Indians minor league recap: Brady Aiken has second straight great start

If you thought Carlos Carrasco had it bad yesterday with his five run first inning, be thankful you weren’t Columbus or Akron, as they had it much, much worse.

Both the Clippers and the RubberDucks were plagued by horrific innings, giving up seven and 12 runs respectively to lose leads (and their games).

Thankfully on the bright side, Brady Aiken seems like he’s finally starting to figure things out as the Indians 2015 first round pick has now put together his best consecutive starts of his professional career

Columbus Clippers 3, Louisville Bats 8

Box Score · Clippers fall to 78-57

Everything was going swimmingly for Columbus, until an absolute disaster of a ninth inning. The Clippers had a 3-1 lead heading into the ninth thanks in part to Yandy Diaz, who went 2-5 on the day with a home run and two RBI.

Ronny Rodriguez also collected three hits, although nothing came of them.

Starting pitcher Shawn Haviland, who has been excellent since the team signed him as a free agent earlier this month, pitched his heart out. Haviland tossed 7.2 innings, giving up just one run (in the eighth inning) while striking out five and walking zero.

Enter Austin Adams.

Adams finished the eighth inning, but had a complete meltdown in the ninth, giving up five runs without getting anyone out. Perci Garner tried to put out the dumpster fire but he couldn’t finish the inning either, giving up another two runs while allowing all his inherited runners to score. All in all, the bullpen gave up seven runs in the top of the ninth to majorly blow the lead and the game.

Akron RubberDucks 3, Richmond Flying Squirrels 13

Box Score · RubberDucks fall to 69-62

Just like with Columbus, one horrific inning was the downfall of the RubberDucks. Everything was going swimmingly for Akron until the fifth, where they proceeded to give up a ridiculous 12 runs.

All in all, Akron pitchers gave up nine hits and four walks while the fielders had two errors in the disastrous inning.

Jeremy Lucas and Jordan Smith both hit home runs for Akron, but the offense stood no chance in this game.

Starting pitcher DJ Brown, reliever Grant Sides and reliever Colt Hynes were all tattooed in that fifth inning.

Lynchburg Hillcats 6, Potomac Nationals 8

Box Score · Hillcats fall to 81-51

The offense was humming for Lynchburg as per usual, but the starting pitching let them down.

Dorssys Paulino and Tyler Krieger both went 4-5 at the plate on the day with Krieger smacking a triple while Paulino went deep for his sixth home run. Mark Mathias and Bobby Bradley joined them with multi-hit games.

Pitching-wise, Luis Lugo had a big letdown game, giving up seven runs (six earned) in just 4.1 innings on six hits, two walks and a hit batsman while striking out six.

David Speer and Trevor Frank provided three innings of scoreless relief but the late Lynchburg rally fell two runs short.

Lake County Captains 6, Lansing Lugnuts 5

Box Score · Captains improve to 68-64

Lake County moved its winning streak to two in a row thanks in part to some big offensive games from catcher Martin Cervenka and first baseman Jose Medina, who both had three-hit games. Medina crushed a three-run home run and had four RBI overall in the game.

Micah Miniard had a decent start, giving up three runs in 4.2 innings, but he was also wild, walking four batters, hitting one and throwing two wild pitches. Cortland Cox carried the load with three solid innings of relief to pick up the victory.

Mahoning Valley Scrappers 4, West Virginia Black Bears 6

Box Score · Scrappers fall to 33-33

Whoever decided to promote Brady Aiken to Low-A despite his struggles in the AZL should definitely be patting themselves on the back because he had his second straight excellent start yesterday.

Aiken tossed five innings, giving up one run on three hits while striking out five and walking zero in what should have been a winning effort, but the bullpen had other ideas.

Randy Valladeras relieved Aiken and promptly gave up four runs (two earned) in one inning to blow the lead and the game.

Offensively, several Scrappers stood out as Gabriel Mejia, Logan Ice and Mitch Longo had two hits apiece while Alex Pantoja had a three-hit game out of the nine-hole.

The AZL Indians had a scheduled day off and the DSL Indians game was postponed due to rain.