Indians minor league recap: Bradley Zimmer hits first Triple-A home run

Even though only a couple games came out as victories yesterday, some key prospects had big days. Bradley Zimmer homered in Triple-A (and he's been hitting great since the promotion) while Yandy Diaz, Giovanny Urshela, and Francisco Mejia all extended their hitting streaks.

Columbus Clippers 4, Indianapolis Indians 5

Box Score · Clippers fall to 61-50

This game will go down as a loss for the Columbus Clippers, but it's one of those games where a couple top prospects did really well so it was still fun to watch.

Bradley Zimmer, batting leadoff, was 3-for-4 on the day, including the first Triple-A home run of his career and a walk.

Batting right behind Zimmer and playing in right field was Yandy Diaz, who extended his hitting streak to 21 games with a 3-for-5 day. Giovanny Urshela also continued his recent hot streak, going 2-for-4 two runs batted in. He has a 16 game hitting streak going himself. One of Urshela's hits were crucial, a ninth-inning single that scored two runs and put Columbus within one.

Unfortunately, the rest of the Clippers did not do much of anything and they lost, despite outhitting the Indians, 10-8.

Toru Murata lasted just four innings, striking out four but allowing three earned runs off of five hits. Jeff Johnson struck out three of the seven batters he faced in relief.

Akron RubberDucks 4, New Hampshire Fisher Cats 6

Box Score · RubberDucks fall to 55-55

Scoring for the Akron RubberDucks and New Hampshire Fisher Cats started fast with the score 3-2 after the first inning, but things eventually slowed down and the Cats pulled ahead in the middle innings to sink the 'Ducks to .500.

Half of Akron's six hits came in that first inning, including a leadoff single from Greg Allen (his only hit of the game), a double from Mike Papi, and a single from Joe Sever.

I am not quite ready to say Papi's bat is finally heating up, but this was his second multi-hit game in a row as he is 4-for-7 over those two games. Unfortunately, on the season, he is slashing .200/.333/.333 in 52 games since being promoted to the RubberDucks.

Nick Pasquale was given the loss on the day, pitching 5.1 innings and allowing five earned runs. He also had seven strikeouts and did not walk a single batter.

Lynchburg Hillcats 2, Potomac Nationals 5 (Game 1)

Lynchburg Hillcats 9, Potomac Nationals 2 (Game 2)

Game 1 Box Score · Game 2 Box Score · Hillcats improve to 70-39

Game 1 was an ugly loss for the Lynchburg Hillcats as they mustered just four hits, two of which came from Francisco Mejia. Jared Robinson pitched a strong six innings before a collapse in the final frame -- his final line on the day sits at 6.1 IP, 4 ER, 1 SO, 3 BB.

Game 2, however, was an explosion of offense with everyone but Sicnarf Loopstok recording a hit (don't worry, Mejia sat this game out so his hit streak is still intact). Mark Mathias and Alex Monsalve both had two hits on the day, and the lone home run in Game 2 came from Taylor Murphy.

Lake County Captains 1, West Michigan Whitecaps 3

Box Score · Captains fall to 55-52

Like much of the Indians farm system yesterday, the Lake County Captains could not pile up many hits. They finished the day with six as a team, two apiece coming from Jodd Carter and Martin Cervenka.

Carter has torn up midwest league pitching in his six games with the Captains to the tune of 11 hits in 25 at-bats for a .440 average.

Starting pitcher Shao-Ching Chiang pitched 6.2 innings, allowing two earned runs off of nine hits. This was Chiang's third-straight start in which he allowed two or fewer runs in five or more innings.

Mahoning Valley Scrappers 2, Williamsport Crosscutters 1

Box Score · Scrappers improve to 19-24

The Mahoning Valley Scrappers only scored two runs yesterday, but that was all they needed with the excellent group of pitching performances they got.

Tanner Tully started the game, holding the Crosscutters to one unearned run, while Ping-Hsueh Chen, Ryan Colegate, and Michael Letewicz combined to throw six innings of one-hit baseball.

Emmanuel Tapia had the only multi-hit game for the Scrappers, going 2-for-3 with a double.

DSL Indians 0, DSL Pirates 6 (Game 1)

DSL Indians 0, DSL Pirates 5 (Game 2)

Game 1 Box Score · Game 2 Box Score · Indians fall to 22-27

Well. Those are quite the box scores. The DSL Indians had only two hits in Game 1 (Jean Montero and Ronny Dominguez) on their way to a 6-0 loss. Game 2? Same story, but the two hits came from Felix Fernandez and Julio Cabrera.

Starting pitcher Luis Valdez had a pretty good outing in game one (4.1 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 3 BB, 2 SO), but was given the loss due to the shutout. The rest of the Pirates' runs came off of Juan Paredes, who allowed four earned runs off of three hits.

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The AZL Indians had a scheduled off day.