Indians minor league affiliates go 1-3 despite four quality starts from Banwart, Brown, Bieber and Civale

Columbus Clippers 5, Indianapolis Indians 4

Box Score · Clippers improve to 17-19

The Columbus B-Team rose to the occasion yesterday. With Erik Gonzalez, Yandy Diaz and Daniel Robertson called up plus Bradley Zimmer out of the lineup, four other players picked up multi-hit games.

Ronny Rodriguez, Eric Stamets, Giovanny Urshela and Erik Kratz all went 2-4 at the plate. Rodriguez had a home run and both of Stamets’ hits were doubles.

Veteran Travis Banwart was brilliant, giving up one run in 5.2 innings while striking out seven and walking two, technically he was one out away from a quality start, but he definitely had a great outing. The bullpen made things interesting as Tyler Olson and Joe Colon gave up a combined three runs (two earned) in three innings, while Josh Martin stepped in with a one-out save in the ninth.

Akron RubberDucks 1, Richmond Flying Squirrels 3

Box Score · RubberDucks fall to 15-18

DJ Brown threw by far the best start of his career, but wasn’t rewarded for it as he was only given one run of support by the ailing Akron offense.

Akron only had one batter with a multi-hit game, Eric Haase, who went 2-4 with a triple, and as a team, they recorded zero walks.

Brown, who entered the game with a 9.95 ERA, managed to throw 6.2 innings, giving up three runs (two earned) while striking out five and walking one to take the hard-luck loss. Dylan Baker and Cole Sulser provided 2.1 innings of scoreless relief.

Lynchburg Hillcats 2, Winston-Salem Dash 3

Box Score · Hillcats fall to 17-18

There wasn’t much offense to speak of for Lynchburg as no players managed a multi-hit game and only one (Andrew Calica) managed an extra base hit (a double). Martin Cervenka did reach safely three times thanks to two walks, but other than a two-run outburst in the eighth inning, the bats were silent.

Shane Bieber made his second start since being promoted to High-A and he was once again spectacular, giving up one earned run in six innings while dancing around nine hits. He didn’t walk a batter (obviously) and he struck out three. Reliever Argenis Angulo took the loss when he gave up a walk-off bloop single in the bottom of the ninth.

Lake County Captains 2, Great Lakes Loons 3

Box Score · Hillcats fall to 13-23

The Indians lowest level full-season club continues to struggle despite another dominant pitching performance from one of their starters.

Luke Wakamatsu was the only Captain to record a multi-hit game, going 2-4 at the plate while Todd Isaacs contributed a double. The team is going to need more offense than that if they want to be competitive, especially when Aaron Civale is pitching the way he is.

Civale likely won’t be in Lake County long after putting up another quality start, throwing six innings of two-run ball while striking out seven and walking none. He’s struck out 14 in 13 innings while walking zero over his last two starts.

Ben Krauth was solid in relief, but took the loss after giving up a run in the bottom of the eighth inning on a two-out double.