Cleveland short season kicks off with a pair of blowout victories

ACL Guardians 10, ACL Cub 3

Box Score · Guardians improve to 1-0

Since Cleveland pretty much drafted college pitchers with 19 of its 21 picks last year, most of the players in the Arizona Complex League are going to be unfamiliar to fans unless they’re rehabbing an injury.

That’s where I come in.

The ACL Guardians used their bats and their patience in Monday’s season debut, racking up 10 hits and seven walks.

Juan Benjamin went 2-4 with a home run, a walk and a stolen base; 17-year-old catcher Manuel Mejias went 1-3 with a homer and two walks; top shortstop prospect Angel Genao went 2-4 with a triple and a walk; and Maick Collado went 3-5 with a double.

Starting pitcher Ryan Webb made his pro debut after recovering from Tommy John surgery. It didn’t go great, as he allowed two runs on four hits with a pair of walks and a strikeout in just one inning.

The bullpen was tremendous the rest of the way, however, with Daniel FIgueroa, Alonzo Richardson and Steven Perez combining to allow just one run over the next 8.0 innings.

DSL CLE Blue 18, DSL Royals 0

Box Score · DSL Blue improves to 1-0

This was a straight up ass-kicking.

The DSL Cleveland Blue squad outhit the DSL Royals 18-2 while also walking 10 times. Yikes!

Moises Molero reached base safely five times, going 3-4 with two walks. Samuel Parra wasn’t far behind, going 3-5 with a double and a walk. Alberto Mendez went 2-3 with two walks, a hit by pitch and a stolen base. Oscar Cedeno was perfect at the plate, going 2-2 with a double and a walk and a hit by pitch before leaving the game early. Jose Gomez went 3-5 with a pair of doubles.

As good as the hitting was, the pitching might have been even better for the DSL Cleveland Blue.

Starting pitcher Austin Aldeano was almost perfect, striking out five and walking zero in 4.0 scoreless innings with one hit. The bullpen allowed just one more hit the rest of the way, preserving the shutout.

DSL CLE Red 5, DSL BOS Red 7

Box Score · DSL Blue falls to 0-1

Of course the DSL Cleveland Red squad had to go and ruin the day of blowouts by losing to the DSL Boston Red.

The Cleveland Red squad was paced by Victor Izturis, who went 2-4 with a double. Yetri Rivera also went 2-4 with a double and Miguel Lopez went 1-2 with a triple, a pair of walks and a stolen base.

On the pitching side of the equation, Jose Contreras allowed three runs in 3.2 innings on five hits while striking out five and walking two. The bullpen was great, holding Boston scoreless until the eighth inning, when Robert Cruz was tagged for three runs on three hits to take the loss.

All other teams had scheduled days off.