Guardians Farm Report: Dion Continues To Dazzle For Lynchburg

Here is a recap of what happened with the Guardians minor league teams last night

Todd Paquette | May 30, 2022

In this story:

Cleveland Guardians

Tough day down on the farm for Cleveland Guardians affiliates on Sunday as all four teams go down to defeat.

Triple-A Columbus Clippers

Buffalo 7 Columbus 5

Buffalo up 2-to-1 in the sixth inning would get a two-run home run off Columbus starter Peyton Battenfield knocking him out of the game. Battenfield would allow four runs on six hits over five and two thirds' innings while striking out three batters on the day. His ERA rose to 2.78 on the season.

Columbus would get one run back in the bottom half of this sixth on a solo home run by Alex Call cutting the lead to 4-to-2.

#Guardians OF prospect Alex Call with a solo HR in the 6th inning for Columbus cuts the Buffalo lead to 4-to-2. The HR was Call's 5th on the year.@ACAD_27 @CLBClippers #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/DSc6xfKBf3
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) May 29, 2022

The Bisons would bounce right back putting up a three spot in the top of the seventh inning and take a five-run lead at 7-to-2. Columbus would make once last comeback attempt in the bottom of the seventh on a bases loaded RBI walk by Tyler Freeman then a two-run double by Will Brennan cutting the lead down to two-runs once again.

Unfortunately, that was as close as the Clippers would get falling by the final score of 7-to-5 and dropping their season record to 28-20.

Top Performers:

Alex Call 2-4 R HR RBI
Jose Fermin 3-4 R RBI
Will Brennan 1-5 2B 2RBI
Bobby Bradley 1-3 2B BB
Mitchell Tolman 1-4 R 2B
Jake Jewell 1.1(IP) 1H 0R 0ER 0BB 3SO
Anthony Castro 1.0(IP) 0H 0R 0ER 0BB 3SO

Double-A Akron RubberDucks

New Hampshire 4 Akron 1

Akron starter Jaime Arias held New Hampshire scoreless in his four innings of work striking out four Fisher Cats on the day. Arias has pitched very well for Akron in his last three starts after getting roughed up in his Double-A debut.

#Guardians 23yr old LHP prospect Jaime Arias had his best start with (AA) Akron Sunday throwing four scoreless innings.

Line - 4.0(IP) 4H 0R 0ER 0BB 4SO (59 Pitches 38 Strikes)

Last 3 starts - 11.2(IP) 10H 3R 1ER 8BB 11SO 0.78 ERA

@JArias_5 @AkronRubberDuck #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/WEVL3DWz68
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) May 30, 2022

The RubberDucks would strike first blood in the bottom of the fifth inning when Chris Roller would score from third on a balk. It would be the Ducks only run of the game as they could only muster two hits all day off the Fisher Cats staff.

New Hampshire would take the lead scoring twice in the seventh inning and would add two more insurance runs in the ninth to win by a final of 4-to-1.

With the loss Akron falls to 27-18 on the year.

Top Performers:

Brayan Rocchio 1-4
Micah Pries 1-4
Chris Roller 0-3 R SB
Jaime Arias-Bautista 4.0(IP) 4H 0R 0ER 0BB 4SO

High-A Lake County Captains

Peoria 15 Lake County 2

The Captains came into Sunday's game taking the first five games in the series with the Chiefs. At least they could travel home back to Lake County knowing that fact as they would likely not want to think about the 15-to-2 drubbing they took in the series finale.

Lake County starter Lenny Torres would get touched up for seven runs, six earned over just three and a third innings pitched on the day. The Captains gave up the 15 runs on 13 hits and nine walks over eight innings of work.

The two runs Lake County managed to push across the plate in the lopsided loss came on two solo home runs one by Gabriel Rodriguez in the second inning and Joe Naranjo in the eighth.

Naranjo would have a real nice day at the plate reaching base four times on two hits including a double to go with his home run and two walks.

#Guardians 21yr old (1B) prospect Joe Naranjo goes oppo taco for his 9th HR of the season tonight for Lake County. @joenaranjo_ @LCCaptains #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/ZYnqXS4GQc
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) May 30, 2022

With the loss Lake County falls to 23-21 on the season.

Top Performers:

Joe Naranjo 2-2 R 2B HR RBI 2BB
Gabriel Rodriguez 1-4 R HR RBI
Angel Martinez 1-3 BB
Korey Holland 1-3
Cade Smith 1.0(IP) 1H 0R 0ER 1BB 3SO
Alaska Abney 1.0(IP) 0H 0R 0ER 0BB 1SO

Low-A Lynchburg Hillcats

Columbia 3 Lynchburg 2

Lynchburg got out to a early 2-to-0 lead scoring twice in the second inning off the Kansas City Royals 2021 first round pick left-hander Frank Mozzicato.

The story through the early part of the game would be the Cleveland Guardians 2021 ninth round pick left-handed pitcher Will Dion who would look like the better pitcher throwing five scoreless innings allowing just one hit while striking out seven Fireflies in the game.

Dion now leads the Carolina League with a miniscule 1.41 ERA through his first nine starts of the season. He faced Columbia twice this past week and only allowed one hit over 10.0 innings while not allowing a run and striking out 16.

Hitters are only hitting .180 against Dion on the season allowing just 25 hits over 38.1 innings of work. He has just nine walks compared to 51 strikeouts on the year.

#Guardians 22yr old LHP prospect Will Dion lowered his ERA to 1.41 on the season striking out 7 over 5.0 scoreless innings Sunday for Lynchburg.

Line - 5.0(IP) 1H 0R 0ER 2BB 7SO

Last two starts: 10.0(IP) 1H 0R 0ER 3BB 16SO 0.00 ERA@WDion22 @LynHillcats #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/Lr58qoXwJL
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) May 30, 2022

Lynchburg held a 2-to-1 lead until the ninth inning when reliever Trey Benton who had been dominating all season long would allow his first earned runs of the year.

Columbia would score twice off Benton on three hits in the inning giving the Fireflies their first lead of the game. The Hillcats would fail to score in the bottom of the ninth dropping the final game of the series.

Lynchburg falls to 24-20 on the year with the late inning loss.