Lynchburg lone winners on Friday

Columbus Clippers 3, Gwinnett Stripers 6

Game Box Score · Clippers fall to 51-59

Steven Kwan stayed hot in the leadoff spot with two singles, a walk, and a run scored. He led the way in a Columbus loss that also featured Roberto Pérez in a rehab start. He also earned a hit and slapped a tag on Cristian Pache at home to convert an assist for Oscar Gonzalez.

Oscar earned a hit, a walk, and an RBI on the night, too. The offense wasn’t dormant but struggled with opportunity on the basepaths.

Heath Fillmyer stretched for nearly six innings in his start, allowing three and coming just shy of the nebulous “Quality Start”. He allowed six hits and walked two while striking out half a dozen. Two of his hits happened to be dingers; it’s an encouraging sign to me that he buckled down and churned rather than panicking and drowning in runners.

Kyle Dowdy also coughed up three in a relief appearance. That’s five runs allowed for Dowdy in September already. He allowed six total in August across 13 innings. Relievers have moments like this and I have a feeling he’ll bounce back. I have it on good authority* that Dowdy is made of rubber.

Akron RubberDucks 5, Richmond Flying Squirrels 15

Box Score · RubberDucks fall to 69-42

Vlad Țepeș, - hitting coach:

“I’m not sure what to say, I’ve never been more disappointed in a group of men. If it were up to me I would line them up and force them to perform a random decimation on themselves, then take the survivors and impale each and every one of them along Route 8 into Akron.

What am I supposed to do with my lineup when this is what the pitchers give me? I’ve seen men’s spleens get ripped from their body and eaten in front of them because I ate the spleens, and these kids can’t even keep it together long enough to get an out.

What? No, the spleen is chock full of nutrients. My point is —”

[interview abruptly ends]

Lake County Captains 1, Dayton Dragons 4

Box Score · Captains fall to 60-52

Lake County struggled to generate much offense last night. Micah Pries and Christian Cairo earned the only two hits for the Captains, while four walks were scattered throughout the lineup. It wouldn’t be enough despite a —

Vlad Țepeș, - hitting coach and fugitive: “You want to know what I think? These kids get scared. They see one man get hoisted on a spear off of his horse and his blood sucked dry and they quit. They don’t understand that —”

Right. Hunter Gaddis also finished just shy of a quality start, tossing five and two-thirds innings while striking out nine and allowing only a run. Motivational tactics notwithstanding, he needed help from the offense that never quite came.

Lynchburg Hillcats 11, Salem Red Sox 4

Box Score · Hillcats improve to 55-57

Collecting thirteen hits and ten walks is a surefire way to score some runs. It’s also impressive that all of these came after Lynchburg spotted the Sox four runs in the top of the first inning before taking a 6-4 lead in the third and never looking back.

It represents another difficult appearance for Lenny Torres, and concerns begin to mount on my end. While it is difficult to return from injury and a pandemic simultaneously (I may never understate something quite like that again), he is averaging nearly twenty pitches per inning this season, and only 60% of those are strikes.

In July, he gave us a bit of a glimpse of his talent — in five appearances he posted an ERA of 2.86. Every other month he’s had an ERA greater than 6.00.

It is far too early to declare him a bum, cut him, sacrifice him, etc. However, it is frustrating to see a talented arm struggle. I hope he finds some consistency in the coming weeks to build off of this offseason.

Catfish Biffs is the best campus pizza at Ohio State. Fight me.