This Is Next Year: Lynchburg Sprints Towards Playoffs

THIS TIME NEXT YEAR new

AAA Columbus
by Gavin Potter

The Columbus failed to put a dent in Indianapolis’ division lead this week, going 3-3. On the season, Columbus now sits at 65-61, and are four games back of Indianapolis.

Yandy Diaz was one of the few Clippers to have an excellent week offensively, going 7-18 with two doubles and three walks. His strong production was merely a continuation of his excellent season, and he is now slashing .351/.456/.464. However, his ground ball rate of 62.5% is still too high for those numbers to translate to MLB success.

Adam Plutko’s best start in weeks came on Thursday, where he pitched 7 innings, and allowing just 1 earned run, while striking out 6 and only giving up 1 walk. Still, his 6.33 ERA leaves much to be desired for the 25-year-old.

The Clippers will continue their attempt to catch up to Indianapolis next week, and will get a chance in a three game road trip against them next weekend, after a trip to Toledo.

AA Akron
by Jay Alan

After winning four straight to pull themselves even with the Altoona Curve for the second playoff spot in the Western Conference of the Eastern League, the RubberDucks have continued their .500 play and lost their last five games. The Ducks now stand three games behind the Bowie Baysox for first, and 2.5 behind Altoona for the second playoff spot. With just 16 games left to play, Akron’s elimination number now sits at 17.

The week started off really well for the RubberDucks as they won the third of four against Binghamton on Sunday, and then enjoyed a day off on Monday before heading to Trenton for a three game series against the Thunder. Unfortunately for the Ducks, Trenton has the best record in the Eastern League at 80-43 (.650). After being swept by the Thunder, Akron had a chance to rebound when they headed to Richmond to play the Flying Squirrels for a weekend series. Instead of closing the distance on the second and last playoff spot, the RubberDucks lost on Friday, and then lost a doubleheader on Saturday. Akron does have a chance to rebound with their next three series’ being against Erie and Harrisburg, two teams that sit behind the Ducks in the Western Conference standings.

Advanced-A Lynchburg
by Justin Lada

A 6-1 week has propelled the Hillcats to an eight game division lead after already having won the division in the first half. Aaron Civale gave them two good starts on Sunday (7 IP, 4K 2ER, 0BB) and Friday (7IP, 5K, 0BB, 1ER) and collected two wins. Triston McKenzie followed up Civale’s good Sunday start with a seven inning, nine strikeout performance without a walk and just an earned run. McKenzie didn’t receive the win they would go on to win the game 3-2. McKenzie’s Saturday start was not quite as fruitful. He struck out six in 4 1/3 innings but was tagged with five earned runs. Despite a 25/6 K:BB rate this month, McKenzie has an August ERA in 5.48 which could suggest some fluky bad luck but maybe a bit of a wall as he’s hit 130 innings.

Brock Hartson turned in a six inning, one run performance to keep the good pitching up for the week. After a loss Wednesday, the Hillcats put up a 10 spot as Sean Brady made his return to High-A from Tommy John surgery. He pitched 5 2/3 innings and allowed three runs with four strikeouts. Willi Castro supplied two hits and an RBI, which was from his ninth homer of the year. Castro hit his 10th Friday and has been a pretty consistent hitter every month since April when he hit .250. Andrew Calica has picked it up in the second half as well and had six hits this week. He’s hitting .359 in August with an OPS of 1.059.

There’s been no official word but Gavin Collins is currently on the 7-day disabled list for Lynchburg, who finishes up its homestand with Winston-Salem today before heading out to Buies Creek, whom they took three of four from this past week.

Low-A Lake County
by Justin Lada

The Captains lost five of seven this week including four in a row. In their two wins they did manage some impressive offensive totals with a 7-0 win over Lansing and a 10-1 win over Dayton. In the 7-0 win Zach Plesac continued to impress in his return from Tommy John surgery with four shutout innings and four strikeouts. Mitch Longo backed him with three hits and an RBI and Connor Capel had three hits and two RBI. Logan Ice had two hits and Jorma Rodriguez homered. Longo saw his on-base streaked snapped this week. He had reached base in every game he’s played since July 21 (20 games). Despite that he still had eight hits this week as well as three more steals. His OPS is now .992 and is 17-for-18 on steals for the year.

Alexis Pantoja had six hits this week and is hitting .372 over this last 10 games. Some felt it would only be a matter of time before Pantoja’s offense came around.

In the 10-1 win over Dayton Plesac earned his first professional win as he struck out four in give scoreless innings. Capel had a homer, four RBI and a steal in that win. Li-Jen Chu and Jose Vicente both homered as well. Capel is hitting .452 over the last 10 games with six RBI. His OPS is finally north of .800.

There wasn’t much to write home about pitching wise aside from Plesac and Brady moving up in his rehab. Justin Garza had two four inning outings this week where he allowed just one run and struck out 14 with just two walks.

The Captains are home through Thursday with contests vs. Dayton and Fort Wayne

Short-Season Mahoning Valley
by Caitlin Boron

Mahoning Valley is teetering on the fence between getting the wildcard and/or reclaiming their hold over NYPL Pinckey. They have the fourth best record in the New York Penn League (31-24) and sit in second place behind West Virginia. If the season ended today, the playoffs would consist of Staten Island, who has won their last 11 games, West Virginia, and Vermont with Aberdeen holding the wild card.

The Scrappers are in a three game series with West Virginia that could either set them back down the slope of an up hill battle, or give them a boost closer to the post season. They won game one on Friday night 2-1, putting them just a single game behind the first place team.

Over their last seven games played, the Scrappers are 3-4, and 2-2 through the last week after a day off, the All Star Game and a postponed game on Thursday.

Three players from Mahoning Valley were chosen to represent the Indians and the Scrappers in this year’s NYPL All Star game on Tuesday night. First baseman Ulysses Cantu and OF Oscar Gonzalez both had at bats in the game, Cantu going 1 for 2 with a run and Gonzalez going 1 for 2 with an RBI which put first run on the board for the South in the fifth. Shortstop Jesse Berardi did not have an AB or an appearance in the game. The South won 5-2 in nine innings.

With just a few short weeks left of the season, the Scrappers have a chance to make it into the playoffs by division title or wild card, though anything can happen over the course of two weeks. They’ll finish up their series with the Black Bears on Monday, open up a series against Batavia with a doubleheader Tuesday, and end the week at home facing State College over the weekend.

AZL Indians
by Joe Coblitz

In a total surprise for a team that stands at 11-33, it was a rough week for the AZL Indians as they lost five in a row in just three days giving them 12 losses in their last 13 games. The most interesting game of the week had to be Thursday’s affair against the Padres2 and that will be the focus here.

First, Luis Oviedo started and when the night was over, had an ERA of nearly 8.00 for the season. However, during this game in particular, he may have had the worst luck I’ve ever seen for a pitcher. In 2.1 innings, he induced 14 ground balls to just three flies (he also struck out three), yet he gave up 11 hits and 12 runs (8 earned). This is the perfect example of why AZL stats are at a minimum faulty as with a Major League infield behind him, Oviedo may not have allowed a hit. Instead, his ERA is approaching 8.00.

Second, Henry Pujols is a pretty interesting third baseman in a minor league system fairly devoid of top third base prospects. He went 4-5 in this game with a rough official scorer’s decision keeping him away from a cycle. As it stands, he hit a home run, two doubles and a single and now has seven home runs on the season, one short of the AZL Indians record held by Bobby Bradley and Oscar Gonzalez.

Finally, the Indians were down 14-1 in this game by the third inning, yet despite that, they managed to force extra innings with a 15-15 tie. Quentin Holmes, Mitch Reeves and Johnathan Rodriguez all had great games offensively in addition to Pujols and all definitely have potential, even if the AZL Indians pitching rotation and defense is equivalent to winning one game out of 13.

DSL Indians
by Joe Coblitz

The DSL Tribe did a little better than their AZL counterparts thanks to two wins to end the week. Since Sunday, they’ve went 3-3 and now they sit just 12 games under .500. In an otherwise unremarkable week, Yefferson Yannuzzi made his return to the rotation with two runs allowed in five innings last Tuesday, although he walked five and struck out just one.

While there are few great hitting prospects on this DSL squad, both Marcos Gonzalez and Henderson De Oleo had solid weeks and are now hitting .276/.319/.382 and .260/.417/.455 respectively.

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