Guardians Farm Report: Williams Allows Just One Hit While Striking Out Eight In First Win With Akron

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

Todd Paquette | Jul 18, 2022

In this story:

Cleveland Guardians

Four games were scheduled Sunday for the Guardians farm system but only two would be played as rain would postpone both Columbus and Lake County.

Triple-A Columbus Clippers

Indianapolis @ Columbus (Postponed)

Sunday's series finale between Indianapolis and Columbus has been postponed due to inclement weather.

The game will be made up as part of a doubleheader at Huntington Park on Tuesday, September 27th. pic.twitter.com/T0xmtx89Pt
— Columbus Clippers (@CLBClippers) July 17, 2022

Double-A Akron RubberDucks

Akron 9 Bowie 0

Akron starter 22-year-old RHP Gavin Williams would earn his first Double-A win on Sunday striking out eight Baysox batters over five scoreless innings of work allowing just one hit.

For Williams the only thing holding him back on the day was his pitch count throwing 90 pitches in his five frames. He now owns a 1.75 ERA through his first six Double-A starts with the RubberDucks & 1.53 ERA overall on the season.

Minor league batters continue to be baffled at the plate hitting a paltry .144 on the season off Williams who has only allowed 38 hits on the year through 70.2 innings of work.

#Guardians 22yr old RHP prospect Gavin Williams allowed just one hit today for Akron striking out 8 over his 5.0 innings. William's lowers his ERA to 1.53 on the year.

Line - 5.0(IP) 1H 0R 0ER 3BB 8SO

2022 - 70.2(IP) 38H 13R 12ER 28BB 99SO 1.53 ERA@16gavinwilliams #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/s9qu6YgDY2
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) July 17, 2022

On offense RubberDucks 21-year-old second baseman Jose Tena would lead off the game with an opposite field solo home run. For Tena it was his fourth home run in his last eight games for Akron.

#Guardians 21yr old INF prospect Jose Tena with an impressive opposite field HR to lead off the game for Akron! For Tena it's his 4th HR in his last 8 games & his 7th overall on the season. @AkronRubberDuck #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/EbP9JXZhRk
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) July 17, 2022

With Akron now up 2-to-0 in the eighth inning the red-hot Brayan Rocchio would step up with two runners on and launch his 10th home run of the season deep over the right field wall.

Rocchio after a slow start to his 2022 season is now hitting .374 over his last 24 games with 14 extra base hits including seven home runs and 21 RBI's. He is slugging .657 over that span.

#Guardians 21yr old switch hitting (SS) prospect Brayan Rocchio with a big day at the plate for Akron in their 9-0 win over Bowie including a 3-run HR in the 8th inning his 10th of the season!

Line: 3-5 R HR 4RBI@rocchio05 @AkronRubberDuck #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/13LJ8R0nhB
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) July 17, 2022

Still in the eighth inning with the Ducks now up 6-to-0 third baseman Daniel Schneemann already with two hits in the game would essentially end all hopes for any chance of a Bowie comeback hitting a three-run home run of his own making it a 9-to-0 game. The home run for Schneeman was his fourth of the year.

Akron improves to 45-40 on the year with the shutout win.

Top Performers:

Brayan Rocchio 3-5 R HR 4RBI
Jose Tena 3-5 2R HR RBI
Daniel Schneemann 3-4 2R HR 3RBI
Quentin Holmes 2-4 R SB
Julian Escobedo 1-3 R RBI
Gavin Williams 5.0(IP) 1H 0R 0ER 3BB 8SO (W)
Eli Lingos 2.0(IP) 2H 0R 0ER 0BB 2SO

High-A Lake County Captains

Dayton @ Lake County (Postponed)

Today's game against Dayton has been rained out.

This rain-out is brought to you by Lake County Storm Water Management.

After the All-Star Break, the Captains will face the Lansing Lugnuts on Friday, July 22nd at 7:05 PM.#AllHandsOnDeck pic.twitter.com/j2FqAjn6TI
— Lake County Captains (@LCCaptains) July 17, 2022

Low-A Lynchburg Hillcats

Charleston 7 Lynchburg 4

Lynchburg fell behind early trailing 5-to-1 to Charleston after just two innings of play. The Hillcats would have to play catchup all day long but eventually fall by the final score of 7-to-4 dropping the final game of the series. The loss drops the teams record back under .500 at 43-44 on the year.

Hillcats 20-year-old right fielder Jorge Burgos would be a bright spot on offense reaching base four times on three hits and a walk while scoring a pair of runs.

Burgos has really hit well of late sporting a .333 AVG over his last 28 games while positing a .430 OBP. In that same time, he has 34 hits, 17 walks and has 16 runs batted in.

#Guardians 20yr old OF prospect Jorge Burgos reached base 4x for Lynchburg on Sunday (3-4 2R BB) against Charleston. Burgos has been swinging a hot bat over his last 28 games for the Hillcats.

34-102 19R 5(2B) 1(3B) 16RBI 17BB 2SB .333 AVG .430 OBP@LynHillcats #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/ikExpTdgVK
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) July 18, 2022

Hillcats 22-year-old right-handed reliever Tyler Thornton continued his tremendous job recently on the mound throwing two scoreless innings striking out four RiverDogs batters in the game.

Thornton over his last 13 appearances out of the pen has a 1.35 ERA while striking out 23 batters in just 13.1 innings pitched.

#Guardians 22yr old RHP prospect Tyler Thornton threw two scoreless innings Sunday for Lynchburg striking out four. Thornton has looked strong out of the Hillcats pen over his last 13 games.

Last 13 - 13.1(IP) 6H 2R 2ER 7BB 23SO 1.35 ERA@tylrthorntn @LynHillcats #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/K0V2LKeB77
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) July 18, 2022