Guardians Farm Report: Valera Collects Three Hits And Drives In Two For Columbus In Extra Inning Win

Here is a recap of what happened with the Guardians minor league teams last night

Author:
Todd Paquette
Aug 15, 2022 3:07 PM EDT

In this story:

Cleveland Guardians

All four of the Cleveland Guardians full season minor league affiliates were in action Sunday while the three rookie league clubs had the day off.

Triple-A Columbus Clippers

Columbus 5 St. Paul 3 (10 Innings)

Columbus and St. Paul were tied at 3-to-3 at the end of nine innings had to go to extra innings to decide the series finale.

Bo Naylor was placed on second to start the top of the 10th Clippers Gabriel Arias would single to start the inning placing runners now on first and third with nobody out. Next man up Richie Palacios would ground out to third scoring Naylor to give Columbus a 4-to-3 lead.

After a Will Brennan flyout Columbus right fielder George Valera would step up and drive in a big insurance run to make it a 5-to-3 game on his third hit and second RBI of the game.

Valera through his first five games at Triple-A is hitting .235 with a double and two RBI's but has five walks and an impressive .435 OBP early on for the Clippers.

Columbus reliever Justin Garza who entered the game with one out in the eighth inning would close out the game retiring the side in order in the bottom of the 10th inning to earn the win.

Clippers starter Cody Morris started the game and was scheduled to go four innings or 50 pitches still making his way back from a "lat" injury in spring training. Morris looked sharp again in this his third outing at Triple-A striking out five over three and a third innings allowing just one hit on a solo home run in the fourth inning.

Ernie Clement earlier in the game hit his first home run with the Clippers a two-run shot to left field in the seventh inning.

The extra inning win moves Columbus to 20 games above .500 at 65-45 on the season.

Top Performers:

George Valera 3-5 R 2B 2RBI
Ernie Clement 1-3 R HR 2RBI BB
Gabriel Arias 2-5 R
Mitch Tolman 2-4
Cody Morris 3.1(IP) 1H 1R 1ER 2BB 5SO
Jake Jewell 1.1(IP) 1H 0R 0ER 0BB 2SO

Double-A Akron RubberDucks

Akron 7 Bowie 6

Akron trailed 6-to-5 in the bottom of the eighth inning on Sunday with a runner on first and one out Jose Tena would come through with his 21st double on the season to tie up the game at 6-to-6 against Bowie. Tena would reach third on the play on an error by the Baysox catcher.

The error would loom large for Bowie as the Ducks very next batter Brayan Rocchio would lift a fly ball to left field scoring Tena from third on a sacrifice fly to give Akron a 7-to-6 lead.

RubberDucks closer Cade Smith would come on to get the final three outs in the top of the ninth to earn his third Double-A save and give Akron the series win.

Akron improves to 60-47 on the season with the comeback win.

Top Performers:

Jose Tena 2-5 2R 2B RBI
Micah Pries 3-4 R RBI
Angel Lopez 2-4 2B 2RBI
Quentin Holmes 1-3 R 3B BB
Bryan Lavastida 1-3 R 2BB
Kyle Marman 2.0(IP) 0H 0R 0ER 1BB 2SO (W)
Cade Smith 1.0(IP) 1H 0R 0ER 1BB 1SO (SV)

High-A Lake County Captains

Lake County 13 Fort Wayne 7

Lake County and Fort Wayne combined for 20 runs on 28 hits and nine home runs in Sunday's series final with the Captains coming out on top in the slugfest winning their ninth straight game.

Captains center fielder Petey Halpin collected a career high four hits in the game including his fifth home run of the season. Halpin not known for his power has now homered in back-to-back games against the TinCaps.

Lake County left fielder Johnathan Rodriguez homered for the third straight game hitting his 21st long ball of the season. Rodriguez has just been on an incredible hot streak over his last 40 games hitting .356 with 19 home runs and 45 runs batted.

After the game Rodriguez found out he was being promoted to Double-A Akron joining the team Tuesday for the start of their next series.

Guardians 20-year-old shortstop prospect Angel Martinez hit his 10th home run in the game extending his on-base streak to 24 straight games. Martinez lost sometimes with the other big name shortstop prospects in the system now has an impressive .881 OPS to go along with his .292 average in the Midwest League this season.

Captains Aaron Bracho hit his seventh home run of the season a three-run shot to left field in the seventh inning. For Bracho it's been another disappointing season to this point as he and the organization had much higher expectations. He has had some positive signs in a couple hot streaks but hasn't been able to maintain any consistency at the plate.

Left fielder Korey Holland also homered in the game hitting his eighth of the season. For Holland the average hasn't been good this season, but the power has. Coming into 2022 the 22-year-old outfielder had only hit seven home runs over 147 career games.

The ninth straight win for Lake County puts them at 61-45 on the year.

Top Performers:

Petey Halpin 4-5 3R 2B HR 3RBI
Angel Martinez 3-6 2R HR RBI 2SB
Johnathan Rodriguez 1-3 2R HR 2RBI 2BB
Korey Holland 2-5 2R HR RBI
Aaron Bracho 1-5 R HR 3RBI
Gabriel Rodriguez 3-4 RBI BB
Davis Sharpe 2.0(IP) 0H 0ER 0BB 0SO

Low-A Lynchburg Hillcats

Charleston 10 Lynchburg 0

The Hillcats suffered an ugly defeat to Charleston on Sunday in a shutout loss dropping their record to 53-55 on the year.

Lynchburg starting pitcher 19-year-old Alonzo Richardson making just his third start since being promoted from the Arizona Complex League showed some of his youth allowing four home runs and nine runs over just three and a third innings in the game.

Richardson who led the ACL in ERA before his promotion had pitched very well in his first two starts with the Hillcats before Sunday. Hopefully he can get back on track in his next start.

Lynchburg right fielder Cesar Idrogo picked up two of the teams five hits on the day extending his on-base streak to 16 straight games. During that span Idrogo is hitting .333 with an impressive .455 OBP.