Tugboat has a performance to remember for the Hillcats

Cleveland Guardians minor league recap for Friday, April 26, 2024

Columbus Clippers 9, Syracuse Mets 1

Box Score · Clippers improve to 9-14

A great performance all around from the Clippers tonight. Kyle Manzardo lead the way on offense, going 3-6 with 2 RBIs to improve his slash line to .308/.387/.577. He shouldn’t be in Columbus much longer in my personal opinion. Daniel Schneeman also went 1-2 with three walks and a bases clearing triple.

Adam Oller had a great start, throwing 6 innings, giving up only one run on two hits, striking out four and walking five. In relief came Jaime Barria, Anthony Gose, and Tanner Burns. They combined for 3 innings, zero runs, zero hits, and seven strikeouts to just three walks.

Akron RubberDucks 4, Altoona Curve 0

Box Score · RubberDucks improve to 10-8

Another great pitching performance from a Guardians affiliate, the RubberDucks blanked the Curve tonight. Rodney Boone threw 4.2 innings, giving up zero runs on only two hits, striking out three and walking four. His season E.R.A is down to 2.95.

Bradley Hanner, Ross Carver, and Lenny Torres Jr. combined to throw for 4.1 innings, giving up zero runs on only two hits. Lenny Torres still has yet to give up an earned run this season, he is one of many bullpen arms in the pipeline to be excited about.

Chase DeLauter had a double off the wall and a walk today, which is encouraging. I’m confident that he will get going soon. Dayan Frias and Alexfri Planez also had two hits each.

Lake County Captains 4, West Michigan Whitecaps 1

Box Score · Captains improve to 8-9

Hopefully you aren’t tired of hearing about great pitching performances, because we’re just getting started. Parker Messick was awesome tonight, throwing 6 innings without giving up a run on five hits, striking out five and walking just one. His season long E.R.A is down to 1.77. He is clearly ready to pitch in Akron, it’s only a matter of time until he is promoted.

Jonah Advincula continues his hot start to the season, going 3 for 4 with 2 RBIs, a double and a triple, raising his slash line to .325/.404/.500. The 2023 8th round pick has really impressed, I’m excited to see if he can keep this up.

Maick Collado also continues his fantastic start, going 1 for 3 with a walk and an RBI. His slash line is up to .344/.543/.469.

Lynchburg Hillcats 3, Myrtle Beach Pelicans 0

Box Score · Hillcats improve to 9-9

TUGBOAT!!! The Guardians’ 2023 10th round pick Matt “Tugboat” Wilkinson was otherworldly tonight. He threw 6 innings, struck out 15!!! hitters, walking just 1, and didn’t give up a single hit. He was unbelievable. He was somehow even better than those numbers suggest. I haven’t seen a pitching performance this dominant since Daniel Espino started off by striking out his first 11 batters against a really good Bowie lineup that included Gunnar Henderson in 2022.

Wilkinson has struck out 41 batters in 20.2 innings pitched this season. His E.R.A. is down to 0.44, and his WHIP is 0.58. He’s been about as dominant as you can possibly be. The organization has a very simple move to make, promote Messick to Akron and Tugboat to Lake County. It should happen in the next couple weeks.

Christian Knapczyk, Robert Lopez, and Tommy Hawke all had two hits each. Jaison Chourio didn’t have a hit, but he did draw two walks. Angel Genao also had a hit and a walk.