Tigers Minor League Recap – 7/23

Toledo Mud Hens (Triple-A)

Final: Indianapolis 9 – Toledo 6

Top Performer(s):

Jace Jung, 2B — 2-for-3, HR, 2B, 2 RBI, 2 R, 2 BB
Akil Baddoo, LF — 1-for-3, R, RBI, BB
Hao-Yu Lee, 2B — 1-for-5, R, 2 RBI

Matt Seelinger — 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K. Matt dropped his ERA to 1.90 on the night as he strikes out 2 of the 4 batters he faced. Throwing only 13 pitches, Matt was able to stop the Indianapolis hitters.

Game notes:

The game started as a pitchers duel. Entering the 5th inning, it was Indianapolis leading 1-0. Then the Mud Hens would score 4 in the top of the 5th with Hao-Yu Lee knocking in 2 with a single and immediately followed by a 2-run shot by Jace Jung.

Jace Jung crushes a hanging slider 403 feet to give @MudHens the 4-1 lead. That’s his 10th of the season pic.twitter.com/S7kwp7NuyY

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) July 24, 2025

That lead would quickly go away. With the bases loaded, Indianapolis would get a walk, double, and a HR to score 7 runs in the bottom of the 4th to re-take the lead, 8-4, and they would never look back. Akil Baddoo would get a sac fly in the 6th and Eduardo Valencia a single in the 7th to make it an 8-6, but the comeback would end there for the offense.

Devin Smeltzer, the Toledo starter, was getting the whiffs as he had a 29% Whiff%. But a handful of pitches in the heart of the zone would start the 5th rough for him. He was pulled after a double by Nick Solak on a pitch that was a changeup low and away just on the edge of the strike zone. Woo-Suk Go would give up the HR in the following batter and allow 2 more runs to cross.

Alex Lange got another outing and was flirting with the strike zone, but was outside of it a little too much. He got a K on multiple of his curveballs being very low, but walked 2 batters and couldn’t finish the inning.

Tomorrow’s projected starters:

TBD vs Bubba Chandler (4-3, 3.27 ERA)

Erie SeaWolves (Double-A)

Final: Somerset 3 – Erie 1

Top Performer(s):

Jake Holton, 1B — 1-for-3, R
Thayron Liranzo, DH — 1-for-3, BB
Kevin McGonigle, SS — 0-for-4, RBI

Austin Bergner — 4.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K. Done after the 4th, Bergner is just 3 Ks away from the most in a  Erie Seawolves career. It took him 76 pitches to get through those 4 innings, but next start he will have a great chance to take the record.

Game Notes:

Rough game today for the offense scoring just the 1 run and that didn’t come until Kevin McGonigle grounded into a force out in the 8th inning. But that happens when the offense generates just 4 singles and a BB in the game.

The pitching side of things wasn’t too bad. Yosber Sanchez had a rough outing throwing 33 pitches in his single inning of work that had him walking 1 and giving up 3 hits, including a solo HR and an RBI double that gave Somerset the 3-0. Ryan Boyer come in after Sanchez and there 3 innings that saw just 1 base runner get on base and striking out 6.

Tomorrow’s projected starters:

Game 1: Kenny Serwa (4-3, 3.73 ERA) vs Carlos Lagrange (4-2, 3.79 ERA)

West Michigan Whitecaps (High-A)

Final: Peoria 4 – West Michigan 9

Top Performer(s):

Seth Stephenson, RF — 2-for-3, 2B, 3B, R, 2 RBI, SB
Austin Murr, LF — 2-for-5, 2 2B, R, 2 RBI
Izaac Pacheco, DH — 2-for-4, 2B, 2 R, RBI, BB

Rayner Castillo — 4.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K. Rayner with a decent start tonight. The big blemish against him was a 2 run HR that ended his night. 3 Ks and 3 singles allowed beside that HR.

Game Notes:

The Whitecaps scored runs early and quickly tonight. Seth Stephenson started the game with a double and then used his speed to steal 3B. He’d be later driven in by an Izaac Pacheco single. The next batter, Austin Murr, would drive in the other 2 runs that inning thanks to a fielding error. But that was nothing compared to the 6 run 3rd inning where the Whitecaps scored all 6 runs with 2 outs. They would get 4 XBH (3 doubles, 1 triple) in the inning.

Austin Murr with a double that scores John Peck and Izzac Pacheco and the Whitecaps are now up 5-0 pic.twitter.com/TWYwobcfpN

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) July 24, 2025

The pitching staff did a fine job keeping the lead. On top of Rayner Castillo’s 2 runs allowed, Moises Rodriguez and Marco Jimenez would each give up 1 ER. Freddy Pacheco would relieve Castillo after the HR and bring home the win on his 2 IP.

On a not fun note — Garrett Pennington was removed from the game in the 1st after getting hit in the head by the pitch. He seemed to be OK and wanted to stay in the game, so hopefully it was all precautionary.

Tomorrow’s projected starters:

Joe Miller (6-2, 3.03 ERA) vs Jason Savacool (3-0, 3.00 ERA)

Lakeland Flying Tigers (Single-A)

Final: Fort Myers 1 – Lakeland 4

Top Performer(s):

Samuel Gil, SS — 1-for-3, 2B, R, RBI, BB
Zach MacDonald, CF — 2-for-4, 2 R, SB
Jackson Strong, LF/RF — 1-for-4, R

RJ Sales — 5.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K. RJ Sales had himself a pretty good night. He was able to get 10 whiffs on 34 swings, 6 whiffs of which were against his cutter. The cutter in particular was fooling the hitters with a 60% Whiff% and 35% CSW% but only 18% of them saw the zone (3 of the 17 thrown).

Game Notes:

Lakeland was able to score all 4 of their runs in a variety of ways. There were throwing errors, wild pitches, balks, and the loan XBH from Samuel Gil to score their 4th, and only earned, run on the night. The offense got 2 walks and 7 hits tonight, but they were only 1-for-9 with RISP and left 7 on base.

Samuel Gil slaps a double in the right field corner pic.twitter.com/CbpZEslcXQ

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) July 24, 2025

That wouldn’t matter though as the pitching staff didn’t give up a run until the 9th inning. Lead by RJ Sales, whose cutter had the Fort Myers hitters fooled, they allowed 8 base runners and just the 1 run that was unearned. Duque Hebbert was the first reliever to come out and had 3 Ks in 3.0 IP and Jorger Petri came in the 9th.

Tomorrow’s projected starters: TBD vs Adrian Bohorquez (2-3, 5.13 ERA)

FCL Tigers (Rookie ball)

Final: FCL Blue Jays 7  – FCL Tigers 6

Top Performer(s):

Jude Warwick, 2B — 2-for-4, 2B, R, BB, SB
Ronald Ramirez, 3B — 2-for-2, R, RBI
Anibal Salas, CF — 2-for-3, R

Omari Daniel — 2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 3 K. Omari came in and finished out the game today. He didn’t give up any hits and got 3 Ks, lowering his ERA to 4.44 on the year.

Game Notes:

A make up from yesterday’s game, the FCL Tigers and FCL Blue Jays squared off today.

Wuilberth Mendez got the start today, his 9th start on the season. Things got pretty rocky for him in the 3rd inning as he gives up 6 ER, all on 2 outs. The FCL Blue Jays didn’t even get a base runner on in the 3rd until the second out was registered. It went groundout, strikeout, BB, BB, single/throwing error, Grand Slam, BB, wild pitch, 2-run HR. Then there was a rain delay and and the inning ended with a strikeout from Xiomer Guacache. The Blue Jays would tack on their 7th run on a solo HR from Emmanuel Bonilla in the next inning.

The FCL Tigers would do their best to make it a game though. Jude Warwick would score on a wild pitch in the 4th. Javier Osorio double in the 5th would drive in a run. Ronald Ramirez would single in a run and Nomar Fana a sac fly in the 6th to each drive in a run. Brett Callahan and Jude Warwick would each drive a run in the 9th with just 1 out to make it a 1 run game. The comeback would be stopped short though with a Jose Dickson strike out and Enrique Jimenez ground out.

Tomorrow’s projected starters: TBD vs TBD

DSL Tigers 1 (Rookie ball)

No DSL Tigers 1 games today, but there are 1 scheduled tomorrow.

Tomorrow’s projected starters: TBD vs TBD

DSL Tigers 2 (Rookie ball)

No DSL Tigers 2 games today, but there are 1 scheduled tomorrow.

Tomorrow’s projected starters: TBD vs TBD

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