Bryce Rainer homers again, but Tigers minor league affiliates go winless on Saturday

St. Paul Saints 6, Toledo Mud Hens 1 (box)

Toledo outhit St. Paul on Saturday, but the Mud Hens still fell to the Saints 6-1 thanks to nine walks.

All six runs for St. Paul came with Carl Edwards Jr. on the mound for Toledo. Edwards had five of the nine walks and gave up a three-run homer to ruin what was otherwise a solid bullpen day.

Konnor Pilkington got the start, striking out four over two innings. Jack Little and Tanner Rainey each gave two innings of no-hit ball, with the latter allowing just one walk. Woo-Suk Go worked around a base hit in the eighth, and Tyler Gentry worked around a walk in the ninth.

Max Clark drove in the only Mud Hens run of the game, singling Cal Stevenson home in the third. Besides that little rally, Toledo stayed fairly quiet until the sixth, when Gage Workman led off with a double. The big hit never came, though, and Toledo suffered an unfortunate loss.

Clark: 1-4, RBI

Anderson: 0-4, K

Workman: 1-4, 2B (20), 3 K

Edwards Jr. (L, 2-5): 1.0 IP, 6 R, 5 ER, 3 H, 5 BB, K, HR

Coming Up Next: The Mud Hens look to break a four-game losing streak on Sunday at 4:05 p.m. ET.

Akron RubberDucks 5, Erie SeaWolves 4 (box)

Some late bullpen struggles ruined a great start from Max Alba and cost the Erie SeaWolves a sixth straight win on Saturday, as the Akron RubberDucks mounted a comeback and finished off a 5- 4 win.

Alaba was efficient, getting through five scoreless frames while allowing just two hits and a walk. He struck out four along the way before turning things over to Wandisson Charles in the sixth. Alba’s 14 whiffs induced were the fourth most across Double-A today.

Charles got into trouble right away, giving up a one-out double and walking the bases loaded. He’s lucky that Akron only managed one run off him. Justice Bigbie threw a runner out at home for the second out, and Charles got out of the jam with a strikeout, preserving a 2-1 lead.

Chris Meyers gave Erie an early lead, blasting a solo homer in the second. An error put Peyton Graham with two outs in the fifth. He stole second — his 30th of the year — and Brett Callahan drove him in.

Bigbie followed up his fielding heroics with a leadoff home run in the sixth to put the SeaWolves back up by two, and Meyers took a bases-loaded walk in the seventh to make it 4-1.

Charles went 1-2-3 in the seventh, but Dariel Fregio had a complete meltdown with two outs in the eighth. The sequences went: single, two-run homer, double, double to tie the game. Erie couldn’t capitalize on a one-out triple from Aaron Antonini in the bottom half, and Tyler Owens gave up the lead in the ninth.

The SeaWolves loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth, but E.J. Exposito flied out to center to end the game.

Meyers: 1-4, HR (2), R, 2 RBI, BB, K

Bigbie: 1-3, HR (3), R, RBI, 2 BB

Pacheco: 2-4, 2B (9), BB, K

Liranzo: 1-3, 2 BB, K

Coming Up Next: The SeaWolves can get back in the win column on Sunday at 1:35 p.m. ET.

Lake County Captains 9, West Michigan Whitecaps 8 (box)

A five-run eighth nearly led to a West Michigan win on Saturday, but Lake County walked it off, 9-8, with a two-run ninth.

The ball was flying early for both teams. Garrett Pennington hit a two-run homer in the top of the first, and Dean Curley answered with a solo shot for Lake County in the bottom half of the inning. Caleb Shpur brought in
Andrew Sojka in the second to give the Whitecaps a 3-1 lead, but a four-spot for the Captains in the fourth swung momentum the other way.

Once again, the big inning caught up to Rayner Castillo. Three straight hits, including back-to-back doubles, put Lake County in front, and the bullpen came in to relieve Castillo in the fifth. Juanmi Vasquez struck out four over 1.2 innings, but he gave up a pair of singles and a run in the sixth.

Duque Hebbert went 1-2-3 in the seventh, but he couldn’t replicate that after a long top of the eighth for West Michigan. Bryce Rainer sparked the rally with a solo home run.

After that shot from the Whitecaps’ shortstop, Lake County walked the bases loaded. Woody Hadeen evened the score at six runs apiece with a two-run single, and Jackson Strong tripled home two, making it an 8-6 game.

Hebbert immediately gave a run back in the bottom of the eighth, allowing a leadoff home run. Jalen Evans took over for him with two outs. Evans struck out the first batter he faced, but everything fell apart in the ninth. He hit Jace LaViolette to open the frame, threw a wild pitch, gave up a single, walked the bases loaded and gave up the tying run on a groundout to short.

A wild pitch sealed it for Lake County. What a way to lose…

Rainer: 2-5, HR (5), R, RBI, 3 K

Pennington: 2-4, HR (11), R, 2 RBI, 2 K

Strong: 3-4, 2B (6), 3B (2), R, 3 H, 2 RBI, BB

Coming Up Next: West Michigan can still tie the series on Sunday at 4 p.m. ET.

Clearwater Threshers 2, Lakeland Flying Tigers 1 (box)

Caleb Leys only gave up one run over five innings, but the Lakeland Flying Tigers’ offense didn’t provide any run support until the eighth. The Clearwater Threshers took control of the series 3-2, with a 2-1 win on Saturday.

Leys was solid, generating a 32% CSW on his changeup. The southpaw only struck out three, but he also only walked one in his first time working through the fifth inning. It was in that fifth frame that Leys gave up the first run of the ball game.

Jose Guzman walked in the second run, which ended up deciding the game; otherwise, he worked around four hits and two walks over two innings. No strikeouts, though. Eliseo Mota went 1-2-3 in the eighth with a pair of strikeouts.

Lakeland had base hits in each of the first three innings but couldn’t score. The best opportunity came in the second after back-to-back two-out singles from Carson Rucker and Hunter Dobbins, but Newremberg Rondon couldn’t get it done.

Jordan Yost led off the fifth with a single, but Jude Warwick erased it with a double play right after. Lakeland finally got on the board in the eighth, thanks to a leadoff triple from Warwick and a sacrifice fly from Edian Espinal.

Yost: 1-4

Warwickr: 2-4, 3B (3), R

Leys (L, 0-4): 5.0 IP, R, ER, 3 H, BB, 3 K

Coming Up Next: Lakeland is looking to tie things back up in the series finale Sunday at noon ET.

FCL Yankees 9, FCL Tigers 7 (box)

Owen Hall (2024, Round 2) got hammered over 3.1 innings, giving up a home run in each of the first two frames and six earned runs overall. Both balls were center-cut and dispatched appropriately. Still, he managed four strikeouts before turning things over to the bullpen with a 6-3 lead and two men in scoring position.

Leonardo Rossell took the loss, allowing both runners to score and two more under his own ledger. Bryce Alewine (2024, Round 18) gave up one more run in the sixth.

Patrick Lee had two of the club’s six hits, including a three-run homer in the second. Lee’s OPS is above 1.500 through four games of his rehab assignment, so it’s only a matter of time until he’s back with the Whitecaps. Stephen Hrustich doubled in a run, and Steven Madero homered, too.

Lee: 2-3, HR (1), 2 R, 3 RBI, BB, K

Hrustich: 1-4, 2B (2), RBI, 2 K

Hall: 3.1 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 6 ER, BB, 4 K, 2 HR

Gm 1: DSL Tigers (1) 8, DSL Twins 6 (box)

This one was picked up in progress from Friday. The Tigers plated six runs in the bottom of the third, which is when lightning delayed the game. Most of the runs came on singles, and the Tigers didn’t score again after the third. A four-run seventh for the Twins gave them a scare, but the rally came up short.

Padilla: 3.0 IP, H, R, ER, 3 BB, 3 K

Moya: 2-4, 2 R, RBI

Rodriguez: 1-2, 2B (1), R, BB, K

Benavides: 1-3, 2B (2), R, BB

Gm 2: DSL Twins 11, DSL Tigers (1) 5 (box)

The game stayed close until the fifth, when the Twins scored seven runs to run away with it. The Tigers still had a couple of runs left in them, but nowhere near the dozen needed to make a comeback. Enny Rodriguez homered in the sixth, and Randy Santana did the same in the seventh.

Reyes (L, 0-1): 1.2 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, K

Santana: 1-2, HR (1), 2 R, RBI, 2 BB, K

Rodríguez: 1-3, HR (2), 2 R, RBI, BB, K

DSL Tigers (2) 3, DSL Giants Orange 2 (box)

A three-spot in the fifth was enough for the Tigers to take this one. Alexander Bertiz went four innings and gave up just one run. Jesus Miranda got the win in relief of Bertiz, with three strikeouts over 1.2 hitless innings. Dariel Morillo logged his second save of the summer.

The nine-hole hitter, Diego Orro, tripled in two of the three runs and scored himself on an RBI single from Sterling Bazil.

Bertiz: 4. IP, 4 H, R, ER, 2 BB, K, HR

Orro: 1-3, 3B (1), R, 2 RBI, K

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