Eliezer Alfonso shines in Comets win

Alfonso now has a .312 batting average across 77 at-bats, significantly better than the .247 mark he showcased through two levels last year. How much of this he can sustain remains to be seen, but his production helps deepen this Comets lineup.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

A normal game that had a 2-1 score in favor of OKC after five innings turned out to be a dazzling slugfest on both sides, with the Comets getting the last laugh in a 12-10 win on the road. Given that the bullpens were responsible for all of the fireworks, Comets starter Christian Romero delivered quite the performance, allowing just one run in six full innings.

Offensively, the production was rather evenly distributed, with seven different batters recording multihit games and the same number getting at least one RBI. Out of all of them, catcher Alfonso gets the biggest praise as the only hitter to record four knocks on either side, but ninth-hole hitter Zach Ehrhard was also key with a pair of doubles and three RBI.

Double-A Tulsa

It’s difficult to overcome 12 free passes, as the Tulsa Drillers came to know in a 7-2 loss at the hands of the Cardinals. For the third time this season, left-hander Wyatt Crowell conceded at least four walks, moving to a 2-4 record with a whopping 2.01 WHIP.

As if the walks alone weren’t problematic, the Drillers also saw their opponents be successful in five out of six stolen base attempts, whereas Tulsa’s only stolen base came from shortstop Elijah Hainline. Speaking of onlys, Kendall George was alone in his multi-hit effort, scoring a run.

High-A Great Lakes

Without swinging the bat in the tenth inning, the Loons overcame a 2-1 deficit to beat the Whitecaps in walkoff fashion by a score of 3-2. Well, to put it more clearly, the Loons set up a situation in which a walk and a wild pitch were all they needed to take the win at home. They did so with the only hit, not even leaving the infield—a bunt single.

Allowing the two runs scored by the Whitecaps, both of them unearned, Nicolas Cruz finished the game with a blown save as he failed to protect a 1-0 lead, but also earned the win, his second of the season. The biggest performance from the bullpen, though, came from Matt Lanzendorfer, covering 3.1 scoreless frames in relief of starter Zach Root, who didn’t even finish the third.

Class-A Ontario

Maximizing your opportunities was the theme of the Tower Buzzers’ 8-4 win over the Giants, stranding fewer than half of the baserunners that their opponents did. For the fourth time this month, Ching-Hsien Ko left the yard, and he did so in a crucial spot, hitting a three-run bomb in the fourth back when the Tower Buzzers trailed this one four-zip.