Cannonballs coming: Altoona clinches playoff berth with two wins

The GCL and DSL teams finished their seasons today. Bradenton had a doubleheader washed out.

— Indianapolis (69-62) lost to Louisville, 4-2. With today’s scheduled starter, Nick Kingham, called up, the Indians went with Damien Magnifico, who was on the mound for yesterday’s walkoff loss. Magnifico threw two innings, giving up two runs, and then Alex McRae threw four shutout innings, giving up two hits and no walks, and striking out four. Indy got one scoreless inning from Michael Feliz, but Buddy Boshers gave up two runs to lose it. Jose Osuna went 2-3 and Eric Wood hit his tenth home run. Jordan Luplow was 1-4, Kevin Kramer 0-4 and Jason Martin 0-3.

— James Marvel threw a seven-inning complete game as Altoona (73-56) won the first game of its doubleheader with Richmond, 9-2. Marvel gave up the two runs on six hits and two walks. He struck out four and now has a 2.33 ERA in four AA starts. Cole Tucker and Bryan Reynolds each went 2-3 with a walk. Reynolds scored three runs and Logan Hill drove in three. Jin-De Jhang was 2-4, Will Craig 1-3 with a walk, and Ke’Bryan Hayes 1-4.

The Curve got a two-hit shutout to win the second game, 3-0. Scooter Hightower (pictured) threw the first six, giving up the two hits. He walked none and struck out five, and also had an RBI single. He’d thrown only 69 pitches, but it was already his longest outing of the season so he came out. Hightower now has an 18-inning scoreless streak. Matt Eckelman threw a perfect seventh for the save. Reynolds went 3-3 and is now batting .304 despite having missed a chunk of the season due to hamate surgery. Craig was 1-2 with a walk and his 98th RBI. Tucker was 1-3 with a double and Stephen Alemais 1-2 with a walk. Altoona is now in a virtual tie for first and has clinched at least a wild card spot.

— West Virginia (65-59) took an early 7-1 lead and hung on to beat Rome, 7-6. Samuel Reyes made his first career start, allowing just one run over the first five innings. He gave up four more without recording an out in the sixth, leaving him with five runs allowed, four earned, on seven hits and a walk. He struck out two. Joel Cesar threw three scoreless innings. Deon Stafford went 2-3 with two walks, his tenth home run and three runs. Rafelin Lorenzo was 3-5, Connor Kaiser 2-5 and Lolo Sanchez 1-3 with a walk. Travis Swaggerty went 1-5 with three strikeouts and Rodolfo Castro 0-5, also with three whiffs.

— Brett Kinneman connected for an opposite-field, three-run home run in the top of the ninth to give Morgantown (25-41) a 7-6 lead over Mahoning Valley. Conner Loeprich then survived a bases-loaded, one out situation in the bottom half to get the save. Starter Nick Economos gave up three runs on nine hits in four and a third innings. Kinneman finished 2-5 with a double; the homer was his third. Mike Gretler went 2-2 with a walk and his first career home run. Daniel Amaral hit his fifth homer.

— Bristol (29-35) lost to Elizabethton, 7-5. Roger Santana has had a lot of extreme ups and downs this season, and today was one of the latter. He gave up six runs in five innings. Jeremias Portorreal was 2-4 with a double and Gabriel Brito 2-3 with a walk. Chase Lambert went 1-5 but still drove in four runs. Mason Martin fanned five times as the Pirates whiffed 15 times altogether.

— The GCL Pirates (27-25) lost to the Tigers East, 4-3, in 11 innings. Braxton Ashcraft threw five innings, giving up two runs on four hits. He walked one and struck out two. Fernando Villegas went 2-3 and Samuel Inoa 1-2 with a walk. Ji-Hwan Bae was 1-3 with to walks, leaving him with a line of 271/362/349. Jack Herman finished at 340/435/489 after going 0-3 with two walks.

— The DSL Pirates1 (32-40) lost to the Cubs1, 2-1. Starlyn Reynoso (21) gave up a run in five innings on five hits and a walk, with three strikeouts. Bryan Torres (17), who was probably the team’s most notable pitching prospect, threw two scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk, and striking out one. He finished with a 2.61 ERA and WHIP of 1.08. The Pirates had 11 hits, all singles. Bladimir Susana (18) went 3-4 and Germin Lopez (19) 2-3. The team’s top prospect, Juan Pie (17), struck out in his only at-bat. After a hot start, he slumped over the last two months and finished with a 258/382/421 line.

— The DSL Pirates2 (27-45) lost to Colorado, 5-2. Luis Peralta (17) struck out six and allowed two runs over four innings. Peralta finished with a 5.63 ERA, mainly due to control problems, but he fanned 62 in 48 innings. The team’s top prospect, Angel Basabe (17), went 0-1. Like Juan Pie, Basabe slumped after a big first month, finishing at 260/341/414.