Guardians Farm Report: Gonzalez Grand Slam Propels Columbus To Win
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Only two of the four games scheduled by the Guardians minor league affiliates were actually played Tuesday as both Lake County & Lynchburg were postponed due to rain.
Triple-A Columbus Clippers
Columbus 7 Omaha 5
With Columbus trailing 1-to-0 in the top of the third inning the first three Clippers batters would reach base for cleanup hitter Oscar Gonzalez. Gonzalez would precede to take Omaha starter Jackson Kowar deep to right field on a laser of a home run for a grand slam to put Columbus up 4-to-1 at the time.
The Clippers would never look back adding three more runs in the fourth inning with the big blow coming on a rehabbing Yu Chang bases loaded two run single. Columbus would go onto win by a final score of 7-to-5 improving to 17-8 on the season.
Starter Konnor Pilkington made his second start of the season for Columbus since being optioned down from the big league club. Pilkington only would go three innings allowing three runs on the day before being removed.
One side note in the game Guardians 22-year-old top prospect Tyler Freeman collected his first Triple-A hit. It was Freeman's first hit since July 25th of last season during his last game before undergoing shoulder surgery for a partially torn labrum.
Top Performers:
- Oscar Gonzalez 2-5 R HR 5RBI
- Will Benson 2-4 2R 2B BB
- Yu Chang 1-2 R 2RBI BB
- Tyler Freeman 1-4 2R
- Bryan Lavastida 2-5 2B
- Mitchell Tolman 2-4 BB
- Eli Lingos 1.2(IP) 2H 0R 0ER 0BB 3SO
Double-A Akron RubberDucks
Richmond 5 Akron 4 (10 Innings)
Akron would lead 3-to-1 after five innings thanks to another strong start by 23-year-old lefty Logan T. Allen holding the Richmond offense in check. Allen would strikeout seven batters over his five innings of work. He now leads all Guardians minor league pitchers with 37 on the season.
Unfortunately for the RubberDucks the bullpen could not hold the lead giving up three runs to the Flying Squirrels who would tie the game up at 4-to-4 sending the game into extra innings.
Akron would fail to score in the top of the 10th inning allowing Richmond to capitalize in the bottom half of the inning. Second baseman Shane Matheny would single off the Ducks Nic Enright scoring the winning run from second base to give the Flying squirrels a 5-to-4 victory and drop Akron to 11-11 on the season.
Guardians 21-year-old infield prospect Jose Tena would record three hits in the game extending his hit streak to five straight games. Tena is hitting .429 during the streak raising his average to .282 on the season.
Top Performers:
- Julian Escobedo 1-3 2B 2RBI BB
- Bo Naylor 1-3 RBI 2BB
- Micah Pries 1-3 R 2B
- Jose Tena 3-5 SB
- George Valera 1-4 R BB
- Logan T. Allen 5.0(IP) 6H 1R 1ER 3BB 7SO
High-A Lake County Captains
Lake County at Dayton (Postponed Rain)
Low-A Lynchburg Hillcats
Fredericksburg at Lynchburg (Postponed Rain)
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