Indians minor league recap: Francisco Mejia improves hit streak to 40 games

Let's start with the good news, Francisco Mejia continues to hit. The 20-year old switch-hitting catcher improved his 2016 MLB and MilB-best hitting streak to 40 games yesterday with a sixth inning single for the High-A Lynchburg Hillcats.

That's the end of the good news.

Mahoning Valley was the only Tribe affiliate to not lose yesterday.... and that's because their game was postponed due to rain.

*Insert Debbie Downer trumpet noises here*

Columbus Clippers 0, Norfolk Tides 1

Box Score · Clippers fall to 58-48

The Columbus Clippers lost another heartbreaker yesterday, this time in a bullpen game.

Toru Murata tossed four scoreless innings to start the game, while Jeff Johnson, TJ House and Ben Heller combined for three more innings of shutout relief, but Josh Martin gave up one run in the fifth inning and that would be all Norfolk needed.

Columbus was completely shut down yesterday on five hits overall. Yandy Diaz, Giovanny Urshela, and Clint Frazier picked up singles, but no one walked and no one had a multi-hit game, leading to the loss..

Akron RubberDucks 4, Bowie Baysox 5

Box Score · RubberDucks fall to 54-52

Akron had some good games from some unlikely offensive sources, but they weren't enough to overcome a poor starting pitching performance as the RubberDucks dropped their 8th straight game.

Luigi Rodriguez and Joe Sever both collected two hits including a home run while Jordan Smith and Todd Hankins both went 2-4 on the day with Smith collecting a triple.

The offense was able to plate four runs, but they couldn't overcome a rough start from DJ Brown, who surrendered five runs on eight hits in six innings while striking out six.

Zach McAllister, Grant Sides and JP Feyereisen provided three shutout innings of relief, but the offense remained silent in the final three frames.

Lynchburg Hillcats 3, Winston-Salem Dash 9

Box Score · Hillcats fall to 66-37

There were two stories in this game: Francisco Mejia and Anthony Santander.

Mejia didn't hit the ball out of the infield yesterday, but that didn't stop him from extending his hitting streak. After starting the game 0-2 and with his team getting killed, Mejia could have given up after hitting a slow chopper back to the pitcher, but the top catching prospect hustled down the line and actually beat the throw to extend his hitting streak to 40 games.

No one else on the Hillcats did much of anything yesterday except for Anthony Santander, who had a monster game, going 4-4 including a home run.

On a positive note, after getting hit in the face by a pitch last Saturday and requiring stitches, Mark Mathias continues to pound baseballs, going 1-3 with a walk yesterday in his second game back in the lineup

Despite having five starters on the roster, long reliever Jared Robinson was given the call yesterday for Lynchburg, and he had a horrific outing. Robinson was tagged for eight runs in just 3.2 innings, including an eight-run fourth inning for Winston-Salem, which knocked him out of the game.

Lake County Captains 0, South Bend Cubs 3

Box Score · Captains fall to 54-48

Lake County Starting pitcher Shao-Ching Chiang had one of his best outings of the season yesterday, but it was all for naught thanks to some hapless offense.

Chiang was brilliant over seven innings, giving up just one run in his last inning of work, did not walk a batter and struck out three while giving up five total hits.

Unfortunately, no one on Lake County managed an extra base hit or a walk on the day as the offense provided a measly four singles overall en route to being completely shut down by the South Bend pitching staff.

DSL Indians 0, DSL Rangers1 4 Game 1 

DSL Indians 4, DSL Rangers1 9 Game 2

Game 1 Box Score · Game 2 Box Score · Indians fall to 20-26

The first game was the completion of a suspended game from July 14th, and it wasn't pretty. The DSL Indians outhit their opponents 8-4, but lost 4-0 thanks to poor hit sequencing and some downright brutal defense. The Indians went 0-8 with runners in scoring position and grounded into two double plays. They also committed a ridiculous six errors, easily giving the Rangers1 an opportunity to take the win.

In game two, the usually dependable Juan Mota was teed off on to the tune of seven runs (4 earned) in three innings of work. Ronny Dominguez had a triple and a walk for the Indians, but the team only managed five hits in the second game, easily losing by a five run margin

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The Mahoning Valley Scrappers game was postponed due to weather while the AZL Indians had a scheduled off day.