George Valera homers twice in Lake County win, newly acquired Konnor Pilkington makes impressive debut

If chicks dig the long ball, then they were loving Cleveland’s minor league affiliates on Saturday.

Columbus Clippers 6, Omaha Storm Chasers 4

Box Score · Clippers improve to 35-43

Alex Call had a great game for the Clippers, going 2-for-3 with a home run, a walk, and a stolen base. Andrés Giménez also homered, going 1-for-3 with a long ball, a hit-by-pitch and a stolen base.

Other standout offensive performers were Oscar González, who went 1-for-3 with a double and a walk, Gabriel Arias, who went 1-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base, Nolan Jones, who went 2-for-4 and Trenton Brooks, who went 1-for-3 with a walk.

Veteran Brad Peacock had his best start since joining Columbus, whiffing eight batters and allowing just one run in four innings of work. Kyle Dowdy pitched a scoreless inning of relief with a pair of strikeouts and Jordan Stephans got the last two outs to earn the save.

Akron RubberDucks 5, Altoona Curve 8

Box Score · RubberDucks fall to 48-30

In his Cleveland affiliate debut after being acquired for Cesar Hernandez, former third-round pick Konnor Pilkington was lights out.

Pilkington struck out a season-high nine batters in five innings, allowing just one run on three hits and walking one.

Unfortunately, the bullpen blew the game multiple times, allowing three runs in both the seventh and ninth innings.

Offensively, Andruw Monesterio went 3-for-4 with two doubles and Will Brennan showed no fear in his Double-A debut, going 2-for-3 with a double and a walk. Steven Kwan reached base safely three times, going 1-for-2 with a walk and a hit by pitch.

Lake County Captains 8, Lansing Lugnuts 4

Box Score · Captains improve to 43-37

We’ve been waiting for George Valera to go beast mode and that’s exactly what he did on Wednesday. Valera went 2-for-3, blasting two home runs and also walking. The only thing that sucks is that we don’t have video of both bombs, and what I assume were insane bat flips.

We do have a clip of an interview with him after the game, however.

Cody Donovan went 2-for-4 with a double, Micah Pries went 2-for-4. Joe Naranjo went 1-for-3 with a double, a walk and a stolen base, and Victor Nova went 1-for-3 with a double.

Starting pitcher Kevin Coulter allowed two runs on five hits in five innings while striking out four and walking two. Jerson Ramirez closed things out with 1.1 perfect scoreless innings to earn the save.

Lynchburg Hillcats 9, Salem Red Sox 6

Box Score · Hillcats improve to 41-38

Down 6-for-2 in the top of the ninth inning, the Lynchburg offense erupted for seven runs to pull off a huge comeback.

Miguel Jerez had a monster game, going 3-for-5 with a double. Gabriel Rodriguez also went 3-for-5 and had two doubles. Korey Holland went 2-for-3 with a sacrifice fly and Petey Halpin reached base safely three times, going 2-for-4 with a walk.

Petey Halpin went 2-for-4 with a stolen base as the only other Hillcat to reach base twice.

Starting pitcher Jordan Jones battled, allowing two runs on six hits and also walking four in four innings. The pitching hero for the Hillcats was Jacob Forrester, who tossed two scoreless innings of one-hit ball while striking out one to pick up the win.

All short-season affiliates had the day off.