Xzavion Curry brilliant in Lake County debut, Akron loses slugfest

The top-performing pitcher in Cleveland minor league system, Xzavion Curry, a seventh-round draft pick in 2019, was promoted to High-A Lake County this past week, and he didn't skip a beat in his debut start on Wednesday. More on Curry's start below!

Columbus Clippers 8, Iowa Cubs 4

Box Score · Clippers improve to 12-19

The Columbus offense blasted off for six runs in the third inning then held on after giving most of them back.

Oscar Mercado and Nolan Jones led the way for the Clippers with multi-hit games. Mercado went 2-for-5 with a home run and four runs batted in. Jones went 2-for-4 with a double and a walk. Conner Marabell also went 2-for-4 and Gabriel Arias homered.

Starting pitcher Kirk McCarty was on cruise control until allowing four runs in the fifth inning, but he managed to get out of the frame and followed it up with a scoreless sixth inning. His final line was six innings, eight hits, four runs, two walks, and three strikeouts.

Robert Broom and Kyle Dowdy slammed the door with three scoreless innings of relief on just one hit.

Akron RubberDucks 13, Altoona Curve 14

Box Score · RubberDucks fall to 18-12

Talk about a slugfest! Akron lost Wednesday despite hammering 17 hits and stealing right bases in a wild back-and-forth battle.

Richard Palacios led the way for Akron with a career day, going 4-6 with three doubles.

Alex Call continues to take, reaching base five times by going 3-for-4 with a double and a pair of walks, and two stolen bases. Oscar Gonzalez and Chris Roller both went 3-for-6 with a double. Will Benson was nearly perfect at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a pair of walks.

Bo Naylor was held hitless but walked three times and stole a base. Somehow, Tyler Freeman only had one hit, but he also stole a base.

We'll pretend the pitching side of the game didn't happen because it was brutal and no one pitched well for Akron.

Lake County Captains 3, Fort Wayne TinCaps 2

Box Score · Captains improve to 17-15

Xzavion Curry leads all Cleveland minor league pitchers in pretty much every counting statistic, so his promotion to High-A didn't come as a surprise. That being said, anyone worried he'd slow down against stiffer competition had their fears eased on Wednesday.

Curry was downright brilliant, tossing five shutout innings on two hits while striking out seven and walking two. He was nasty.

Former top 2017 draft pick Quentin Holmes, who recently was activated from the injured list, had the best game of his young career, going 4-for-4 from the leadoff position, which raised his season batting average to .545. Not too shabby.

Jose Tena went 2-for-4 with a stolen base and Aaron Bracho homered.

Holding onto a one-run lead, Nic Enright was sensational out of the bullpen, tossing two perfect innings with a pair of strikeouts.

Lynchburg’s game against Delmarva was suspended in the third inning due to rain and will be completed at a later date.