Mike Clevinger continues Triple-A domination with strong start

It was another 2-2 day for Tribe affiliates, but there was plenty to get excited about as several top prospects had big days and two top pitchers in the organization had very strong scoreless starts.

Columbus Clippers 2, Indianapolis Indians 0

Box Score · Clippers improve to 4-2

Mike Clevinger is on the warpath. Five days after tossing six strong innings of one-run baseball to kick off the season, he flat out dominated the Indianapolis Indians yesterday to the tune of seven shutout innings and nine strikeouts. Clevinger’s line for the season now stands at an impressive 13 innings, 0.69 ERA, 17 strikeouts, four walks.

The Clippers offense was sparse yesterday, but they managed to plate two runs on five total hits and seven walks. Adam Moore had the lone two-hit day while Giovanny Urshela went 1-3 with a walk and an RBI.

Josh Martin and Jeff Johnson held down the fort with two innings of scoreless relief to record a hold and save respectively.

Akron RubberDucks 4, Trenton Thunder 6

Box Score · RubberDucks fall to 2-4

A spectacular bounceback start from Julian Merryweather was all for naught after a ninth inning blow-up from the bullpen and defense.

Merryweather tossed five innings of shutout ball, striking out eight and walking none, more than making up for his disastrous season debut last Thursday where he gave up five runs in a loss. Unfortunately, Merryweather wasn’t rewarded for his effort as Akron gave up two runs in the seventh and another four in the ninth.

The offense tried to initially bail out the bullpen, scoring three runs in the bottom of the eighth thanks in part to big games from Greg Allen, Mike Papi and (who else) Francisco Mejia, who all had two hits. Tyler Krieger also reached base safely three times thanks in part to two walks.

The damage occurred in a disastrous top of the ninth inning which saw Trenton secure two infield singles as well as a bases loaded error from shortstop prospect Yu-Cheng Chang

Lynchburg Hillcats 5, Salem Red Sox 11

Box Score · Hillcats fall to 1-5

This is a game I think the Hillcats would like to forget.

Despite some solid overall offensive performances from the top of the lineup, which saw four players secure multi-hit games, the team was let down by some poor pitching and some even worse defense.

Everything fell apart in the fifth inning, which saw Salem score seven runs in total, six unearned due to two errors from Willi Castro and Anthony Miller respectively.

Starting pitcher Matt Esparza looks like he still needs to settle into 2017, but he was slightly better than his debut last week, this time throwing four innings, giving up three runs on six hits and three walks while striking out five.

Yonathan Mendoza had a good game for the Hillcats, going 3-4 with a triple

Lake County Captains 6, Great Lakes Loons 4

Box Score · Captains improve to 3-3

Despite a whopping five errors, Lake County was able to secure a victory thanks in part to two home runs and some excellent baserunning.

Catchers Li-Jen Chu and Logan Ice both went deep for the first time this year while Todd Isaacs stole two bases. Young phenom Conner Capel continued his strong start, going 2-4 to raise his early season batting average to .400.

Starting pitcher Micah Miniard was solid, giving up zero earned runs in 4.2 innings of one-hit ball, although he did walk five batters.

Relievers Ben Krauth and Henry Martinez combined for 4.1 innings to close out the game.