Understudy Night At the Clip Joint

Francisco Lindor

With Nick Hagadone optioned back to Columbus (he has three days to report), the Clippers figured that they might as well get some use out of the guy who took his place on the roster.  As such, Toru Murata (0-1, 6.75) made his AAA debut tonight in a spot start.  Murata needed 80 pitches (51 strikes) to make it through 4 innings, allowing 3 earned on 5 hits, a walk and 4 K's.  First to relieve Toru was Kyle Landis (6.00), also making his AAA debut.  Landis was added to the active roster earlier in the day when CC Lee (2-0, 2.57) was placed on the disabled list with right forearm tightness.  Landis allowed a two run bomb to Brad Eldred, but pitched well otherwise, including 24 of 35 pitches for strikes.  Many are surprised that Landis was promoted rather than Bryce Stowell, who is regarded as a better prospect and already has AAA experience.  Thus, there is some expectation that Landis will be headed straight back to Akron tomorrow, in favor of the big right hander.  We shall see.

Oh, and if you thought Sunday was a poor offensive showing for the Clips, it's got nothing on Monday.  The team mustered just 3 hits and struck out 11 times.  C-Town was only able to stay in the game thanks to the 8 free passes issued by Toledo pitching.

Now this AAA pitching rotation thing gets real confusing.  My best guess is that Scott Barnes (0-2, 5.06) will take the hill tomorrow at 6:35p when the Clippers play their first home game in nearly 2 weeks.

Other Minor Points of Interest -

Akron
After compiling just 4 hits in his first 27 at-bats this season, Nick Weglarz (.211) is 4-for-8 with 3 extra base hits and 5 walks since returning from 5 off days.  While I was sminking, Wegz began the season 0-for-14 with 8 K's.  Since then, he's batting .333 with 6 RBI.  The Aeros' bullpen continued to shine tonight with Bryan Price (1.74) and Cody Allen (0.82) each pitching 2 scoreless innings.  Price punched out 4 and is holding opponents to a .143 clip while averaging 12.2 K/9.  Allen was perfect and whiffed a pair.  Across two levels, Cody's OBA has been .083 and his K/BB ratio is 16/0 over 11 innings.

Carolina
Let's raise a cheer for Tony Wolters (.127), who banged out his first multi hit game of the season and scored a run.  Jake Lowery (.345) also cracked two hits, driving home a pair of runs.

Lake County
Led by home run #1 of 2012 from both Luigi Rodriguez (.314) and Francisco Lindor (.273), the Captains won for just the second time in 14 games.  Rodriguez finished a double short of the cycle, while scoring 2 runs and driving in 3.  Each player also swiped his 6th bag of the season in the game.

Cheers.