Miller back to mashing; RubberDucks walk off on sacrifice fly

Columbus Clippers 7, Toledo Mud Hens 1

Box Score · Clippers rise to 24-27

The 1-4 hitters in Columbus’s lineup failed to record a hit. The 5-9 hitters recorded ten. Baseball!

Owen Miller led the charge with a double, a dinger, and three ribbies. He even drew a walk. For funsies. The home run blew the game wide open for Columbus and set the final score as well.

Kirk McCarty notched his sixth win of the season with seven innings of four-hit baseball, striking out six and walking two while plating only one. Cam Hill faced four in a third; Robert Broom stepped in to clean up for the remainder of the final two frames.

Akron RubberDucks 7, Bowie Baysox 6 (F/10)

Box Score · RubberDucks rise to 30-21

You can’t keep a good duck down.

Despite being hand-picked by Marcus Aurelius to replace him as Roman Emperor, Oscar Gonzalez was left for dead in Alemania by Commodus. Years pass. Wheels turn. Ducks quack. Suddenly, there is Oscar Gonzalez in the middle of the Colosseum baseball diamond.

Commodus screams. Oscar Gonzalez slaps an RBI single. The rest of the gladiators band together under Oscar's leadership and claw their way to a tie in the bottom of the ninth thanks to a wild pitch. Surely, Oscar rubbing clay between his hands before picking up a pilum and charging the mound caused this.

In the final showdown, Oscar Gonzalez advances to third on a single and then scores on a sacrifice fly. At press time, he is still alive and quietly transitioning the government back to a republic before returning to the country to farm.

Lake County Captains 3, South Bend Cubs 5

Box Score · Captains fall to 27-24

Bryan Lavastida will not slow down, thank you. He will continue to mash and catch and generally harass opponents. He paired three hits along with a trio from Jose Tena and three more scattered, but it wouldn’t be enough to carry the Captains past the Cubs. Aaron Bracho added two walks; George Valera also reached a stole a base. Will Brennan quietly raised his CF leadoff slashline to .288/.360/.429. He even nailed a dude at second base. Monocle emoji, fire emoji, eyeball emoji, etc.

Tanner Burns wears the loss but I’m not sure that he deserves it; three runs earned, five runs total tells that story pretty clearly given the final score. Catch Joe Donovan allowed a passed ball and then made a throwing error to allow two runs to score in the seventh.

So it goes.

Lynchburg Hillcats 0, Delmarva Shorebirds 7

Box Score · Hillcats fall to 25-25

Boy, when things go wrong!

Two errors, three unearned runs, and only three hits at the plate adds up to a dismal showing for the Hillcats.

I’m going to highlight TT Bowens of the Delmarva Shorebirds because

1. He goes by TT, which is cool, and
2. He went 4-5 with a home run, an RBI, 3 runs, and a double.

From what I can tell, this is the first year of professional baseball for the undrafted Bowens. I hope he remembers this night for a long time and gets the opportunity to put up a few more like it.