Indians minor league recap: Adam Moore goes 5-5, Connor Marabell homers twice

For the Columbus Clippers and Lake County Captains, yesterday was a great day for some great baseball games. The Captains made things interesting with a bottom-of-the-ninth comeback, while the Clippers jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. Both teams received big performances from a single player -- Adam Moore's five-hit game for the Clippers, and Conor Marabell's two home runs for the Captains.

Another big note for the Clippers on Tuesday was the Triple-A debut of Michael Peoples, who had a 3.02 ERA in 11 starts with the Double-A Akron RubberDucks this season.

Columbus Clippers 9, Indianapolis Indians 6

Box Score · Clippers improve to 33-25

The big headline coming into the Columbus Clippers' Tuesday matchup against the Indianapolis Indians was Michael Peoples making his Triple-A debut, but that did remain the biggest story for long. It was nothing wrong on the part of Peoples -- he threw a strong six innings with three strikeouts and two earned runs -- but it was catcher Adam Moore's five-hit game that wound up stealing the spotlight.

Arguably no one in the Cleveland Indians organization has been hotter than Moore since June 2. He has played in four games since that date, and every one of them has been a multi-hit affair, including the five hits on Tuesday and three on Monday. Over his last 10 games, Moore is 17-for-34 -- that's a .500 batting average.

Moore did not score all nine runs himself, of course -- the rest of the Clippers lineup helped. Five of the team's nine runs came in the fifth, but it was accomplished without a single extra-base hit. Instead, they relied on three walks (one intentional), three singles, an error, and the first two outs of the inning were sacrifice hits.

Peoples had a nice Triple-A debut, but reliever Josh Martin did not have such a great night on the mound. He was only able to get two outs on the night, yet he allowed four hits, four runs, and issued two walks. Luckily, the combination of Joseph Colon, Shawn Armstrong, and Ben Heller were able to shut the Indians lineup down over the final 2.1 innings.

Closer Ben Heller has adjusted well to Triple-A so far. After allowing two runs in debut back on May 21, he has appeared in six-straight games without allowing a run. He has also allowed just three hits and issued one walk in that span.

Akron RubberDucks 1, Reading Fightin' Phils 11

Box Score · RubberDucks fall to 38-20

Wow. Well. Okay. That's. Wow.

The Akron RubberDucks could only muster four hits on the day -- only two if you do not count Joe Sever -- and they lost. Badly.

Starting pitcher Anderson Polanco looked bad, allowing four earned runs in 4.2 innings, but Robbie Aviles looked much worse with his six earned runs in just a single inning. Aviles has now allowed at least one run in his last four appearances and at least two runs in three of his last five. As good as he was in High-A to start the season, he has just not found it yet with the Double-A squad.

Bradley Zimmer and Clint Frazier combined to go 1-for-7 on the night with four strikeouts. Zimmer himself accounted for three of those strikeouts, which remains a legitimate concern for the hopeful future major-leaguer. He has now struck out 18 times in his last 10 games, compared to just four walks. He is also just 3-for-35 in that time.

Nellie Rodriguez and Zimmer 1-2 in the Eastern League in strikeouts with 78 and 73 whiffs, respectively.

Lynchburg Hillcats 1, Salem Red Sox 5

Box Score · Hillcats fall to 37-21

In his second-shortest outings of the season, Justus Sheffield was tagged with the loss as the Lynchburg offense could not plate more than a single run.

That one run came in the top of the sixth when Bobby Bradley and Paul Hendrix hit back-to-back doubles. Other than that, the Hillcats offense was mostly silent. Bobby Bradley also hit a single in the game and struck out twice, while Claudio Bautista added a pair of hits as well.

Mitch Brown threw a full four innings in relief of Sheffield, allowing two earned runs and striking out four.

Lake County Captains 7, Lansing Lugnuts 6

Box Score · Captains improve to 34-24

It took some ninth-inning heroics, but the Lake County Captains were able to open their series against the Lansing Lugnuts with a victory.

Heading into the final frame down 5-6, the Captains relied on on a big double from Nathan Lukes and a sacrifice fly from Willi Castro to close out the win.

Although he did not factor into the ninth inning, Connor Marabell had a monster game on Tuesday, just as he has done all season long. He went 3-for-4 with two home runs and three of the team's seven runs batted in. Those two home runs ended a lengthy drought for Marabell, but what he has lacked in raw power recently he has made up with  base hits. He has now gone 15-for-32 in his last 10.

He could not quite duplicate his seven-inning shutout from his last start, but Thomas Pannone turned in a very Thomas Pannone outing yesterday, with four earned runs allowed and five strikeouts. Kieran Lovegrove has had a rough season to date, but he was able to get out of the game unscathed for the second time in a row Tuesday.

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The DSL Indians game was postponned due to rain.