Cleveland Sports Forum

Alex White debuting in AAA tongiht. He's fanned 4 and walked 2 in his first 2 innings. Phelps single scores Carrera who walked and stole second. Jared Head homered.

Kinston trails 2-1 after 4. McFarland pitching. Greenwell with a single and a steal and Frawley drives him in. Abner Abreu has 2 walks today after a 4K tonight on Friday.

Captains hold a 2-1 lead after 6. Ryan Blair's professional debut was 4 innings pitched, 1 run on a pair of hits, he walked 4. Owen Dew has two scoreless innings. Class A vet Jason Smit (athough still only age 21) has driven in both runs, with a single and a double. Nick Bartolone with his 3rd error of the 3-game season; we can hope Tony Wolters will be here soon to relieve us of Nick at short.

Errors by Chase Burnette (his 2nd in 2 games at 1st base) and Adam Abraham (former hockey player) at 3rd plus a single and Kinston now trails 3-1

AAA Columbus Clippers

Clippers 8, Indians 7 (10) Columbus scored a run in the top of the 10th inning to win an International League game in Indianapolis. Jerad Head doubled to start the rally, and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Ezequiel Carrera. After Cord Phelps was intentionally walked, Head scored when Lonnie Chisenhall grounded into a force out.

Head also clubbed his first home run of the season in the third inning. Josh Judy (1-0) pitched two innings in relief for the victory.


AA Akron Aeros

Mets 6, Aeros 2 Akron (1-2) gave up two runs in the top of the eighth and two more in the top of the ninth, and lost an Eastern League game to Binghamton, N.Y.

Chen-Chang Lee was the losing pitcher. He lasted two innings, giving up four runs (two earned) on three hits, walking two and striking out three.

Notes: Grady Sizemore made his second rehab start, going 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI and playing nine innings. Sizemore is now 3-for-7 on his major-league rehab assignment.


Advanced A Kinston Indians

Dash 3, Indians 2 Winston-Salem won a rain-shortened Carolina League game at Kinston, N.C. The game was called after eight innings. Two Kinston errors allowed the Dash to score the deciding run in the fifth inning.

Kinston stranded 10 base runners, five in scoring position.

T.J. McFarland was the starting and losing pitcher. He went six innings, striking out seven, yielding five hits and three runs (two earned).


A Lake County Captains

Loons 4, Captains 2

Great Lakes scored three times in the bottom of the seventh and won a Midwest League game in Midland, Mich., over the Captains. Owen Dew (0-1) was the losing pitcher. In 2 innings of relief, he gave up four hits and three runs, all earned. Jason Smit drove in both Captains runs, with a single and double.

Are the Clippers drawing better than the Tribe?

Clippers haven't had a home game yet. Here's their Saturday box, over 5000 in Indianapolis. Ezequiel Carrera leading off singled twice, walked, doubled, stole a base, caught stealing. Phelps, Brown and Head with 2 hits each. White 5 innings, 2 runs, 6 K. Todd 2/3 1 run.

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb ... a_indaaa_1

The Kinston box. Game story above. Only multihit game from Chase Burnette whose 2nd error contributed to the loss. Jose Flores, Rule 5 returnee, debuted, retiring 1 of 1 he faced.

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb ... a_kinafa_1

Captains box. Kyle Blair debuts for 4 innings, 1 run, 4 walks. Nick Bartalone finishes with 2 errors, early season total is 4. Expect Martinez or Cannon at ss today. Jason Smit has 3 hits, Urshela 2, Lavisky Dh'ing doubles. Smit and Lavisky are both 21, although this is Smit's 5th professional season already.

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb ... x_swmafx_1

INDIANAPOLIS - Jerad Head arrived in professional baseball in 2005 without any of the pomp, circumstance or cash that accompanies a pricey first-round draft choice.

Two months after the draft that season, the Cleveland Indians signed Head as a free agent, showed him the lowest rung on the organizational ladder and dared him to climb.

Six years later, Head still is climbing. He finally made his 2011 debut in the third game of the season for the Clippers last night in Victory Field.

The most valuable player in the 2010 triple-A national championship game for the Clippers last September, Head hit a solo home run in the third inning and scored the final run of a wild 10-inning, 8-7 victory over the Indianapolis Indians.

"The one thing with Jerad is he knows that he has to fight for everything in this game," Clippers manager Mike Sarbaugh said. "That's why he's been playing the way he has the past three or four years.

"He has to continue to do that. He might not play for three or four days, and it takes a special guy to be able to do that. Like I told him, things will play out. We have a long season. He'll get his chances. He took advantage of one tonight."

Despite the gaudy numbers he put up in the postseason, Head knew he had to fight to make the Clippers this season. He didn't mind.

"I felt good," Head said. "I played some winter ball to get some more at-bats and tried to capitalize on how I finished last year."

He broke up an early pitching duel between Clippers starter Alex White and Justin Wilson in his first at-bat of the season. Head turned around a fastball from Wilson and launched it over the wall in right-center.

"I faced him last year (in double-A)," Head said. "I kind of remembered what he throws. I waited for my pitch and I drove it."

White nursed a 2-0 lead through four innings but gave up a pair of runs in the fifth. The Indians took a 6-2 lead in the seventh against relievers Paolo Espino and Jess Todd.

The Clippers answered with three runs in the eighth, including a two-run triple by Jason Kipnis, to cut the deficit to 6-5. They regained the lead on a sacrifice fly from Kipnis and an infield single by Jordan Brown.

The Indians didn't go quietly. Alex Presley sent the game into extra innings with a two-out solo home run in the ninth off Josh Judy. Head doubled in the 10th, went to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a Lonnie Chisenhall fielder's choice.

"This team can hit," Head said. "We're going to score runs and keep ourselves in the game."

Judy (1-0) pitched a scoreless 10th to earn the win.

jmassie@dispatch.com

Clippers and Aeros win, Kinston and LC lose. Stars of the day:

Cord Phelps, 2 Homers, 4 rbi; Austin Adams 6 shutout 2 hit innings; Nick Hagadone follows with 2 scoreless; Abner Abreu 3 hits, including 2 doubles; Chun Chen 2 hits; Bo Greenwell 2 hits. Jason Smit 3 more hits

Clay Cook and Cole Cook both starters and losers in Class A. Tony Dischler was atrocious in his 1+ at Lake County, 7 runs. More details tomorrow with the boxes

wonder if they have any plans on playing phelps at 1st base.....with L.C. penciled in at 3rd, Kipnis at 2nd, maybe they should try Phelps out at 1st. I know he doesn't have the power you'd like....but then neither does LaPorta Maybe he could develop into someone like a Jon Olarude (sp). And if LaPorta turns into the hitter we all hope he will....then make Phelps into the super sub

Clippers start 4-0
The Clippers defeated the Indianapolis Indians 7-5 today and swept the four-game series in Victory Field. This marks the first time since 1980 that the team has started the season 4-0.

Cord Phelps hit a pair of home runs in the game and drove in four runs. His solo shot missed the home run truck in center field by about a foot in the fourth inning. (Sadly, an Indy player has to hit the truck for it to mean anything and then a fan wins another truck.)

Phelps added a three-run moon shot in the fifth. Bubba Bell started his first game since being acquired in a trade with the Boston Red Sox and was 4 for 4 with two doubles and an RBI.

Zach McAllister (1-0) pitched the first five innings for Columbus. He tired in the fifth when former Clipper and Cleveland Indian Andy Marte touched him for a two-run home run. Zach Putnam pitched the final two innings to earn his first triple-A save. Joe Martinez pitched scoreless innings of relief.

The Clippers open a two-game series at Louisville at 6:35 p.m. Monday.

Here;s the Columbus box score. Chief's reported all the highlights

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb ... x&did=milb

Superb pitching for the Aeros: Adams 6 innings, Hagadone 2 and Burns fans the side for the save in 1-0 win. Kyle Bellows debuts as DH and singles. Chen with 2 hits.

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb ... x_akraax_1