Trenton Brooks celebrates promotion to Columbus with two home runs

Columbus Clippers 9, Iowa Cubs 7

Box Score · Clippers improve to 13-19

The Columbus offense was outhit and outwalked by Iowa, but that didn’t seem to matter as the Clippers were able to get their hits at the right time.

The biggest hits came from Trenton Brooks, who blasted a pair of home runs to celebrate his recent promotion to Triple-A, going 2-for-4 with five runs batted in. Brooks has been on fire as of late.

Daniel Johnson also had a monster game, going 3-5 with a home run and a stolen base. Oscar Mercado went 2-for-4 with a double and a walk, Ryan Lavarnway went 1-for-3 and was hit by a pitch and Nolan Jones had a pair of walks and stole a base.

Journeyman Kevin Herget gave up five runs in five innings while striking out seven. The bullpen wasn’t great, but Dalbert Siri and Matt Koch both had scoreless innings of relief.

Lake County Captains 4, Fort Wayne TinCaps 5 (F/10)

Box Score · Captains fall to 17-16

Logan T. Allen, who I have dubbed moving forward as Logan the Allen, was on fire in this game. He shut down Fort Wayne for the first six innings but ran into trouble in the seventh frame. Overall on the night, his line was 6.1 innings pitched, four runs allowed (three earned) on five hits while striking out eight and walking four.

In Allen’s defense, he left the game with the bases loaded, and reliever Alec Wisely promptly allowed all three inherited runners to score.

Lake County battled back to tie the game in the top of the ninth inning, but they fell in extra innings.

Will Brennan had another great game, going 2-for-5 with a double and a triple. Aaron Bracho was the only other Captain to reach base safely twice, going 1-for-3 with a double and a walk.

Lynchburg Hillcats 2, Delmarva Shorebirds 8

Box Score · Hillcats fall to 16-15

Let’s start with the good. This game was a continuation from a suspended game yesterday, where Daniel Espino was blowing away hitters with 101 mph filth to the tune of two scoreless innings and three strikeouts.

Unfortunately, Espino was no longer available once the game continued in the third inning. Miguel Vinicio pitched well, allowing one unearned run in 2.2 innings once the game resumed.

An error allowed three more unearned runs to score and then Cade Smith got blasted for four runs in less than an inning to put the game out of reach.

Offensively, Gabriel Rodriguez went 2-for-4, while Yainer Diaz had a two-run double and Alexfri Planez also had a double.

Akron’s game against Altoona and Lynchburg’s second game against Delmarva were postponed due to rain.