The Indians' offense exploded for 15 hits, led by Chase d'Arnaud and Brock Holt at the top of the order to blow past Columbus despite an average night on the mound. d'Arnaud and Holt combined for seven hits as d'Arnaud went 4-for-5 with his 24th double, three runs scored and two steals (33 on the season) while Holt went 3-for-5 with two RBIs. To say that d'Arnaud has had a good week would be putting it lightly, in the past week he's hitting .500 (in 30 at-bats) with three home runs, two doubles, three steals and 11 runs. His OPS for the season has finally crept up to .701 after an awful first two months. Holt's three-hit night upped his average to .397. Not to be outdone, Dallas McPherson homered and doubled and drove in three runs while walking twice. McPherson has mashed since he was picked up two weeks ago; he has five home runs in 52 Indianapolis at-bats and is OPSing over 1000 in that time. Tony Sanchez also went yard for his eighth AAA homer, and he walked as well. Alex Presley added two hits and a double and Matt Hague doubled. The Indians needed all that offense because Chris Leroux pitched a decent game but kept managing to give up runs. Despite working with a low pitch count for most of the night, Leroux let Columbus' offense nip away at him for 6.2 innings. Leroux gave up four runs on six hits and two walks. Leroux did strike out seven and earned the victory to raise his record to 4-0 in Indianapolis. Leroux is likely to get called up to the Pirates (he's not currently on the 40-man roster) in September and he has been impressive in the Indians' rotation. Daniel McCutchen pitched the final 2.1 innings and gave up a sole run on three hits without walking a batter and striking out one. McCutchen was credited with the McSave, his third of the year.
AA Altoona | Game 1: Altoona 1 Akron 4 | Game 2: Altoona 7 Akron 1
Game 1: The Curve and Zips had themselves a great 1-1 duel going into the seventh, but the wheels came off for the Zips as they plated three unanswered unearned runs. With a rather lackluster defense behind him coupled with control issues, top prospect Gerrit Cole mucked it out through six and third innings en route to his sixth loss with the Curve. All four of the Zips' runs were unearned as the Curve made three errors on the night, two of them coming in the three run seventh inning. Cole came out in the seventh after allowing only one unearned run, but gave up back-to-back singles and then walked the next batter to load the bases up. With Head Coach P.J. Forbes seeing enough of Cole after issuing his sixth walk of the game, he summoned Jeff Inman to keep the game at 1-1. Inman did his job and was able to get the big time ground ball, but an error by the big Aussie Stefan Welch allowed two runs to score. Jarek Cunningham, Oscar Tejada, Andrew Lambo, and Quincy Latimore collected the only hits for the Curve with Latimore's plating the only run; his 86 RBI of the season. Adalberto Santos, the man who dominated the Eastern League in July, continues to be cold at the plate as of late. In the past six games, Santos is 3-for-19 (.158) after hitting a torrid .393 in the month of July.
Game 2: Although Gerrit Cole couldn't match Jameson Taillon's Sunday outing in Game 1, the offense made up for its lack of run support for Cole in Game 2 by wiping out Akron early. The Curve scored all seven of their runs in the first three innings. The dagger was a grand slam by Andrew Lambo in the second, his third home run for Altoona. Although Lambo's blast off of lefty starter Mike Rayl was the Curve's only extra-base knock of the game, the offense made the most of their other seven singles and Akron's three errors. Adalberto Santos singled, walked and stole his 15th base, Drew Maggi slapped two singles out of the leadoff spot, and Oscar Tejada, Matt Curry, Kelson Brown and Quincy Latimore all added hits. Meanwhile, Altoona's pitching succeeded where Akron's failed in getting out of jams. Spot starter Mike Colla got into trouble in the second and third innings but escaped with only allowing one run. Colla gave up three hits and two walks while striking out one in his three innings. Newly recalled Jason Townsend pitched his second lengthy relief outing as a member of the Curve, grabbing the victory by hurling four shutout innings. Townsend gave up four hits and walked three but didn't strike anyone out, but averted damage. Townsend now has an ERA of 1.99 combined between Bradenton and Altoona on the year, although he has a substandard 44 strikeouts in 77 innings overall. A West Virginia
The 57-76 Power had a much needed off-day as they ended their 14 game stretch and finished with a 7-7 record. They will send southpaw Zach Fuesser to the hill against the Charleston RiverDawgs for a three-game series in Charleston. Fuesser has a 3-6 record on the season and a 4.15 ERA. As mentioned yesterday, uber talented star outfielder Gregory Polanco was activated from the disabled list and started in the cleanup spot as the designated hitter. But in other news, today Marauders first baseman Alex Dickerson was named the Florida State League Player of the Year.
A Bradenton | Bradenton vs. Fort Myers (PPD due to rain)
The Minor League teams down South have been trying to do the rain dance and avoid Hurricane Issac from dropping a big one on their fields. But Hurricane Issac does continue to rip through the Gulf Coast and cause extreme weather conditions. That in turn has led the Marauders to have their second straight game cancelled due to rain. Bradenton will still call on the big righty Casey Sadler to the hill for Game 1 of the doubleheader against Fort Myers starting at 5 P.M. Sadler brings his 4-5 record and 3.62 ERA to the mound as the Marauders sit within 2.5 games of first place in the Florida State League South Division standings.
A State College | State College 1 Auburn 12
To put it lightly, it was a bad day all around for the Spikes tonight. The Spikes and Doubledays did the rain dance also and played through some light showers, but the was not enough to stop Auburn from ripping Spikes starter Jason Creasy to shreads. They came at him early and often, plating five runs on two hits and two free passes as Creasy was only able to record two outs in the first. Reliever Clario Perez came in help soften the blow, but had very little success himself stopping the Auburn dominance. At the end of probably the worst inning of the season for State College, the Doubledays plated seven runs on six hits and two walks as 12 Auburn hitters stepped into the box in the first inning. Offensively, D.J. Crumlich, Jesus Vazquez, and Yhonathan Barrios had the only hits as Vazquez's fifth inning ground-rule double plated the only Spikes run.