Jake Rogers starts rehab assignment, SGL cruises in High-A and Strong has 3-hit day

Scores, news, and notes from the Detroit Tigers’ farm system for Tuesday, May 14, 2025.

Toledo Mud Hens 7, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders 0 (box )

Jake Rogers started his rehab assignment with the Mud Hens and looks just fine health-wise. He hit leadoff Tuesday night and went 2-3 with a double to open the game. He should only be down here a week or two at most before swapping places with Tomás Nido. Rogers scored the first run of the series in the opening frame off a Matt Vierling double — another guy who should be up sooner rather than later from his rehab stint. The red-hot Detroit Tigers still have some help on the way.

Manuel Margot drove in Vierling, who played right field in this one, later in the first and Toledo’s bats went fairly quiet until Akil Baddoo hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning. Hao-Yu Lee hit safely before the dinger, one of two base hits for him on the night.

Baddoo and Lee both walked to open the top of the eighth, the final scoring frame of the night. Ryan Kreidler singled to score Lee and reached second on the throw. Bligh Madris drove in Baddoo and Kreidler after a mid-inning pitching change.

The three-run eighth put the game away, but the RailRiders might have buried themselves much earlier with a bad day at the plate against Lael Lockhart. A pair of double plays and a lack of extra-base hits kept Lockhart in the game for six shutout innings and he struck out five despite not drawing a ton of whiffs on the night.

Tyler Owens and Bailey Horn both threw a scoreless inning in relief. Neither gave up a hit, although Owens walked a batter and recorded the only strikeout. The tarp came out before the top of the ninth could start, and it never came off. Eventually, the teams called it and things can go final with eight innings in the books.

Baddoo: 1-3, HR (6), 2 R, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 0 K

Rogers: 2-3, 2B (1), 1 R, 0 BB, 1 K

Vierling: 1-4, 2B (2), 1 R, 1 RBI, 0 BB, 2 K

Lee: 2-4, 2 R, 1 BB, 0 K

Lockhart (W, 1-3): 6.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K; 80 pitches (53 strikes)

Coming Up: Up a game early in the series, the Mud Hens can make it a two-game lead on Wednesday with an early one that starts at 11:05 a.m. ET with Nick Margevicius on the mound.

Erie SeaWolves 3, Richmond Flying Squirrels 1 (box )

Jaden Hamm wasn’t his sharpest on Tuesday, giving up seven hits over 4.2 innings, but he held Richmond scoreless and struck out five for Erie while throwing the bulk of the win. A double in the first, a pair of singles in the third and another base hit in the fourth were all navigable for Hamm, but he got the hook after three singles loaded the bases in the fifth.

RJ Petit got the pop-up necessary to keep Hamm’s record clean. Any or all of those runs could have scored and changed the outcome of the game. Instead, things proceeded to the sixth, where Erie finally built on the 1-0 lead it established in the first inning, off a Trei Cruz triple to lead off the game and a fielding error to score.

The SeaWolves’ second run of the game came off a solo home run from Thayron Liranzo in the sixth. Liranzo’s bomb broke a cold streak for Erie. Richmond starter Jack Choate struggled in the first two frames, but he settled in and retired 10 batters in a row before exiting after the home run.

Jim Jarvis, Cruz and Max Anderson hit back-to-back-to-back singles in the seventh to add an insurance run, but Erie’s bullpen hardly needed it with a rock-solid performance. Petit earned the win since Hamm came up an out shy of being eligible. He finished the sixth and turned things over to Jordan Marks for a 1-2-3 seventh in his Double-A debut.

Marks didn’t have as much success in the eighth. He walked a man with one out and things spiraled from there. Back-to-back singles forced Erie into a trade a run for an out situation before getting out of the inning. Dylan Smith pitched a 1-2-3 ninth with two strikeouts to record his second save of the season.

Anderson: 1-5, 2 RBI, 0 BB, 1 K

Cruz: 2-4, 3B (1), 1 R, 1 BB, 1 K

Liranzo: 1-4, HR (3), 1 R, 1 RBI, 0 BB, 2 K

Hamm: 4.2 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K; 77 pitches (57 strikes)

Coming Up: Carlos Peña is on the mound for Erie in Game 2 of the series Wednesday at 6:35 p.m. ET.

West Michigan Whitecaps 3, Fort Wayne TinCaps 0 (box )

Sawyer Gipson-Long made his return to action last week with Lakeland and he continued his journey back from Tommy John and hip surgery Tuesday night with three hitless innings for West Michigan.

Everything looked fine for SGL. His fastball sat 92-94 mph (T-95), his slider looked good in the low 80s with decent break and he also flashed the changeup, coming in around 85 mph. He cruised for the most part, not giving up a runner until he walked the first batter he saw in the third. A hard liner to first turned into a double play at third thanks to an over-eager runner.

That was it for Gipson-Long, and Carlos Marcano came in to throw the bulk of the game. He went five strong with just three hits and two walks while picking up the win. Lefty Carlos Lequerica earned his first save with a 1-2-3 ninth. Lequerica is now down to a 0.63 ERA through nine appearances and 14.1 innings.

It wasn’t the best night for the Whitecaps’ offense either, especially against the bullpen, but a couple of timely runs off the starter were enough for the win. After wasting singles in the second and third, John Peck sent his third home run of the year to left-center. Andrew Jenkins followed up with another single, but he too was stranded.

Izaac Pacheco tripled with two outs in the sixth to score the second Whitecaps run of the day. Jack Penney scored from first after walking to open the inning. That’s when Ian Koenig left the game for Fort Wayne, but he was still responsible for Pacheco, who scored on a Peyton Graham single.

Max Clark went 0-for-4 with a walk and two strikeouts, if that’s what you clicked this article to read about.

Clark: 0-4, 1 BB, 2 K

Pacheco: 1-4, 3B (2), 1 R, 1 RBI, 0 BB, 2 K

Peck: 2-4, HR (3), 1 R, 1 RBI, 0 BB, 2 K

Gipson-Long: 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K; 32 pitches (20 strikes)

Coming Up: West Michigan and Fort Wayne go at it again Wednesday at 6:35 p.m. ET, but the Whitecaps don’t have a probable starter listed.

Lakeland Flying Tigers 5, Clearwater Threshers 2 (box )

With Kevin McGonigle and Bryce Rainer at the top of the lineup, Lakeland’s offense should be fun this week, but it’s a bit of a curveball to see that duo go hitless in Game 1 of the series against Clearwater. Not for lack of trying, either. Rainer hit two balls 100-plus in exit velocity, including a 107. Neither of them happened to fall for base hits.

Instead, it was Jackson Strong leading the offense with a three-hit day. Strong drove in the first run of the game in the second, an RBI single to score Carson Rucker from a leadoff triple. Ricardo Hurtado grounded into an out for another run in the second, giving Lakeland an early 2-0 lead.

The Flying Tigers threw Hayden Minton, who allowed two earned runs on six hits, no walks and one hit batter. He got through the lineup the first time unscathed, but a double down the line in the fourth turned into an inside-the-park home run for Griffin Burkholder to break the shutout.

Brady Day doubled off Minton for more trouble in the inning, eventually scoring on a Raider Tello single. Minton stayed in the game, though, and didn’t come out until the fifth inning with two outs and one on for Ronny Chalas.

Clearwater’s bullpen folded first. Strong broke the 2-2 tie in the fifth with a triple and scored on a wild pitch. In the sixth, a one-out walk and a two-out single set the table for Garrett Pennington to double in a pair.

That 5-2 Flying Tigers lead held for the rest of the game, with Chalas, Moises Rodriguez and Thomas Bruss in the fold.

Chalas went two full innings and gave up zero runs on two hits and a walk, Rodriguez went 1.1 with three strikeouts and Bruss earned his second save of the season around a two-out double in the ninth. It was a good pitching day for the entire organization, top to bottom.

McGonigle: 0-3, 0 BB, 0 K

Rainer: 0-4, 0 BB, 1 K

Montilla: 0-2, 1 R, 2 BB, 1 K

Strong: 3-4, 2 2B (2), 1 R, 1 RBI, 0 BB, 0 K

Minton: 4.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 4 K, 1 HR

Coming Up: Neither Clearwater nor Lakeland knows who is starting on Wednesday, but the game is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

FCL Tigers 7, FCL Yankees 3 (box )

Jesus Pinto: 1-3, R, 2 RBI, HR, BB, SB

Enrique Jimenez: 2-4, RBI, 2B

Javier Osorio: 2-4, R, 2 RBI, HR, K

Eddy Felix: 4.0 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 5 K

FCL Yankees 6, FCL Tigers 0 (box )

Jose Dickson: 1-3, 2 K

Freddy Pacheco (L, 0-1): 2.1 IP, 3 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 0 K