FCL Tigers punch ticket to Complex League championship playoffs, while all four full season affiliates lost

Scores, news, and notes from around the Detroit Tigers’ farm system for Thursday, July 24, 2025.

Indianapolis Indians 3, Toledo Mud Hens 2 (box )

Indy scored early, and the Hens couldn’t muster much of a threat to overtake them until late in the game on Thursday.

In a bullpen game, Jordan Balazovic allowed a run in the second, and Drew Sommers gave up two more in relief in the third. Matt Manning settled things down with a clean fifth, and RJ Petit spun a pair of perfect frames with two strikeouts to keep the Indians in check.

Finally, after just two hits in the first five innings, the Hens got things going in the top of the sixth. Akil Baddoo led off with a single and Hao-Yu Lee hammered a triple into the right field corner to score him. Malloy struck out, but Jace Jung lifted a sacrifice fly that made it 3-2 Indy.

That was all they’d get, and a pair of singles in the seventh from Tomas Nido and Baddoo went nowhere. Jung opened the eighth with a single but was stranded as well. In the top of the ninth, Baddoo reached on an error with one out, and Lee walked, but Malloy grounded into a double play that ended the game.

Jung: 2-2, RBI, 2B, BB

Lee: 1-4, R, RBI, 3B, BB, K

Kreidler: 2-4, 2 K, SB

Petit: 2.0 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 BB, 2 K

Coming Up Next: Down 3-0 in the series, the Hens will try to get on track at 7:05 p.m. ET on Friday night.

Somerset Patriots 4, Erie SeaWolves 3 (box )

The SeaWolves had this one in the bag until a ninth inning meltdown fumbled it away.

Early on, Kenny Serwa had the Pariots completely in check. Despite some traffic on the bases, he blanked them for five inning before giving up a run in the sixth and departing. Tyler Mattison took over and closed out the inning before putting up a perfect seventh inning as well.

Meanwhile, the SeaWolves offense missed a solid scoring opportunity in the first, and then were stifled for the next three innings. They broke through in the fifth when Jim Jarvis led off with a walk and stole second. Max Clark struck out and a Kevin McGonigle ground out moved Jarvis to third, where he scored on a Josue Briceño single for a 1-0 lead.

In the sixth, after the Patriots tied it against Serwa in the top half, Ben Malgeri got a rally started with a leadoff single. Carlos Mendoza doubled him home, and eventually scored on a Jarvis double. That made it 3-1, but Jarvis was stranded as Clark and McGonigle flew out to end the inning.

Briceño led off the bottom of the seventh with a double, and Justice Bigbie followed with a walk. Despite a passed ball advancing both runners into scoring position, three strikeouts left them stranded and the SeaWolves would pay the price.

Andrew Magno gave up some hard contact in the eighth, but the 1-2-3 inning got him into position to earn the save in the ninth. Instead, a leadoff single and then a catcher’s interference on Eliezer Alfonzo put the Patriots in position to score, and score they would as the lefty surrendered a three-run shot to Brendan Jones.

The SeaWolves got a one out single from Malgeri, and then a walk to Mendoza, but again they left the runners stranded to lose 4-3.

Briceno: 2-4, RBI, 2B, BB, K

Jarvis: 3-4, R, RBI, 2B, BB, 2 SB

Mendoza: 2-3, R, RBI, 2B, 2 BB

Serwa: 5.1 IP, ER, 7 H, 3 BB, 4 K

Coming Up Next: The SeaWolves will look to even the series up on Friday evening at 6:35 p.m. ET.

Peoria Chiefs 9, West Michigan Whitecaps 5 (box )

A rare bad day for the ‘Caps pitching staff spoiled a big early lead on Thursday as the Chiefs made it a clean sweep of the Detroit Tigers and their minor league affiliates.

The Whitecaps seized control in the second inning. Izaac Pacheco led off with a double and Luke Gold and Patrick Lee followed with singles for a 1-0 lead. Woody Hadeen was then hit by a pitch. Archer Brookman lifted a sac fly to plate Gold from third, and Jack Penney cashed in everyone with a three-run shot to right field. 5-0 Whitecaps.

From that point, it was all Chiefs.

Joe Miller got the start, but departed after giving up three runs in the third. Joe Adametz took over, but he blew up for three runs in the fifth and one in the sixth that made it 7-5 Chiefs.

Austin Murr singled to open the seventh inning, and after two outs were made, Pacheco singled to right and was able to advance to second on the play, but Gold struck out to end the inning. Otherwise the offense couldn’t get much going after the second inning, and they were missing Seth Stephenson and Garrett Pennington, who were both hit by pitches and pulled from Wednesday’s game.

That was really their last shot as Dariel Fregio surrendered a pair of runs in the seventh.

Penney: 2-5, R, 3 RBI, HR

Pacheco: 2-4, R, 2B, K

Patrick Lee: 2-3, R, RBI, BB

Adametz (L, 1-4): 2.1 IP, 4 ER, 4 H, BB, 0 K

Coming Up Next: With their five-game streak snapped, the Whitecaps look to get back on the horse on Friday night at 8:05 p.m. ET.

Fort Myers Mighty Mussels 5, Lakeland Flying Tigers 4 (F/10)(box )

The Mussels were finally able to tame the high Flying Tigers, snapping their eight game winning streak, but it took them 10 innings to do it after a stirring rally in the bottom of the ninth from Lakeland sent this one to extra innings.

Lucas Elissalt got the start, and continues to impress as a lower tier name to watch in the starting pitcher rankings within the Tigers farm. He allowed a solo shot in the first, and another in the fifth, but was otherwise pretty untouchable. Those two homers were the only hits he allowed and he struck out five along the way.

The Flying Tigers answered in the bottom of the first when Junior Tilien singled in Zach MacDonald, but they wouldn’t score again for quite some time.

Still it was 2-1 Mussels when Elissalt departed, and Ignacio Briceno gave up a run in the sixth in relief. Ronny Chalas took over and allowed a run in the eighth, and it was 4-1 Mussels heading into the bottom half.

Ricardo Hurtado led off the inning with a double. Tilien lined out, but Cristian Santana singled in Hurtado to make it 4-2.

In the bottom of the ninth, with two outs, Samuel Gil walked and was wild pitched to second. Stephen Hrustich drew a walk as well, and Hurtado came up huge, doubling in both runs to tie the game in the nick of time. Tilien struck out swinging, but they’d tied things up and got an extra inning to work with.

Chris Williams Jr. allowed the runner on second to score in the top of the 10th, and the Flying Tigers couldn’t match it.

Hurtado: 2-5, R, 2 RBI, 2 2B

Santana: 1-4, RBI, BB, K

Elissalt: 5.0 IP, 2 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 5 K

Coming Up Next: The Flying Tigers take a 2-1 series lead into Fort Myers on Friday night as the series moves from Lakeland to Florida’s west coast for the final three games.

FCL Tigers 9, FCL Yankees 2 (box )

The FCL Tigers took down the Yankees pretty handily to clinch a postseason berth, becoming the fourth affiliate to reach the postseason this year.

Right-hander Jatnk Diaz got the start, and he was pretty solid. Diaz went 4 ¹⁄₃ innings, allowing two runs, one earned, on three hits and three walks, with four strikeouts on the day.

The Tigers immediately gave him a nice lead to work with. Anibal Salas and Jude Warwick walked to start the bottom of the first inning, and a rehabbing Brett Callahan singled in Salas. Javier Osorio was hit by a pitch to load the bases, and was replaced by Ronald Ramirez as pinch-runner. An Enrique Jimenez ground out scored Warwick. Brady Cerkownyk struck out, but David Smith drilled a two-run single for a 4-0 lead.

In the fourth, Jose Dickson walked with one out and stole second. A balk got him to third, and a Salas fly out brought him home for a 5-0 lead.

After four strong frames, Diaz gave up two runs in the fifth, one caused by a Ramirez error, and departed in favor of Shay Timmer. The big right-hander was dominant for 2 ²⁄₃ innings, striking out five without allowing a hit.

In the bottom of the fifth, Callahan walked and promptly stole second and third. This is Complex League ball after all. Ramirez lifted a sacrifice fly to score the run, and Jimenez followed with a single. A wild pitch got him to second where Smith later singled him in for a 7-2 lead.

The Tigers got a run in the sixth based on rookie pitching alone, requiring not a single hit as there were two walks and two balks from the Yankees. They pushed across one more in the eighth for good measure.

Eliseo Mota handled the eighth in perfect fashion, while Antonio Florida closed it out with a 1-2-3 ninth, and the party was on.

Smith: 2-4, 3 RBI

Callahan: 1-3, 2 R, RBI, 2 BB, 2 SB

Salas: 0-1, 3 R, RBI, 3 BB

Diaz: 4.1 IP, 2 R, ER, 3 H, 3 BB, 4 K

Timmer (W, 2-1): 2.2 IP, 0 R, 0 H, BB, 5 K

Coming Up Next: The Tigers will take on the Twins in the first game of the postseason at noon on Saturday. The Blue Jays will take on the Astros on the other side of the bracket.