Toledo Mud Hens 9, St. Paul Saints 8 (box)
Every time Toledo scored, St. Paul had an answer. The Mud Hens and Saints went back and forth on Tuesday night until the Detroit-affiliated Triple-A club finally claimed a series-opening video after 11 innings.
Hao-Yu Lee started off a night of scoring with a leadoff homer after getting his tower buzzed. After getting hit in the face two series ago he might have shied away, but instead he launched a shot to left center for a 1-0 lead. Edouard Julien responded with a two-run shot in the bottom half of the first to give the Saints the lead. Brew Hicklen and Akil Baddoo hit back-to-back doubles to tie things up, and Baddoo scampered home on a throwing error by the catcher.
Troy Melton’s day ended with two outs in the second. Back-to-back singles and a pair of walks brought in the tying run, and PJ Poulin took over. Poulin almost got through the third unscathed, but a two-out double from Yunior Severino kept things going.
Anthony Prato singled in Severino but was caught trying to stretch it to second. Fortunately, Toledo scored in the top of the inning off a Hicklen triple.
Neither team did much in the fourth — Dylan Smith pitched a 1-2-3 inning for Toledo and was sharp — but the scoring returned in the fifth. Hicklen singled for his third hit of the day and scored Justyn-Henry Malloy. Toledo’s lead extended to two on a throwing error later in the inning.
Unfortunately, St. Paul responded with two runs of their own. Mickey Gasper doubled, bringing in Drew Sommers for Smith. He walked Julien and gave up a two-run double to tie the game (again) at six apiece. A walk and a hit batter loaded the bases, but Sommers got the next two on strikes to escape any further damage.
There weren’t many threats on either side until Lee singled and stole second with one out in the eighth. Malloy walked to put two on, but Andy Ibanez and Jace Jung struck out consecutively to end the threat. On the mound, Beau Brieske gave up a hit and a walk but no runs in the seventh, and Ricky Valsco worked around a one-out walk in the eighth.
Toledo pulled ahead once again in the ninth on a Ryan Kreidler home run. Vanasco walked the bases loaded and blew the win on a sacrifice fly.
Both teams traded runs in the 10th. Lee hit a RBI triple for his third knock of the day, but Toledo was out of pitching. Infielder Riley Unroe took the mound and blew the save, but he ended up taking the win after Jace Jung hit a game-deciding RBI double in the 11th.
What an exhausting game…
Lee: 3-6, 3B (5), HR (5), R, 2 RBI
Jung: 1-4, 2B (7), 2 R, RBI, 2 BB, 2 K
Hicklen: 4-6, R, 2 RBI, K
Melton: 1.2 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K; 49 pitches (28 strikes)
Coming Up Next: Dietrich Enns is on the mound for Toledo Wednesday at 8:07 p.m. ET.
Erie SeaWolves 6, Chesapeake Baysox 1 (box)
Kenny Serwa is settling into the Double-A level. Erie’s resident knuckleballer threw five innings of one-hit ball in Tuesday’s 6-1 win over the Chesapeake Baysox.
Serwa struck out five while walking none, and Chesapeake hardly hit the ball off the ground against him. The Baysox had just two line drives, the first of which came back to Serwa for a nice stabbing catch on the mound. Serwa has improved with each of his three starts in Double-A, and he’s on the path to getting a taste of MLB action. There’s a chance Serwa gets the call-up late this season, but next year feels more likely if he continues to refine his game.
Trei Cruz jumpstarted the offense with a leadoff triple, and Max Anderson followed up with an RBI double to take an early 1-0 lead. But the big inning came in the third. The SeaWolves plated five, once again with Anderson and Cruz in the middle of the action.
Jim Jarvis opened up the inning with a walk, and Cruz drove him in with an RBI double. Thayron Liranzo scored Cruz with a single up the gut, and Max Anderson hit his second double of the day. Finally, Justice Bigbie hit a three-run homer to cap things off and the game was all but decided with Erie’s pitching staff cruising.
Tim Naughton took over for Serwa in the sixth. Enrique Bradfield Jr. (2023, Round 1) got to him for a two-out double and went 1-2-3 in the seventh. Ryan Boyer ran into a little trouble in the eighth. A leadoff triple ended up scoring on a sacrifice fly, but Erie still led comfortably by five.
Andrew Magno closed out the win. He gave up a one-out single but erased it with a game-ending double play.
Anderson: 3-4, 2 2B (19), 2 R, RBI, K
Bigbie: 1-4, HR (6), R, 3 RBI, K
Cruz: 2-4, 2B (19), 3B (2), 2 R, RBI, K
Liranzo: 1-4, R, RBI, 3 K
Serwa (W, 3-0): 5.0 IP, H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K; 62 pitches (42 strikes)
Coming Up Next: Chesapeake and Erie are back at it at 1:05 p.m. on Wednesday. The SeaWolves do not have a probable starter listed.
Wisconsin Timber Rattlers 10, West Michigan Whitecaps 2 (box)
West Michigan jumped out to an early lead Tuesday, scoring in each of the first two innings, but it was all Wisconsin after that. The Timber Rattlers scored multiple runs in four innings to humble the Whitecaps, 10-2.
Wisconsin allowed just five Lakeland batters to reach base. Kevin McGonigle doubled in the first, his 16th in fewer than 100 High-A at-bats this year. Josue Briceno singled him in before running into the third out of the first inning.
Alex Lange delivered a 1-2-3 first inning to open his rehab assignment in West Michigan, but he was the only Whitecaps pitcher to finish the game with a good line. Max Alba took over to throw starter innings with a lead, but he was greeted with a game-tying solo home run from Marco Dinges (2024, Round 4).
Austin Murr returned the favor off Jaron DeBerry (2024, 3rd Round) in the second, giving West Michigan its final lead of the game. Alba went 1-2-3 in the third, but the tap started flowing in the fourth. A Blake Burke single and an Eduardo Garcia triple made it 3-2, scoring Dinges again as well.
Alba got two quick outs in the fifth, but a walk set up a two-run homer from Jadher Areinamo. Haden Erbe took over in the sixth, looking to stop the bleeding. He had no such luck. Dinges led off with a ground-rule double, and Erbe walked Garcia. Yhoswar Garcia doubled in both for a third-straight two-run frame from Wisconsin.
Tyler Mattison interrupted the cycle of scoring in the seventh, albeit with two walks along the way. Meanwhile, West Michigan hadn’t recorded a hit since Murr’s homer in the second. John Peck finally broke through for a single in the seventh, but the game was already slipping way from the ‘Caps.
Now back to the misery on the mound. Freddy Pacheco couldn’t get through the eighth. Luiyin Alastre singled and Garcia doubled to put men on the corners. A walk loaded the bases, and Kevin McGonigle made the play to home for out No. 1. Pacheco walked in a run before allowing a two-run single from Areinamo.
Joe Adametz won a six-pitch battle with Burke for an inning-ending double play. He came back out for the ninth and walked one with no hits.
Clark: 0-4, K
McGonigle: 1-3, 2B (16), R, BB
Briceno: 1-2, RBI
Lange: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, K; 13 pitches (7 strikes)
Coming Up Next: West Michigan has a chance to even the series on Wednesday at 6:35 p.m. ET with left-hander Andrew Sears on the mound.
B3: Lakeland Flying Tigers 5, Fort Myers Mighty Mussels 1 (box)
Lakeland only made it to the third inning in Fort Myers before the rain suspended the game for the rest of the day. The teams will play the completion of this game on Wednesday, ahead of the regularly scheduled game.
The Flying Tigers will pick things up with a four-run lead after putting up a pair of crooked numbers. Franyerber Montilla doubled in Woody Hadeen (leadoff single) and Jackson Strong (walk) to open the game. He stole third and scored on a balk later in the first inning.
Montilla manufactured another run in the third, singling, stealing two more bases and scoring on a bad throw from the catcher. Ricardo Hurtado scored Cristian Santana (walk) later in the inning with a liner back up the middle.
Zack Lee had put together a couple of solid starts before this one, but he wasn’t too sharp through two-plus innings on Tuesday. Hurtado bailed him out in the first, gunning down the leadoff man attempting to take second. Lee gave up a single and walk immediately after that, so Hurtado likely saved a run.
No one could do anything about Daniel Pena’s home run in the second, though. Lee hung a slider middle-middle, and Pena took it to the berm in left. Byron Chourio and Yasser Mercedes put together back-to-back hits to open the bottom of the third, so the rain saved Lee in a way. He’s still responsible for those runners when the game resumes, though.
Coming Up Next: Today’s game will resume at 12:05 p.m. ET on Wednesday, with the start time of the second game yet to be determined. Lakeland does not have a probable starter listed for either game.