Another night, another dominating performance by Indianapolis' pitching and offense combined. Today, it was Phil Irwin and Brock Holt (again) leading the charge. Irwin pitched six shutout innings and gave up three hits, walked two and struck out seven. Irwin lowered his ERA to 1.69 with his third high-quality Triple-A start. Duke Welker, Jo-Jo Reyes and Doug Slaten each pitched an inning of scoreless relief. Holt meanwhile continued his otherworldly prowess at the plate. Holt went 3-for-4 with his sixth double for the Indians. Holt is now hitting .415. Alex Presley went 3-for-5, Matt Hague was 2-for-5 and Anderson Hernandez finished 2-for-4. Indianapolis finished with 14 hits.
AA Altoona | Akron 3 Altoona 1
Despite a solid effort from starter Tyler Waldron, the Curve offense mustered only three hits and didn't score until down 3-0 in the ninth. Waldron hurled seven innings and gave up just one run on six hits, three walks and two strikeouts. Nathan Baker couldn't keep the deficit at one run however and gave up two runs in 1.1 innings. Victor Black came in and gave up a hit but struck out the other two batters he faced as part of his regular routine. Ramon Cabrera doubled and walked for Altoona, the double was his 22nd of the season. Oscar Tejeda and Andrew Lambo recorded the only other Curve hits, both singles.
A West Virginia | West Virginia did not play
West Virginia's game was postponed due to weather.
A Bradenton | Bradenton 11 Fort Myers 10 (Game 1) Fort Myers 4 Bradenton 2 (Game 2)
The offense showed up for both teams in Game 1 of this doubleheader after Hurricane Isaac caused the last two games to be postpones. Justin Howard went 2-for-3 and his his second home run of the season on his 25th birthday. Dan Grovatt slammed his ninth homer of the year and finished 2-for-2 with his 23rd double as well and a sacrifice fly. Carlos Paulino went 3-for-4, Andy Vasquez went 2-for-3 with a double, a triple and four RBIs and Gift Ngoepe doubled for his only hit. Casey Sadler struggled on the mound and may be running out of steam in his first season as a starter. He lasted only 3.2 innings and allowed four runs on three hits but with five walks. Sadler fanned two. Zach Foster gave up five runs, four earned in the top of the seventh inning to make it an 11-10 game but Doug Salinas cleaned up the mess for his 11th save. The Marauders lost Game 2 despite out-hitting Fort Myers 9-6 but the Bradenton pitchers walked six. Kyle Kaminska couldn't maintain his recent success and suffered the loss by giving up two runs on four hits and a walk in three innings. Matt Benedict was hit with the loss by allowing a run in 2.1 relief innings and Josh Poytress allowed a run as well. Howard kept his birthday a happy day with another 2-for-3 game, this time with a triple to move him up to a 4-for-6 day. Vasquez connected for two more hits in this one, and Kirk Singer also singled twice in three at-bats. Ngoepe hit his second double of the day and 11th on the year in the nightcap.
A State College | Auburn 16 State College 4
State College's late-season free-fall continued as it was blown out in all aspects by Auburn. Joely Rodriguez had his worst outing of the year in giving up six runs, four earned, on seven hits in just 2.2 innings. Rodriguez walked one and struck out three. The bullpen didn't keep the Spikes close in any respect, giving up 10 runs, seven of them earned in the final 6.1 innings. Ryan Hafner was the main culprit, as his atrocious season between West Virginia and State College only got worse with five runs allowed in one inning tonight. 2012 draftee and shortstop Jimmy Rider actually pitched the ninth inning and didn't allow a run on just one hit. Rider had one hit offensively also, and so did eight of his teammates. Not one Spike had more than one hit as the team collected nine in the losing effort. Samuel Gonzalez and Jesus Vasquez doubled, while Jacob Stallings singled and walked twice.