Guardians Farm Report: Curry Strikes Out A Season High 10 In RubberDucks Win

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

Author:
Todd Paquette
May 18, 2022 10:23 AM EDT

In this story:

Cleveland Guardians

A new week a new series started for all four Cleveland Guardians minor league affiliates on Tuesday.

Triple-A Columbus Clippers

Columbus 9 Iowa 3

Scoreless through the first three innings the Clippers would strike first blood in the fourth inning putting up two runs on a solo home run by Bryan Lavastida and an RBI double by Bobby Bradley. For Lavastida it was his second home run with Columbus while for Bradley it was his first hit since joining Columbus after being designated for assignment by Cleveland.

Iowa would come back and tie up the game at 2-to-2 after six innings. Columbus would break the tie in the top of the seventh inning on a Tyler Freeman RBI single scoring Alex Call who had walked to start the inning.

Now leading 3-to-2 the Clippers would break the game wide open in the eighth inning scoring four runs off the Cubs on an RBI double by Mitchell Tolman and three straight bases loaded walks.

Columbus would go onto win 9-to-3 after each team would score once in the ninth inning. With the win the Clippers have now won seven straight games and improve their record to 25-12 on the season.

Top Performers:

Bryan Lavastida 1-3 R HR 2RBI 2BB
Tyler Freeman 2-4 3RBI BB SB
Bobby Bradley 2-5 R 2(2B) RBI
Mitchell Tolman 2-5 R 2B RBI
Jose Fermin 1-3 2R BB
Peyton Battenfield 5.1(IP) 7H 2R 2ER 2BB 2SO (W)
Kirk McCarty 2.0(IP) 0H 0R 0ER 1BB 2SO

Double-A Akron RubberDucks

Akron 5 Binghamton 2

Akron starting pitcher Xzavion Curry was dealing Tuesday striking out a season high 10 batters allowing just one unearned run over his five and two thirds' innings of work. Curry now has a 1.13 ERA over his last three starts for the RubberDucks striking out 23 batters over 16.2 innings.

The RubberDucks left-handed bullpen duo of Andrew Misiaszek and Tim Herrin would follow Curry throwing a combined three and a third scoreless innings striking out nine Binghamton batters. The trio of Curry, Misiaszek and Herrin would combine to strikeout 19 batters in the game.

On offense catcher Bo Naylor led off the game homering on the first pitch he saw. The home run was Naylors second of the season for Akron. Center fielder Will Brennan would drive in two runs in the game giving him a Guardians farm leading 34 RBI's on the year.

With the win Akron is now 19-15 on the season.

Top Performers:

Bo Naylor 2-4 2R HR RBI BB
Will Brennan 1-4 2B 2RBI BB
George Valera 2-5 R 2B
Julian Escobedo 1-3 2B RBI BB
Brayan Rocchio 0-2 R 3BB SB
Xzavion Curry 5.2(IP) 6H 2R 1ER 1BB 10SO (W)
Andrew Misiaszek 1.1(IP) 1H 0R 0ER 1BB 4SO
Tim Herrin 2.0(IP) 1H 0R 0ER 0BB 5SO (SV)

High-A Lake County Captains

Lake County 5 Cedar Rapids 1

While Captains starter Gavin Williams strong start to the year may get all the headlines at Lake County as the Guardians 2021 first round pick another pitcher from the same draft class has been equally as good.

Guardians 2021 5th Round Pick Tanner Bibee struck out nine Cedar Rapids hitters last night allowing only one run on three hits over his six innings of work. His nine strikeouts now tie him with Williams for the team lead with 45 and his 1.30 ERA is currently besting Williams 1.48 on the season.

Reliever Zach Hart followed Bibee taking the mound on his 25th birthday he would throw two scoreless innings facing six batters striking out all six

With the game tied 1-to-1 in the top of the ninth inning Lake County would score four runs with the big blow coming on a huge 3-run opposite field home run by first baseman Joe Naranjo. Naranjo's sixth home run of the season would give the Captains a 5-1 lead.

Reliever Randy Labaut would close out the game for Lake County striking out the side in the bottom of the 9th inning. The combination of Bibee, Hart and Labaut combined struck out 18 Kernel batters in the game.

With the win the Captains move to 15-18 on the year.

Top Performers:

Joe Naranjo 2-4 R HR 3RBI BB
Angel Martinez 2-2 2B 2BB SB
Connor Kokx 2-4 R
Petey Halpin 1-5 R 2B
Tanner Bibee 6.0(IP) 3H 1R 1ER 2BB 9SO
Zach Hart 2.0(IP) 0H 0R 0ER 0BB 6SO (W)
Randy Labaut 1.0(IP) 1H 0R 0ER 0BB 3SO

Low-A Lynchburg Hillcats

Lynchburg 11 Salem 4

Lynchburg once again got another strong start from last weeks Carolina League pitcher of the week left-hander Rodney Boone. Boone would only allow on run which was unearned over five innings while striking out four Salem batters in the game. He now has a 1.71 ERA on the season with 45 strikeouts in just 31.2 innings of work.

The Hillcats held a 3-to-1 lead heading into the seventh inning before they would explode for eight runs over the final three frames including Jorge Burgos second home run of the season. They would go onto win by a final score of 11-to-4.

Lynchburg had 16 hits in the game with every batter collecting at least one. The team was led by shortstop Yordys Valdes and center fielder Isaiah Greene who had three hits apiece.

Valdes has been outstanding over his last 13 games hitting .378 with a .420 on-base percentage. The Guardians 2019 second round pick has a tremendous glove but has showed improvement at the plate so far in 2021. If he continues to find success hitting the 20-year-old just adds another potential middle infield option to the fray for Guardians the future.