Lakeland drops first game, Toledo has nice bullpen day

Cruz led off the deciding fifth inning with a line drive to right-center. It was the third time in five frames that Toledo got the leadoff man on, but this time the Mud Hens strung something together to actually score. Stevenson and Burt made it three singles in a row and brought in the first run of the game. The former grounded it through the right side, but Burt’s ball should have been caught. It was a standard pop-up to shallow right, and no one got there for St. Paul.

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Max Clark grounded into what should have been an inning-ending double play. His speed forced a bad throw to first, and Stevenson scored on the error. Clark moved up to second on the throw and went to third on a wild pitch. Workman’s second single of the day brought Clark across. Even on a 0-4 day, Clark managed to do something productive.

Toledo didn’t record a hit for the rest of the day and struck out 12 times overall. That’s not the kind of offensive performance that usually wins ball games, but the pitching staff kept St. Cloud off the bases for most of the evening.

It was a bullpen day for the Mud Hens, which makes the performance all the more impressive. Sean Guenther got the start, and Brenan Hanifee relieved him after two innings. Hanifee threw two frames of his own before turning things over to Matt Seelinger, who got the win. Burch Smith was the only arm to throw a single inning, and Ricky Vanasco got the six-out save.

Vanasco had a team-high four strikeouts, without drawing a single whiff. He landed 10 called strikes, spread relatively evenly across his pitch mix. Vanasco is now up to 8 2/3 innings of scoreless ball. He’s struck out 18 batters and walked just three this season. He’s just painting corners and confusing hitters with good sequencing.

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Hanifee had three strikeouts and was missing barrels all day. He drew six whiffs on 13 swings and had five first-pitch strikes. Guenther also landed a good amount of first-pitch strikes — doing so on five of the six batters he faced. His velocity was up from its season, around two miles per hour all-around.

Malgeri: 2-3, 3B, BB, K

Clark: 0-4, R, K

Workman: 2-4, RBI, 2 K

Vanasco (S, 2): 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K

Coming Up Next: It’s a 2:05 p.m. ET start on Sunday with the Mud Hens leading the series 3-2.

Chesapeake Baysox 4, Erie SeaWolves 1 (box)

Erie struggled to get on base consistently, and Chesapeake did not, leading to a 4-1 loss for the SeaWolves.

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The BaySox reached base in every inning but the sixth by way of 10 hits, two walks and a hit batter. Six of those hits came off Erie’s starter, Carlos Pena, who wasn’t bad overall. He struck out six and allowed just one run, but he still took the loss. Walks and leadoff base hits put Pena under stress for most of his 4 1/3 innings. He gave up leadoff singles in three of the five innings he started, but only Frederick Bencosme scored in the fifth.

Sean Hunley relieved Pena and immediately started giving up extra-base hits. A double from Aron Estrada and a three-run home run from Ethan Anderson decided this game. It would’ve been nice to see Pena try to work out of the fifth. He was only at 77 pitches, and Hunley wasn’t too sharp out of the bullpen. He settled down after that, but the damage was already done.

Yosber Sanchez pitched the final two frames for Erie. He gave up a solo home run to Bencosme on his second pitch of the night, but the rest was fine. He hit a batter and gave up a single with two outs in the eighth before retiring the side.

The SeaWolves’ lone run came in the top of the seventh. Joe Campagna reached on catcher interference and moved around the bags on a Bennett Lee walk and Brett Callahan single. John Peck also singled, but Lee was thrown out at the plate to end the inning. Tough break there.