Guardians Farm Report: Noel Hits 10th Home Run In Captains Route

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

Todd Paquette | May 22, 2022

In this story:

Cleveland Guardians

Columbus and Lake County come away with wins on Saturday while Akron and Lynchburg both see their winning streaks come to an end.

Triple-A Columbus Clippers

Columbus 3 Iowa 2

Columbus first baseman David Fry would provide all the offense they would need Saturday to defeat Iowa. The Clippers would take an early 2-to-0 lead in the second inning when Fry would connect for a 2-run home run scoring Bryan Lavastida who had walked prior to his at bat.

#Guardians 26yr old (1B) prospect David Fry uncorks a 2-run HR giving Columbus an early lead against Iowa. For Fry it was his 7th HR of the season. @CLBClippers #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/XnTyTNAniv
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) May 21, 2022

Fry would make it a 3-to-0 game with a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning scoring Bobby Bradley from third. The sacrifice fly would prove to be the difference in the game as Iowa would hit a 2-run homer in the bottom of fourth inning, but Columbus would hold them scoreless from that point on.

Clippers starter Tanner Tully would earn the win allowing just two runs on three hits over five and two thirds' innings of work while striking out five Cubs batters.

The victory would end a three-game losing streak for the Clippers and improve their record to 26-15 on the year.

Top Performers:

David Fry 2-3 R HR 3RBI
Tyler Freeman 1-4 BB
Bobby Bradley 1-4 R
Mitchell Tolman 1-3 2B
Tanner Tully 5.2(IP) 3H 2R 2ER 1BB 5SO (W)
Alex Young 0.2(IP) 0H 0R 0ER 0BB 2SO (SV)

Double-A Akron RubberDucks

Binghamton 5 Akron 4 (11 Innings)

Akron would take an early 4-to-0 lead until Binghamton would hang a four spot on starter Logan Allen in the bottom of the third inning tying the game up at four runs apiece.

Allen would finish the game with nine strikeouts over six innings giving up the four runs on nine base hits.

#Guardians 22yr old (C) prospect Bo Naylor leads off the 4th inning with his 6th double of the season for Akron. Naylor has reached in all three plate appearances in the game going (2-2 2B BB). He's now hitting .292 on the year.@_BoNaylor_ @AkronRubberDuck #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/HaHt8Ra74Z
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) May 21, 2022

Both teams would hold each other scoreless over the next seven innings until the Rumble Ponies would get a walk-off base hit by Zach Ashford in the bottom of the 11th ending the RubberDucks five game winning streak by a final of 5-to-4.

RubberDucks Jose Tena, Brayan Rocchio and Bo Naylor all had multi-hit games in the loss.

Akron is now 22-16 on the season.

Top Performers:

Jose Tena 2-5 R 2B RBI
Brayan Rocchio 2-6 R 2B
Will Brennan 1-5 R 3B RBI
Bo Naylor 2-4 2B BB
Jonathan Engelmann 1-5 2RBI
Logan Allen 6.0(IP) 9H 4R 4ER 1BB 9SO
Tim Herrin 2.0(IP)0H 0R 0ER 0BB 3SO

High-A Lake County Captains

Lake County 12 Cedar Rapids 4

The Captains would strike first blood in the third inning on a Jhonkensy Noel RBI double and never look back keeping their foot on the gas putting up 12 runs on 14 hits in the game.

Lake County would only hit one home run in the game coming off the bat of Noel in the eighth inning. The two run home run would be Noel's 10th of the season moving him past Oscar Gonzalez for the most currently in the Guardians farm system.

#Guardians 20yr old INF/OF prospect Jhonkensy Noel already with a RBI double in the game just launched a 2-run HR to give the Captains a 12-3 lead. For Noel he now takes over the farm system lead with 10 HR's on the season.@JhonkensyNoel @LCCaptains #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/dRQMTBHGlf
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) May 22, 2022

Captains starter in the game Doug Nikhazy looked sharp striking out seven Kernel batters over just four and a third innings of work. Nikhazy's only blemish came on a two run home run he allowed in the third inning.

With the win the Captains move within one game of getting back to .500 with a record of 18-19 on the season.

One side note Jhonkensy Noel started the game in right field. It was his first career game his ever played in the outfield. It will be interesting to see how much he plays in the outfield moving forward and how well he handles the position defensively. Coming into the game he had exclusively spent time at third and first base.

Top Performers:

Jhonkensy Noel 2-4 2R 2B HR 3RBI BB
Joe Naranjo 2-5 2R 2B RBI BB
Johnathan Rodriguez 2-5 3RBI
Micael Ramirez 1-3 2R 2RBI BB
Connor Kokx 2-2 R 2B
Ray Delgado 1-3 3B RBI
Doug Nikhazy 4.1(IP) 2H 2R 2ER 2BB 7SO

Low-A Lynchburg Hillcats

Salem 9 Lynchburg 5

Salem got off to an early 5-to-0 lead of Lynchburg starter Franco Aleman after the second inning. The Hillcats would get on the board in the third inning scoring three runs two of which would score on a Milan Tolentino double his 11th of the season.

#Guardians 20yr old (SS) prospect Milan Tolentino drives home two on his 11th double of the season for Lynchburg. Tolentino has his average back up to .380 after the hit.@milantolentino @LynHillcats #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/mjqnvXBgjs
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) May 21, 2022

Down 7-to-3 in the sixth inning Lynchburg would get a big two-run double off the bat of Yordys Valdes to cut Salem's lead two just two runs.

Unfortunately, it would be the closest the Hillcats would the rest of the game as the would fall by a final of 9-to-5. The loss snapped a four game winning streak and dopped the teams record to 21-16 on the season.