Guardians Farm Report: Leftwich Dominates In Lake County Debut

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

Todd Paquette | Jul 5, 2022

In this story:

Cleveland Guardians

Only four of the seven Cleveland Guardians minor league teams would complete games on Monday with Akron's game being postponed and both Dominican Summer League clubs having their games suspended by rain.

Triple-A Columbus Clippers

Nashville 5 Columbus 2

The Clippers offense was finally held in check Monday after averaging over 10 runs a game last week in their series with Iowa.

A couple of Clippers remained red hot however in Will Brennan and Bo Naylor.

Brennan would have another multi-hit game going 2-for-4 with a double scoring one run. He would extend his hitting streak to 12 straight games and is now hitting .375 over his first 34 Triple-A games with Columbus.

#Guardians 24yr old OF prospect Will Brennan with a base hit in the 6th inning tonight for Columbus extends his hitting streak to 12 straight games. Brennan is hitting .371 in 34 games since his promotion to Triple-A. @Silly_Willy18 @CLBClippers #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/4cmzJNAtkp
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) July 5, 2022

For Naylor he would reach base three times on two hits and a walk and would drive in a run int the contest. After a slow start since his promotion from Akron Naylor been raking at the plate and has his average up to .326 through his first 11 games with Columbus.

#Guardians 22yr old (C) prospect Bo Naylor with an RBI base hit in the 8th inning drives home Brennan from 2nd base for Columbus. Naylor has his average up to .326 at Triple-A after a slow start. @_BoNaylor_ @CLBClippers #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/JV0CqSmHPT
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) July 5, 2022

Clippers starter Tanner Tully pitched well but not well enough taking the loss and dropping to 5-3 on the season. Tully would allow three run two earned over six innings of work while striking out six Nashville batters.

The loss drops the Clippers record to 46-33 on the season.

Top Performers:

Bo Naylor 2-3 RBI BB
Will Brennan 2-4 R 2B BB
Will Benson 2-3 2B 2BB
Bobby Bradley 1-3 R 2B BB
Tanner Tully 6.0(IP) 5H 3R 2ER 0BB 6SO

Double-A Akron RubberDucks

Altoona @ Akron (Postponed)

Due to the City of Akron’s city-wide curfew, we have postponed tonight’s July 4th game against the Altoona Curve. pic.twitter.com/ciUscCrwwE
— Akron RubberDucks (@AkronRubberDuck) July 4, 2022

High-A Lake County Captains

Lake County 6 Fort Wayne 0

Cleveland Guardians 23-year-old RHP prospect Jack Leftwich made his High-A debut Monday for Lake County after carving up the Carolina League with Lynchburg.

Leftwich would only allow one hit over his six and a third scoreless inning pitched walking two and striking out four earning the win. He lowered his ERA to 2.16 on the season over 66.2 innings pitched.

#Guardians 23yr old RHP pitching prospect Jack Leftwich looked phenomenal tonight making his (High-A) debut for Lake County! Leftwich threw 6.1 scoreless innings allowing just one hit while striking out four.

Line - 6.1(IP) 1H 0R 0ER 2BB 4SO@Jacklefty21 @LCCaptains #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/TMmxZzXdur
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) July 4, 2022

On offense the Captains would get a couple of homeruns in the game with the first coming off the bat of third baseman Gabriel Rodriguez. Rodriguez would drive his seventh long ball of the season over the right field fence for an opposite field two-run homerun in the second inning to give Lake County a 2-to-0 lead.

#Guardians 20yr old INF prospect Gabriel Rodriguez showing some impressive pop with a 2-run opposite field HR for Lake County! For Rodriguez it was his 7th HR of the season.@Eldetejero @LCCaptains #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/cdbEb9OySe
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) July 4, 2022

Up now 3-to-0 in the fifth inning shortstop Angel Martinez would hit a solo shot over the left field fence to extend the Captains lead to 4-to-0 over the Tincaps. The homerun for the switch-hitting Martinez was his 6th of the season.

#Guardians 20yr old switch hitting INF prospect Angel Martinez with a solo HR in the 5th inning for Lake County! The HR was Martinez's 6th on the year.@akmartinez03 @LCCaptains #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/4FilnbYALJ
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) July 4, 2022

Right fielder Alexfri Planez would extend his hitting streak to 17 straight games with two more hits on Monday including his 13th double on the season. Planez now has 22 extra base hits in just 41 games played.

Lake County improves to 40-36 on the year with the win.

Top Performers:

Angel Martinez 2-4 R HR RBI
Gabriel Rodriguez 1-4 R HR 2RBI
Alexfri Planez 2-4 2R 2B
Petey Halpin 2-3 2R BB
Johnathan Rodriguez 1-4 2B 2RBI
Milan Tolentino 1-4 RBI
Jack Leftwich 6.1(IP) 1H 0R 0ER 2BB 4SO (W)

Low-A Lynchburg Hillcats

Fredericksburg 6 Lynchburg 2

Lynchburg trailed 4-to-0 after the first inning when starting pitcher Reny Artiles wouldn't even make it out of the inning giving up all four runs one just one hit three walks and a hit batter.

The Hillcats did out hit the Nationals 10 to four but would only score two runs in the game.

Jake Fox would collect three of those hits for Lynchburg continuing his recent hot streak at the dish. Fox is hitting .383 over his last 15 games and has obscene .554 OBP walking 15 times while also getting hit by three pitches. He has an .800 OPS now on the season which is pretty impressive for a 19-year-old in Low-A ball.

#Guardians 19yr old INF/OF prospect Jake Fox continued his hot streak at the plate with three more hits for Lynchburg. Fox now has OPS up to .800 on the year.

Fox over his last 15 games:

18-47 10R 5(2B) 1(3B) 4RBI 15BB 2SB .383 AVG .554 OBP@Jake_Fox8 @LynHillcats #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/j0VtjrA1Vr
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) July 5, 2022

Brauny Munoz pitched well in relief coming on for Artiles in the first inning with two outs. Munoz would throw four and a third scoreless innings allowing just one hit.

The loss drops Lynchburg to 39-37 on the year.

Top Performers:

Jordan Brown 2-4 R 2B
Isaiah Greene 2-4 RBI SB
Yordys Valdes 1-3 BB
Dayan Frias 1-3 BB
Jake Fox 3-5
Brauny Munoz 4.1(IP) 1H 0R 0ER 0BB 1SO

Arizona Complex League Guardians

ACL Guardians 6 ACL Angels 3

The game was tied up at three runs apiece in the seventh inning until the Guardians Maick Collado with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom half of the inning would clear the bases with a double giving the team a 6-to-3 lead. The double would prove to be the eventual game winning hit.

Collado is off to an impressive start to his season hitting for a .324 average through his first 10 games driving in nine runs during that span.

#Guardians 19yr old switch-hitting prospect Maick Collado w/ a big 3-run double today in the 7th inning in the Arizona Complex League. The double broke a 3-to-3 tie at the time. Guardians would win 6-to-3.

Collado's first 10 games:

12-37 5R 2(2B) 1HR 9RBI 5BB .324 AVG .854 OPS
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) July 4, 2022

The ACL Guardians improve to 13-8 on the year with the win.