Guardians Farm Report: Gonzalez Grand Slam Propels Columbus To Win

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.

#Guardians 24yr old OF prospect Oscar Gonzalez with an opposite field line drive laser Grand Slam today for Columbus! The HR is Gonzalez's farm leading 7th on the season.@OscalluisG @CLBClippers #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/TB0caLofLr
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) May 3, 2022

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.

#Guardians 22yr old (SS) prospect Tyler Freeman with his 1st Triple-A hit for Columbus! It is also Freeman's first hit since 7/25/21 while with Akron after undergoing shoulder surgery.

@tyler_freeman34 @CLBClippers #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/QIvNOlRjr8
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) May 3, 2022

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.

#Guardians 23yr old LHP prospect Logan T. Allen made his 5th consecutive start tonight allowing 2 runs or less while striking out at least 6 for Akron.

Line - 5.0(IP) 6H 1R 1ER 3BB 7SO

Season - 26.1(IP) 20H 6R 6ER 11BB 37SO 2.05 ERA@_Logan2Allen @AkronRubberDuck #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/iqIc0zMMdp
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) May 4, 2022

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.

#Guardians 21yr old INF prospect Jose Tena with 3 more hits tonight for Akron vs Richmond extending his hitting streak to 5 straight games.

During streak: 9-21 5R 1(2B) 2(3B) 1HR 3RBI 1BB 1SB .429 AVG@AkronRubberDuck #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/OjsShMU4AP
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) May 4, 2022

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)

UPDATE: Tonight's game has been postponed. We will play a seven-inning doubleheader tomorrow.

First pitch of Game One is scheduled for 6:05 PM.#AllHandsOnDeck pic.twitter.com/6ighifiOkX
— Lake County Captains (@LCCaptains) May 3, 2022

Low-A Lynchburg Hillcats

Fredericksburg at Lynchburg (Postponed Rain)

Tonight’s Game is Postponed! Game will be played on Thursday May 5th! So come join your Hillcats for THIRSTY THURSDAY and a Doubleheader!

Game 1 will begin at 4:00pm and Game 2 will begin 30 minutes after!

Gates will open at 3:30pm! #hillcats #baseballinsta #lynchburg pic.twitter.com/ZRSIo6dZ9r
— Lynchburg Hillcats (@LynHillcats) May 3, 2022

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