The Indians took the rubber match of the three game series against the Clippers on the shoulders of a crooked four runs early. In the fourth, Yamaico Navarro got the party started by clubbing his eighth dinger of the season. Immediately following Navarro's blast, Tony Sanchez drew his first of two walks of the game as Brandon Boggs, Alex Presley, Jose Tabata, and Brock Holt followed suit with consecutive base hits. Nine batters came to the plate for the Tribe in their big four-run fourth inning. The recently promoted Holt finished his night 3-for-5 at the dish and is now hitting .304 (7-for-23) since making his Triple-A debut on August 7th. Like Holt, Jose Tabata continued his hot month of August (.370) with three hits of his own. Starter Daniel Cabrera was able to keep the International League-leading Clippers offense in check by striking out seven and only allowing three runs on four hits in six innings. Doug Slaten, who could be in line for a call-up soon due to the Pirates bullpen struggling as of late, came in for a pivotal moment in the 7th to stop the bleeding of the Clippers comeback. Indians closer Tim Wood slammed the door shut with a great two-inning save; his 17th of the season
AA Altoona | Altoona 8 Trenton 3
Altoona scored three runs in the first two innings and then blew the game wide open with a five-run fifth to push past Trenton. Adalberto Santos kept up his season-long hot streak by going 3-for-4 with a double to bump his average to .385, and Jarek Cunningham also connected for three hits, including his second triple of the season. Cunningham's OPS in his last 10 games is .973. It would be nice to see Cunningham end the year on a good note, his OPS for the whole season is only .667 in his disappointing first year in Double-A. Oscar Tejeda doubled twice (he has 24 on the season), and Matt Curry hit two singles to creep back closer to .300, he's at .297 now. Altoona banged out 12 hits despite the top two men in the order going 0-for-7 with two walks. Brandon Cumpton earned his 11th win of 2012 by pitching 5.2 innings and giving up three runs on eight hits. Cumpton didn't walk a batter and struck out five. He was progressing smoothly until not being able to make it through the sixth, including allowing a two-run home run in the inning for Trenton's final runs. Kris Harvey and Jeff Inman pitched the final 3.1 frames without giving up another run. Inman struck out two in his only inning of work.
A West Virginia
The 59-60 Power had an off day today and will take to the road for a three game set against Greensboro starting tomorrow at 7:05. They will send the 3-5 Zack Von Rosenberg to the bump with a 4.94 ERA. Von Rosenberg is coming off a rough August 8th start against Lexington where he allowed six earned runs in five innings of work. With 21 games left in the 2012 season, seven will be in the comfort of Appalachian Power Park while 14 will be on the road. Second baseman Dan Gamache is hitting an astonishing .436 (17-for-39) with a .476 on-base percentage in the month of August.
A Bradenton | Game 1: Bradenton 3 Palm Beach 0, Game 2: Bradenton 2 Palm Beach 3
The Marauders split a double-header against Palm Beach thanks to two strong pitching performances. Eliecer Navarro hurled a seven-inning shutout by allowing just three hits and one walk in the first game. Navarro struck out four in his best outing of the season. Jhonathan Ramos made a a spot start and was passable with four innings, two runs, three hits, a walk and three strikeouts. Matt Benedict was saddled with the loss however, as his transition to the bullpen after getting blistered following his promotion from West Virginia hasn't improved his fortune. Benedict fell to 0-7 as a Marauder, even though the only run he gave up today was unearned. His ERA in 36 Bradenton innings is 10.00. Alex Dickerson went 3-for-4 with his 28th double in the first game, and Dan Grovatt had two hits and his 21st game in the same contest. Gift Ngoepe and Benji Gonzalez had the only other Bradenton hits in Game 1. The Marauders outhit Palm Beach 8-5 in the second affair but couldn't pull ahead first after Palm Beach tied the game in the bottom of the second and after they fell behind in the bottom of the sixth. Dickerson added another double in the second game, and Justin Howard finished 3-for-3 with his 12th double on the year. Gonzalez slapped two hits from the leadoff spot, giving him three hits on the day and a .257 average and .654 OPS for the year in his repeat season for Bradenton. In 2011, Gonzalez hit just .222 with a .577 OPS.
A State College | State College 1 Jamestown 6
This seasons eye opening pitching prospect in the Pirates system, cyborg Clay Holmes, actually showed signs of being human in his outing tonight. In mid to late July, Holmes threw 25 straight innings of shutout ball over four starts and only allowed SIX total hits. But tonight, the big righty was not able to get through the 2nd inning as he showed signs of bad control with five walks on the night. He was only able to get one out in the second and added three earned runs to what has been a squeaky clean professional resume. Lance Breedlove, Josh Smith, and Jo-Jo Reyes all made relief appearances and each gave up a run apiece. In what was a bleak night for the offense, the biggest hit for the Spikes was an RBI double in the 5th off the bat of Jesus Vazquez. Chris Diaz collected his first "trip, trip, triple" of the season while recently announced New York-Penn League All-Star Tyler Gaffney and Samuel Gonzalez had hits. Gaffney will join teammates D.J. Crumlich and Jacob Stallings in the New York-Penn League All-Star Game on August 21st in Niles, Ohio.