Peyton Graham kept finding grass, and the Erie SeaWolves kept piling on.
Graham went 6-for-7 with three RBIs, a double and a stolen base as Erie rolled past Akron 18-9 on Wednesday, racking up 22 hits and drawing six walks in a blowout that turned into a hit parade from the third inning on. Graham also stole his 44th base of the season and finished with nine hits and four doubles over the past two games.
Erie’s big damage came in a third inning that never seemed to end. E.J.
Exposito, Seth Stephenson and Graham opened the frame with singles to load the bases for Thayron Liranzo, who drove in a run with a one-hopper through the right side. Chris Meyers followed with a two-run single, Garrett Pennington added another single to fill the bases again, and Justice Bigbie walked to force in a run.
A disengagement violation brought home the fifth run of the inning, Andrew Jenkins added a two-run single, Max Burt singled, and Graham came through again with an RBI single before the inning finally wrapped up.
By then, Erie had surged to an 8-1 lead, but Akron answered with four runs in the bottom half to keep it from getting away completely. The SeaWolves still kept coming.
Stephenson singled in two runs in the fifth, Pennington doubled later in the inning, and Graham doubled in Stephenson in the sixth. Bigbie tripled and scored on Burt’s sacrifice fly in the seventh, and Erie put the game away with four more in the ninth.
Graham’s sixth hit of the day drove in the 17th run, and Bennett Lee finished the scoring with an RBI single.
Stephenson also had a big night, going 3-for-7 with four runs and two RBIs. Jenkins drove in three runs, Liranzo scored twice and knocked in one, and Exposito, Burt and Pennington each chipped in multiple times as Erie’s lineup never let up.
Max Alba got the start and allowed five runs, four earned, over four innings. Yoniel Curet and Tanner Kohlhepp each gave up two runs in relief.
Toledo also got the kind of response it wanted, jumping on Iowa early and holding on for a 7-4 win. The Mud Hens broke loose in the bottom of the first, starting with a Max Clark walk and a Max Anderson double. Eduardo Valencia walked to load the bases, Corey Julks drew a walk to force in the first run, Trei Cruz singled in Anderson, Tyler Gentry walked to bring in another, Tomas Nido reached on an error to score one more, and a wild pitch capped the inning.
Nido doubled again in the third and scored on an Andrew Navigato single to make it 5-0. Iowa cut into the margin with a pair of runs in the fourth and then made it a two-run game with a two-run homer in the sixth, but Valencia answered in the bottom half with his 15th home run of the season to push the lead back to 7-4.
Sawyer Gipson-Long worked three scoreless innings before allowing two runs in the fourth. Enmanuel de Jesus gave up the sixth-inning homer, but Scott Effross handled the seventh and eighth with four strikeouts, and Woo-Suk Go earned his second save.
West Michigan also had to fight for its finish. The Whitecaps were down 7-4 entering the bottom of the eighth against Lake County, but they stormed back for a 10-7 win.
Ben Jacobs was tagged for four runs on 10 hits over 3.1 innings, though he didn’t issue a walk and struck out five. West Michigan chipped away early with Stephen Hrustich scoring on a Bryce Rainer double in the third, then Andrew Sojka’s two-run homer in the fourth pulled the Whitecaps within one. Sojka later added a sacrifice fly in the sixth to tie it at 4-4.
Lake County answered with three runs across the seventh and eighth, but West Michigan erupted in the bottom of the eighth. Luke Shliger walked to start the inning, and after a fielders choice, Sojka walked and Hrustich was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Jackson Strong, Rainer and Ricardo Hurtado then drew consecutive walks to force in three runs and tie the game. Clayton Campbell followed with a two-run single, and when the next reliever walked Shliger again, a wild pitch scored Hurtado for the final run.
Jalen Evans closed it out in the ninth and picked up the win.
Campbell finished 3-for-5 with two runs and two RBIs, while Sojka went 1-for-2 with two runs, three RBIs, a home run and a walk.
The Lakeland Flying Tigers and Palm Beach Cardinals were postponed by rain, and they’ll play two on Thursday starting at 4:00 p.m. ET.
In the FCL, the Yankees beat the Tigers 9-8. Jhonan Coba struggled again, giving up eight runs between the first and second innings and not getting out of the second. Marco Jimenez threw a perfect inning of relief with two strikeouts in his rehab assignment, and Cristian Perez and Enderson Delgado each homered for the Tigers.
In Other News...
Tigers Fans Wont Like The Latest Trade Rumor Around Their Ace
Tarik Skubals return to the mound has been one of the bright spots of the Tigers season, especially after he came back from elbow surgery and quickly looked like himself again. In 11 starts, the two-time American League Cy Young winner has posted a 3.15 ERA, a reminder of why Detroit has leaned so heavily on him as the anchor of its rotation.
Now, though, the conversation around Skubal is drifting far beyond his next outing. With the 2026 trade deadline still ahead, his name has surfaced in chatter among multiple clubs, a familiar kind of noise for an ace of his stature but one Tigers fans would rather not hear attached to a pitcher who has already proved how valuable he can be. [Read more 🡒]
Tigers Season Somehow Has One Split That Makes No Sense
For a club that has spent much of the summer looking up in the standings, the Tigers have collected a few odd side stories along the way. Detroit sits 37-49 and 12th in the American League, still six games back of the final Wild Card spot, but the shape of its season has been anything but routine. The Tigers have been sturdier in day games, have held their own more often at Comerica Park than on the road, and have had a strangely sharp contrast against starting-pitcher handedness.
The bigger head-scratcher is how uneven Detroit has been inside the AL Central, where the losses have piled up and kept the club from gaining any traction in the division race. Even as the Tigers have found ways to compete in some spots, the profile keeps pointing to a team that is more comfortable in certain settings than others, and the split against left-handed starters only adds another layer to the puzzle. For a roster trying to stay in the hunt, the next challenge is figuring out which version of the Tigers is the real one. [Read more 🡒]
Jackson Jobe Just Gave Tigers Fans A Reason To Dream Again
Jackson Jobes rehab has moved from a long-term hope to something a lot more tangible for Tigers fans. After Tommy John surgery in June 2025, the right-hander has kept stacking milestones, from offseason work in Texas to spring training time in Lakeland and bullpen sessions that showed he was trending in the right direction. The progress has been steady enough that team sources and MLB.com have both confirmed his velocity is back in a big way as he works his way through the next phase.
What makes the buildup matter is not just the radar-gun reading, but what it says about the shape of Jobes recovery. He has already cleared bullpen work, and if the rest of the rehab keeps moving cleanly, Detroit can start imagining him as part of the 2026 rotation picture. For a club that has been waiting to see whether one of its top arms could come back on schedule, that kind of progress is enough to keep the conversation alive all summer. [Read more 🡒]