Cannonballs coming: Huge night for Oneil Cruz

I am happy to report WTM will be rejoining us tomorrow.

Transactions

• OF Travis Swaggerty assigned to West Virginia Black Bears.
• Indianapolis Indians placed RHP Tyler Eppler on the temporarily inactive list.

--Indianapolis (35-31, 2nd place in West Division) lost to Columbus 10-4. Indy jumped out to a 4-0 lead but saw things fall apart in the bottom of the sixth inning as the Clippers scored eight runs off Alex McRae and Johnny Hellweg. Mcrae held Columbus scoreless through five but ran into trouble in the sixth. McRae loaded the bases and gave up a grand slam to Indians #1 prospect Francisco Mejia. Johnny Hellweg came in and surrendered four runs (2 earned) while only recording two outs. Indy did collect 10 hits. Jung Ho Kang started at 3b and was 1-2 with a single, walk and hit by pitch. Jordan Luplow and Kevin Kramer both hit homers.

Kevin Newman: 1-5

Adam Frazier: 1-5

Jordan Luplow: 3-3, home run(6), double, walk; .816 OPS

Kevin Kramer: 2-4 home run(10); .821 OPS

Pablo Reyes: 2-4

--Altoona (34-28, 2nd place in Western Division) defeated New Hampshire 9-5. Pedro Vasquez allowed four runs over seven innings. The Curve had 11 hits and Will Craig hit his tenth homer of the season. Jin-De Jhang was 3-4 with his first home run of the year. Ke’Bryan Hayes was out of the lineup again.

Cole Tucker: 1-5

Jason Martin: 2-4, triple

Will Craig: 1-4, home run(10), walk; .826 OPS

Bryan Reynolds: 1-3, double, walk

--Bradenton (33-29, 3rd place in South Division) had the night off.

--West Virginia Power (37-28, 2nd place in Northern Division) beat Delmarva 10-8. Domingo Robles had a rough start allowing six runs (two earned) in only 3.1 innings pitched. But the story tonight was the Power offense. Oneil Cruz was 4-5 with a triple and two doubles. He is batting .304 on the year with an .885 OPS. He has struck out eight times in his last 47 PAs. In my opinion, Cruz’s production coupled with a meaningful improvement in plate discipline is one of the most encouraging stories in the system. And as was mentioned in the Alex Stumpf podcast, some scouts feel he has made serious improvements defensively this year. Brett Pope and Rodolfo Castro both hit homers. Samuel Reyes worked three scoreless innings to earn his second save of the year.

Cal Mitchell: 1-3, walk

Brett Pope: 1-3, home run(2), walk

Rodolfo Castro: 1-3, home run(7)

Chris Sharpe: 2-3, walk

--The West Virginia Black Bears (0-2) lost to Mahoning Valley 9-3. Osvaldo Bido started for the Black Bears and allowed five runs over 5.2 innings pitched with 4 strikeouts. Mah Valley did their damage late in the game, scoring eight runs between the sixth and eighth inning.

Edison Lantigua 2-3, walk

--The DSL Pirates1 (6-7) lost to the DSL Dodgers Guerrero 5-3. The Pirates1 only collected four hits and Randy Romero hit his first home run of the year. Juan Pie did not play.

--The DSL Pirates2 (4-9) defeated the DSL Tigers2 6-5.

Angel Basabe: 1-4

Juan Mena: 2-4

Mario Jerez: 2-4