Espino lined a double down the left field line and Henry plated him with a clutch two-out single straight up the middle. Henry advanced to second on the throw home and Kipnis continued his fine evening at the plate with another RBI hit for the fourth Aeros run.
The score remained tied until the crucial eighth where with one out in the inning, Richmond reliever Andy Sisco hit Akron third baseman Lonnie Chisenhall with a pitch. The intimidating 6’9" lefty then retired Matt McBride for the second out before Chisenhall stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error by the catcher. With a 2-1 count, Drennen then smacked the game-winner to left field to score Chisenhall.
Closer Bryce Stowell (1-0) shut out the Squirrels offense in the eighth and ninth innings for his first win of the season as he has now delivered 19 straight scoreless frames to start his Double-A career. Sisco (0-4) took the loss despite permitting just the one hit in 1.1 innings of relief. Espino made his first start for Akron since May 27th and only made one mistake on the Timpner home run, allowing four runs in five innings with four strikeouts.
Henry and Espino each collected two hits on the night while Kipnis also finished with a single and with his third Aeros home run. The one-run victory was Akron’s 12th of the year and the team is now 15-5 in their past 20 contests decided by two runs or less.
Clippers pound out 14 singles in 11-2 win
The Columbus Clippers managed to take game three of a four game series at Frontier Field over the Rochester Red Wings, 11-2 on Wednesday night. The Clippers used a five-run fourth to break the game open and added five insurance runs in the eighth to notch their second consecutive victory over Rochester.
Jared Goedert's sixth long ball of the year led off the scoring in the second inning, a deep shot to center field off of starter, Glen Perkins. The Red Wings would take over the lead in the bottom of the third inning when Brock Peterson slapped a single to left field scoring Jason Repko and Trevor Plouffe.
The Clippers responded in the fourth and took the lead for good when Brian Bixler led off the inning with a single. After two walks and a passed ball, the Clippers struck with three consecutive RBI singles by Jose Constanza, Michael Brantley and Josh Rodriguez. After Matt LaPorta and Jordan Brown were retired, Goedert found the outfield grass driving in two more runs, upping the Columbus advantage to 6-2.
The scoring spree continued in the eighth for Columbus as the first five batters to the plate recorded singles as Columbus ended up sending 10 men to the plate and getting seven singles in the inning. The Clippers had six men on the night record multi-hit games (Brantley, Rodriguez, Goedert, Bixler, Cord Phelps and Constanza) as the team compiled 15 hits on the evening.
Josh Tomlin got the start for Columbus and earned his seventh win of the year by giving up five hits on two runs, one earned, while striking out six and walking just one in six innings.
Durham, Doubledays down Scrappers
The Mahoning Valley Scrappers dropped the third and final game of a three games series against the Auburn Doubledays 8-3 tonight at Eastwood Field. The Scrappers are now 2-4 on the season.
The Scrappers opened the scoring with a Chase Burnette RBI single in the first to give Mahoning Valley a 1-0 lead. Burnette led the way with two hits in four trips. Dan DeGeorge also picked up his first RBI of the 2010 season.
The Doubledays were led by first baseman Lance Durham who hit a three-run home run in the top of the eighth inning.
Scrappers' starter Mike Rayl picked up the loss despite pitching five innings of six-hit baseball allowing just two earned runs and striking out two. Auburn starter Egan Smith picked up his second win of the season.
Note: The K-Tribe and Captains were off tonight for their respective All-Star breaks.
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2 comments:
Is that Auburn team really that much better then the Scrappers?
That or MV may just be that bad. The highest draft pick on the entire team is a 9th rounder and they have 8 undrafted free agent signings. Nuff said.
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