Jackson Wolf kept rolling Thursday night, and the Toledo Mud Hens made sure his work turned into a lopsided win.
Toledo beat Iowa 9-1 behind five innings from the left-hander, who gave up one run on two hits while walking three and striking out five. The only damage against him came in the fourth, when the Cubs strung together a pair of singles and a wild pitch to get on the board. By then, though, the Mud Hens had already started stacking up runs.
The breakthrough came in the third. Justice Bigbie opened with a single and later came around on a two-out triple from Cal Stevenson to put Toledo in front 1-0. In the fourth, Jace Jung singled with one out and scored on a Carlos Pérez homer, stretching the lead to 3-0.
Toledo answered Iowa’s lone run immediately in the fifth. Max Burt singled, stole second, and Stevenson came through again with another triple to score him. Max Anderson followed with an RBI single, pushing the lead to 5-1.
The Hens kept the pressure on late. In the eighth, Corey Julks and Jung opened with singles, Bennett Lee drew a walk, and James Oatman was walked to force in a run.
Bigbie then ripped a double that scored Jung, though Lee was thrown out at the plate and Oatman was tagged out trying to score as well. That still left Toledo with just one run in the frame, but Michael Siani capped the inning with a two-run homer to right, making it 9-1.
Enmanuel de Jesus worked a scoreless sixth, and Hayden Minton cleaned up a jam in the seventh before handling the eighth. Tyler Mattison finished it off in the ninth.
Stevenson finished 2-for-5 with two runs, two RBIs and two triples. Burt went 3-for-4 with a run and a stolen base.
In Erie, the SeaWolves were involved in a wild one that ended in a 11-10 loss to Reading, despite piling up offense and setting a new team Eastern League stolen base record at 273 and counting.
Kenny Serwa took the loss, and the knuckleballer was hit hard as the Fightin Phils kept putting balls in play where Erie couldn’t turn them into outs. Reading scored four times in the second, added single runs in the third and fifth, and got another before Serwa exited in the sixth.
Erie struck first when Woody Hadeen singled to start the game, stole second, and scored on an E.J. Exposito single.
The SeaWolves added another in the fifth after Viandel Pena walked, moved up on a Woody Hadeen grounder, and watched Zyhir Hope single through the right side. Hope and Hadeen then pulled off a double steal, and Hadeen scored on an Exposito groundout.
At 5-2 Reading, the SeaWolves were still hanging around, but three straight hits off Serwa to start the fifth pushed the margin to 6-2.
Then Erie’s offense caught fire in the sixth. Luke Shliger led off with a double, Roberto Campos followed with a two-run homer to the opposite field, and Seth Stephenson singled and stole second before Pena doubled him home. Pena later scored on a balk, and the game was tied.
The tie didn’t last. Serwa walked a batter with one out in the sixth and gave way to Eric Silva, who struggled and allowed three runs to score as Reading moved back ahead 9-6.
Izaac Pacheco launched his 21st homer in the seventh, but the bullpen couldn’t hold things together. Johan Simon had trouble in the eighth and eventually gave up a two-run single that made it 11-7.
Erie made one more push in the ninth. Chris Meyers and Pacheco walked to start the inning, Campos doubled in both runs, and after a wild pitch moved him to third, an error on a Stephenson ground ball brought him home to make it 11-10. But with the tying run in reach, Pena grounded into a game-ending double play.
Stephenson finished 3-for-5 with a run, an RBI, a double and a stolen base. Pacheco went 1-for-4 with two runs, an RBI, a homer, a walk and two strikeouts.
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Riley Greene was part of the early push, Kevin McGonigle chipped in as the lineup kept moving, and Spencer Torkelson added the kind of extra punch that makes a game feel out of reach. Gabriel Hughes never found much relief for Colorado, and for Detroit, the bigger question now is how much of this momentum can follow the Tigers as the schedule gets tougher. [Read more 🡒]