Lake County wins on walk-off passed ball

Columbus Clippers 0, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders 9

Box Score · Clippers improve to 7-9

Gonna take a shot in the dark here and say this is not how the Columbus Clippers wanted to start their series against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. Maybe an 0-5 loss, or a 1-7 blowout, but not 0-9. Geeze.

The good news for starting pitcher Adam Plutko is that only four earned runs were allowed on his watch, and he still struck out five RailRiders. But he also walked three and allowed three home runs; coming into the game he hadn’t allowed a single homer. Regression came for him.

Offensively, the Clippers offense didn’t offer much help. Shortstop Giovanny Urshela, third baseman Yandy Diaz, catcher Francisco Mejia, and second baseman Adam Rosales all had hits. Two of them were for extra bases, but the Clippers offense also struck out 10 times and didn’t draw a single walk. Hard to win a low-scoring game like that, let alone make up a nine-run deficit.

Akron RubberDucks 4, Reading Fightin Phils 8

Box Score · RubberDucks fall to 8-9

For a brief, beautiful moment, the Akron RubberDucks had a lead in this game over the Reading Fightin Phils. With the combined effort of a Mark Mathias double, a Dorssys Paulino single, and a Joe Sever single, they scored three in the third inning to take a lead from the Phils.

Unfortunately, the Phils pounced on starting pitcher Adam Civale in the bottom of the frame and added three more runs of their own, and they wouldn’t stop scoring until the game ended. Civale weathered the storm and stayed in through five innings, finishing with three earned runs, one strikeout and no walks.

The ‘Ducks have dropped four of their last five games, including three one-run losse

Lake County Captains 2, West Michigan Whitecaps 1

Box Score · Captains improve to 8-8

At least someone took home a win yesterday. The Lake County Captain added the only Tribe affiliate win Monday in dramatic fashion, with a walk-off passed ball allowing Todd Isaacs to score. Prior to that, Isaacs Single, Tyler Friis doubled, and the Whitecaps intentionally walked Ernie Clement to load the bases and face the ice cold Nolan Jones.

Jones finished the game 0-for-4, and the Captains are probably lucky he didn’t need to use his bat in the final at-bat of the game. The 19-year-old third baseman is 5-for-27 on the season with six strikeouts.

On the mound, Juan Hillman struck out six over five innings for his best outing of the season.

The Lynchburg Hillcats had a scheduled day off.