Max Clark hits second Triple-A homer

Toledo Mud Hens 8, Indianapolis Indians 4 (box)

Toledo won the final game of the series against Indianapolis on Sunday, 8-4, to tie things at three games apiece.

It was a good day for the offense, with Max Clark doubling and homering. Jace Jung did the same, and Max Anderson also doubled. Clark got the scoring started in the first inning with a solo shot to right field. It was a no-doubter into the second deck.

Jung opened the second with a double, and Corey Julks homered right after to make it 3-0.

Meanwhile, Dylan File put together his best start of the season. File only allowed one run on two hits and no walks while striking out four through five innings. He drew 10 whiffs on 40 swings and touched 96.6 with his fastball. He used six distinct pitches, according to Baseball Savant’s data, and was effective with each of them.

File retired the lineup in order his first time through, but leadoff man Ronny Simon got to him for a double in the fourth. Billy Cook singled in Simon two batters later, but those were the only baserunners File gave up on the day.

Beau Brieske took over in the sixth and erased a leadoff single with a double play, but he walked the next batter and gave up a game-tying home run after that. Woo-Suk Go was much more efficient in the seventh, working around a one-out walk, and that’s when the offense came back to life.

Clark and Anderson hit back-to-back doubles with one out, and Eduardo Valencia stole the RBI train going with a single. Jung capped off the five-run frame with a two-run homer.

Go came back out for the eighth and struck out the side, and Yoniel Curet closed things out in the ninth. Curet gave up a run, but he still got the job done.

Clark: 2-4, 2B (13), HR (2), 2 R, 2 RBI, BB

Anderson: 2-4, 2B (3), R, RBI, BB

Jung: 2-4, 2B (10), HR (6), 2 R, 2 RBI, K

File: 5.0 IP, 2 H, R, ER, 0 BB, 4 K

Coming Up Next: It’s a rare Monday game to open the home series against Columbus, starting at 11:05 a.m. ET.

Altoona Curve 8, Erie SeaWolves 6 (box)

Erie dropped the series against Altoona 4-3 on Sunday with an 8-6 loss.

A brutal 6-run third inning all but doomed the SeaWolves. Sean Hunley was cruising until a one-out walk and catcher’s interference put two men on base. A double started the bleeding, and it was hard to stop from there. Hunley exited the game after hitting the next batter, but Yosber Sanchez didn’t fare much better.

Sanchez gave up a pair of RBI singles to the first batters he faced, and a bases-clearing double made it 6-0 before the end of the inning.

Erie answered with two runs in the top of the fourth, courtesy of Andrew Jenkins, who tripled in John Peck (reached on error) and Justice Bigbie (walk).

Lael Lockhart kept Altoona at bay for three innings of no-hit work. Unfortunately, Erie didn’t do anything significant offensively during that period.

The SeaWolves added another two runs in the seventh. Jenkins started off a string of four straight singles, followed by Peyton Graham, E.J. Exposito and Bennet Lee, who got the RBI. Brett Callahan drove in the other run with a sacrifice fly.

Lockhart left the game after that, and his replacement, Tyler Owens, immediately got into trouble with a one-out double. A disengagement violation moved the runner over to third, and an RBI single made it a three-run game, whic his significant because Erie wasn’t done scoring.

Thayron Liranzo led off the eighth with a single, and Altoona’s pitching staff walked the next three batters to bring him across. Exposito drove in another run with a sacrifice fly, which would have been the tying run if not for Owens’ troubles. Either way, Lee grounded into a double play after that, so the comeback was dead anyway.

Johan Simon got the eighth. He hit the first two batters he faced and gave up an RBI single before getting yanked. Moises Rodriguez got cleanup duty.

Liranzo: 1-5, R, 3 K

Jenkins: 2-3, 3B (2), R, 2 RBI, BB

Callahan: 2-4, RBI

Lockhart: 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, BB, 4 K

Coming Up Next: Erie is at home next week against the Chesapeake Baysox, starting Tuesday at 6:05 p.m. ET.

South Bend Cubs 5, West Michigan Whitecaps 4 (box)

West Michigan finished its series against South Bend with a 5-4 loss, the fifth-straight defeat for the 14-31 Whitecaps.

This was a weird one for West Michigan. The Whitecaps only had one hit and two baserunners through six innings and four hits on the day, but a four-run seventh inning gave them a brief lead.

Jackson Strong had two of those base knocks, including an RBI single in that eventful seventh inning. Samuel Gil drove in the second run, and Strong scored the tying run on a ball thrown into center field by the catcher. Luke Shliger got the go-ahead, pinch-hit RBI with a base hit into left field, and everyone was happy for a bit.

Let’s rewind, though, because it’s a miracle West Michigan wasn’t trailing by a lot more at that point. Gabriel Reyes walked SEVEN batters in his 4 1/3 innings of work, and somehow only two of them scored. A pair of double plays and two clutch bases-loaded flyouts got Reyes there, but there’s still no excuse for seven free passes.

Reyes gave up a pair of runs in the first inning after a leadoff error from Cristian Santana at third and (you guessed it) a walk set him for a rough opening frame. South Bend didn’t score its third run until the fifth, when Carlos Lequerica took over with a runner on base. A two-out double brought that one around.

Okay, back to that brief lead in the seventh. Ethan Sloan relieved Lequerica in the top of the seventh and worked around a leadoff base hit and one-out walk, but the long inning didn’t do him any favors. A pair of one-out singles set up a two-run single, and just like that the Whitecaps are losing again…

West Michigan blew all of its energy in the seventh, so a quick eighth inning kept the momentum on South Bend’s side. Bryce Rainer struck out for a third time on the day with Ricardo Hurtado on base to send the game to the ninth.

CJ Weins worked around a leadoff single in the top of the ninth, but there was no magic in the bottom half of the inning. West Michigan went down 1-2-3 to take the loss. Womp womp.

Rainer: 0-4, 3 K

Shliger: 1-1, RBI

Reyes: 4.1 IP, H, 3 R, 2 ER, 7 BB, 2 K

Coming Up Next: West Michigan is in Lansing next week, starting Tuesday at 6:05 p.m. ET.

(F/5) Bradenton Marauders 3, Lakeland Flying Tigers 1 (box)

What was supposed to be 14 innings of baseball down in Lakeland ended up being just five, which is probably a good thing since the Flying Tigers were getting no-hit. Despite the 2-1 loss on Sunday, Lakeland still won the series 3-2, with the rest of the doubleheader cancelled due to wet grounds.

Even though Lakeland had no hits through the five innings played in this game, the Flying Tigers led for a bit. An error, hit-by-pitch and walk loaded the bases in the bottom of the second, and a wild pitch brought Jesus Pinto home for a 1-0 lead.

Caleb Leys got the start, but he only went three innings. Three hits and no runs is a good day, but three walks led to a high-ish pitch count of 68. Jose Guzman took over in the fourth and immediately gave up runs. The inning went: leadoff double, single, popout, three-run homer.

Preston Howey got the fifth. He retired all four batters he faced, and then the rain came. Oh, well.

Leys: 3.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 2 K

Coming Up Next: Lakeland is in Palm Beach next week, starting Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. ET. I’ll be at some of the games for some live coverage, so stay tuned!