The story tonight was the domination of the Tribe's lineup by the man formerly known as Fausto Carmona. You know, the former All-Star starter for the Cleveland Indians that was found guilty for age and identity fraud in January. Well, you can now refer to him simply as Roberto Hernandez; his REAL name. But what fun is that? "Now he's just somebody that we used to know!". This was his second start since returning back to professional baseball from the restricted list placement and three week suspension. He got the win tonight only allowed one earned run on four hits and one walk in seven innings. Those four hits were the only ones the beloved Tribe could scratch together tonight. Jose Tabata continued his torrid month of August by going 1-for-3 with a double. But Tabata along with Chase d'Arnaud and Yamaico Navarro all struck out two times each tonight. Tony Sanchez was had the lone RBI, which came via his eighth two-bagger of the season in the fifth.
The usually reliable Rich VandenHurk gave his team a chance against a strong Clippers lineup who lead the International League in home runs. The reigning International League Pitcher of the Week was touched up for three runs in 5.1 innings with the dagger being a two-run shot in the second. He was pegged for his fourth loss of the season and now sits at 11-4 on the year with a 3.43 ERA. After giving up three runs in his last relief appearance on Tuesday, Bryan Morris surrendered another two runs tonight in 1.1 innings.
AA Altoona | Altoona 6 Trenton 1
Pirates top prospect Gerrit Cole was dominant in his ninth overall start with the Curve, tossing a six inning shutout while issuing three hits, three walks, and striking out six. Cole was lightning up the radar guns tonight at Peoples Natural Gas Field as reported by Altoona Mirror sports writer Cory Giger on Twitter. Giger reported the big right-hander touched 99.45 and 99.2 miles per hour in a three-pitch sequence in the fifth and 99.82 miles per hour on back-to-back pitches later in the inning. But the coup de grâce was the 100 mile per hour gas in his final inning of the night. Kyle Kaminska came in and threw a flawless two and two-thirds in relief and Hunter Strickland allowed the only run in the ninth.
At the dish, the Curve kept their recent offense surge as they combined for 11 hits and pushed their winning streak to three. Their huge inning came in the fourth when Oscar Tejada and Jarek Cunningham both hit matching two-run taters; Tejada's eighth and Cunningham's sixth home runs of the season. Tejada finished his night en route to a nice 2-for-3 game with three RBI with Cunningham also going 2-for-3 with two RBI. Likewise, Quincy Latimore went 2-for-3 as he collected his 21st double of the season. Adalberto Santos continued to stay white hot going 2-for-3 tonight and is now hitting .324 in August after going .393 in July. Matt Curry, Stefan Welch, and Jeremy Farrell each had a base
A West Virginia | West Virginia 2 Lexington 4
Without the uber-talented Dominican duo of Alen Hanson and Gregory Polanco in the lineup, the Power showed how important their talents are to the club offensively. As reported by Tim Williams of Pirates Prospects, both are considered day-to-day as Hanson left yesterdays game with a hip flexor injury and Polanco an ankle injury. As for the Power themselves, Chris Lashmet and Willy Garcia were the stories offensively. Garcia belted his 14th home run of the season and added his 67th RBI while Lashmet went 2-for-3 with doubles number nine and ten on the season. Southpaw starter Porfirio Lopez struggled on the bump with control problems, walking five of the 15 hitters he faced in 2.2 innings. The walks figured to be the kiss of the death for Lopez since he gave up only two hits and four runs (two earned). Mike Jefferson and Zach Fuesser both threw two and a thirds and three innings, respectively, of shutout relief ball.
A Bradenton | Bradenton 4 Palm Beach 0
Like Gerrit Cole for the Curve, Marauders right hander Casey Sadler pitched a seven scoreless inning gem to stifle the Cardinals and notch his fourth win of the season. He only allowed three hits and walked one while striking out four. Sadler now owns a 4-5 record on the year with a 3.57 ERA. Josh Poytress pulled off the rarely seen two inning save to notch his first save of the season in his belt. Left fielder Andy Vasquez was the cog running the offensive machine for the Marauders going 3-3 with a double and an RBI. Mel Rojas went 1-for-3 with two RBI and Justin Howard went 2-for-3 with a walk. Alex Dickerson went 0-for-4 but is still hitting an incredible .364 (12-for-33) in August.
A State College | State College 4 Auburn 2
Even though the Spikes were facing off against a team named after the man that most credit for inventing baseball (Abner Doubleday), they irked out a win late despite little offense early. Pirates' 2012 fifth-round draft choice Adrian Sampson tossed three innings and allowed two runs (one earned) in his eighth start as a pro. In his three innings of work Sampson walked two batters, his most in a pro outing, and struck out six. He now owns a 32/9 strikeout to walk ratio. Kevin Kleis and Pat Ludwig, who earned the victory, combined to throw five innings of shutout ball for to bridge the gap so Kyle Haynes could notch his sixth save of the season. Even though the Spikes managed to somehow strike out for an unheard of 15 TIMES tonight, the top of the order of Tyler Gaffney, Walker Gourley, D.J. Crumlich, and Jacob Stallings combined to go 8-for-17 at the plate. The pivotal moment came in the bottom of the 7th when D.J. Crumlich and Jacob Stallings combined for back-to-back run scoring singles to tie the game 2-2. Then, Chris Diaz reached on an error that led to D.J. Crumlich scoring to go-ahead and eventual game-winning run.