Doug Nikhazy redefines effective wildness; George Valera, Johnathan Rodriguez go deep

Columbus Clippers 5, Louisville Bats 7

Box Score · Clippers fall to 76-55

Bo Naylor, David Fry, and Will Brennan all doubled. George Valera even homered. I’m not lying about this. I swear to you, there is video evidence and somebody even tweeted it out.

Sadly, the Clippers also grounded into two double plays and stranded six runners. Brennan and Valera paced the offense with three and two hits, respectively. Valera added a walk.

Tanner Tully allowed six runs in five innings. Despite a three-run rally in the top of the ninth, the Clippers could not close the gap. Recently-promoted Carlos Vargas tossed two innings and allowed a run.

Here’s kinda why baseball is way cooler than most other sports, though: All of his outs came by strikeout, and the only hit he allowed was a solo home run. It’s the eighth home run Vargas has allowed as a professional. Eight, in 141.1 IP total. Not too shabby.

In other words, sometimes you give up a home run in the middle of an otherwise dominant performance. George Carlin sneezed during a monologue once, you know?

Akron RubberDucks 5, Harrisburg Senators 0

Box Score · RubberDucks improve to 74-56

Doug Nikhazy woke up effectively wild yesterday.

In 4.2 IP, Nikhazy walked six batters and struck out nine. He allowed one hit.

It’s about the runs.

And so the RubberDucks moved their relievers — yes, their humble relievers — directly into the central cone. Shutout, fools.

They allowed a single hit in the process and managed to strand ten runners on base. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a box score quite like this.

RubberDucks batters knocked in seven hits. Daniel Schneemann did not get a hit but drew two walks, stole a base, and scored.

It’s. About. The. Runs.

There it is.

Lake County Captains 6, Fort Wayne TinCaps 5

Box Score · Captains improve to 75-53

Before we do anything else, why does this apple look like Kirk Douglas?

Now that we have that out of the way, we can jump right to the bottom of the ninth inning.

Alexfri Planez dug in with the Captains down two. He deposited a 1-2 pitch into the seats to cut the deficit in half. Petey Halpin and Connor Kokx both singled. Cesar Idrogo poked an infield single to score Halpin from third. Micael Ramirez lined out to the left fielder, but no fear — he was loosening the lid, that’s all. Yordys Valdez followed his lead, and this time the liner found grass. Connor Kokx touched home to complete a three-run bottom of the ninth with a glorious walk-off.

Stupid sexy (?!) apples.

Lynchburg Hillcats 3, Fayetteville Woodpeckers 4

Box Score · Hillcats fall to 63-67

Lynchburg eats a lot of baseballs. In last night’s contest they drew eight walks with five hits. Most of the scoring came early, and the two teams traveled to extras deadlocked at three. It all ended when Garret McGowan stroked a double (either ground-rule or automatic; you can never be sure from just a box score). As a result, Ryan Wrobleski scored.

One the mound, Juan Zapata worked six innings of three-run baseball, striking out five with no walks and seven hits. Neat. Tidy. Responsible. QUALITY.

Dayan Frias led the charge offensively with two walks and a hit, but Jake Fox wins on style points for drawing an RBI-walk.

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