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-- Indianapolis(25-26) lost to Gwinnett 3-0. Alex McRae turned in a serviceable start going 6.1 innings and allowing 3 runs on 8 hits but it wasn’t enough as the Indy bats were held scoreless. There wasn’t much to report offensively as Indy only had 5 singles on the night with Pablo Reyes responsible for two of them. Johny Hellweg worked a scoreless 9th and recorded 2 Ks. One has to wonder if he will be making a trip to Pittsburgh sometime in the near future.
Kevin Newman: 1-4
Jordan Luplow: 0-4
Jose Osuna: 0-4
Pablo Reyes: 2-3
Kevin Kramer: 1-4
--Altoona (25-24) defeated Akron again 4-3 in yet another 9th inning walkoff win. Mitch Keller was on the mound and looked more like the Mitch Keller who came into the year as one of the best pitching prospects in the game. While his fastball command wasn’t always great it was clearly good enough as he pitched 6.1 innings allowing 2 runs while recording 6 Ks and no walks. The Curve jumped out to an early lead as Stephen Alemais lead off the game with a triple and was promptly driven in by Ke’Bryan Hayes. Prior to his run scoring single Hayes just missed a homerun that was pulled foul and had plenty of distance. Akron tied things up in the 4th when their third rated prospect, Bobby Bradley hit a solo homerun. The Curve reclaimed the lead in the 6th on an extremely impressive at bat from Jason Martin. He worked a long count vs lefty starter Sean Brady before driving a pitch out to right field for a 2 run homer. Akron got a run back in the 7th inning to cut the lead to 3-2 and then scored another in the 9th inning off Geoff Hartlieb to tie the game at 3-3. But Will Craig lead off the bottom of the 9th with a single and moved to 2b when Logan Hill was hit with a pitch. Elvis Escobar came into run for Will Craig and came home when Jin-De Jhang singled to right.
Mitch Keller: 6.1 IP 6 Ks, 0 walks
Ke’Bryan Hayes: 2-3, walk
Jason Martin: 1-3, homerun (7)
Will Craig: 2-3, double and walk
-- Bradenton was rained out again
-- West Virginia was also canceled.
As far as managers in the pipeline, it is unclear whether Brian Esposito or Micheal Ryan would stand by idly twiddling their thumbs while their designated closer lights a game on fire.