Matt Vierling homers in rehab start with Toledo; Pennington homers for Lakeland

Scores, news, and notes from the Detroit Tigers’ farm system for Tuesday, May 6, 2025.

Toledo Mud Hens 5, Iowa Cubs 4 (F/10) (box )

It took extra innings to decide the series opener between Iowa and Toledo, but the Mud Hens led the Cubs for most of the game. Iowa tied it up in the top of the ninth, forcing a 10th frame, where things ended in one of the weirder sequences seen on a baseball field. Catcher interference loaded up the bases with two outs and Jahmai Jones was skimmed by a pitch, bringing in the winning run.

The oddly climactic finish steals the headline, but some good back-and-forth baseball got played, too.

Matt Vierling gave Toledo an early lead with a solo home run to right-center in the first. Iowa answered with a two-out single to tie things back up immediately. It started a pattern of offenses responding to one another.

After a quiet third and fourth, Iowa finally got to Toledo starter Wilkel Hernandez again for a solo homer. The Mud Hens got their revenge just as fast as the Cubs evened things up in the second. Andrew Navigato doubled in Ryan Kreidler and everything was tied up.

John Brebbia took over for Hernandez on the mound at that point. Hernandez is usually good for five innings and maintains a surprisingly low ERA for someone who gives up a lot of hits. One limiting factor with Hernandez is that he’s pretty much only sinker and slider. He threw the changeup three times over 85 pitches on Tuesday.

Brebbia walked the second batter he faced and nearly got out of the inning unharmed with outs on both sides of the free base. Matt Shaw lined one through the right side to give the Cubs the lead again. Bailey Horn came in to end the inning and did so after walking a batter.

Bligh Madris scored from second base on a ball in the dirt that got away from the catcher, and Jones trailed him to set up the go-ahead opportunity for Navigato. A soft ground ball to the left side left Shaw no choice but to go to first for the sure out.

Horn was solid in the seventh, and Ryan Miller put together a 1-2-3 eighth. He blew the save on a Jonathon Long homer in the ninth, though, handing Matt Seelinger a third win in extras.

Vierling: 1-2, HR (1), 1 R, 1 RBI (1), 2 BB, 1 K

Lee: 1-5, 0 BB, 1 K

Navigato: 1-4, 2B (5), 2 RBI (8), 0 BB, 1 K

Hernandez: 5.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K; 85 pitches (56 strikes)

Coming Up: Lael Lockhart is the scheduled starter for Wednesday’s 11:05 a.m. ET matchup.

Erie SeaWolves 3, Altoona Curve 0 (box )

Jaden Hamm and Erie’s pitching staff dominated the Altoona Curve to win the series opener, 3-0, behind a combined two-hitter.

Hamm gave up one hit, a leadoff single in the fourth, and was wildly efficient on the mound. He went five shutout innings with just 67 pitches. Part of it was a light-ish strikeout day (4) and a couple of double play/web gems bailed him out of baserunner problems.

Still, this could be a statement game from Hamm, who had a similar outing in his debut before a string of rougher outcomes. Rain came down in the middle innings of the game and caused a delay after the fifth, but it would have been nice to see how far Erie stretched Hamm without a forced break.

RJ Petit took over after the delay. A dropped fly ball to left field puts an asterisk on Petit’s two perfect innings out of the bullpen. He struck out four in a row at one point and ran his fastball up to 97 mph.

Dylan Smith closed the game, earning his first save with Erie over two innings. He gave up the other single to Altoona to lead off the eighth. The defense’s third double play of the night kept the innings moving, though. Smith went 1-2-3 in the ninth to end a dominant day on the mound for all three contributors to the shutout.

Erie’s bats were the opposite of Altoona’s. The SeaWolves had a baserunner in every inning and hit safely in all but one of the eight offensive frames. With that being said, three runs to back up a pitching performance like that isn’t ideal. Erie was 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position and left more than one runner an inning on base.

Every starter in the lineup besides Jim Jarvis hit safely, with Trei Cruz, Chris Meyers and Eduardo Valencia putting together multi-hit days. Meyers had the only extra-base hit, his sixth double of the year, in the second. He scored on a Valencia single in the next at bat.

In the fourth, Justice Bigbie singled and took second on a Jake Holton groundout. While Meyers stood firm in the batter’s box, Curve pitcher J.C. Flowers threw the ball into center field and Justice Bigbie scampered around third to home to make it 2-0. Valencia singled in another insurance run in the eighth for Erie’s third run.

Liranzo: 1-4, 0 BB, 1 K

Anderson: 1-4, 0 BB, 0 K

Valencia: 2-4, 2 RBI, 0 BB, 2 K

Meyers: 2-4, 2B (6), 1 R, 2 RBI, 0 BB, 2 K

Hamm (W, 1-2): 5.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 K; 67 pitches (36 strikes)

Petit (H, 1): 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K; 30 pitches (19 strikes)

Smith (S, 1): 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K; 25 pitches (16 strikes)

Coming Up: Lefty Carlos Pena gets the start for Erie Wednesday at 11:05 a.m. ET

West Michigan Whitecaps 2, Lansing Lugnuts 0 (box )

The Whitecaps did the same thing the SeaWolves did, riding a strong pitching performance and scattered hits to a low-scoring win.

Left-hander Andrew Sears followed Jaden Hamm’s performance in the starter role. Sears went the same five innings, but he didn’t allow a hit. He drew 14 swing and misses, the fifth-most across High-A on Tuesday, and struck out six. Sears pitched with an angry presence, working at a fast pace but also with emotion. If he can control whatever he’s tapping into, the stuff looked good Tuesday night.

West Michigan went with the trio of Micah Ashman, Marco Jimenez and Trevin Michael in relief of Sears. Jimenez came out first for a 1-2-3 sixth. Ashman got the middle two innings in the 1-2-1 split, his usual workload. It’s been nearly a month since Ashman gave up an earned run, and he’s made seven appearances since April 9. Ashman continued to do what he does and lowered his ERA to 0.61 through almost 15 innings this year.

Ashman earned his third hold but gets the blame for blowing the combined no-hitter. A two-out single from TJ Schofield-Sam broke it up in the eighth. Michael got his first save of the year with a 1-single-2-3 ninth.

Both of West Michigan’s runs came in the third inning. Max Clark doubled in Archer Brookman with a roller to the wall, and Seth Stephenson scored him with a liner into right field. Similar to Erie, West Michigan went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left seven runners on base.

Clark: 2-4, 2B (5), 1 R, 1 RBI, 0 BB, 0 K

Briceno: 1-4, 3B (1), 0 BB, 1 K

Sears (W, 1-1): 5.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K; 72 pitches (49 strikes)

Ashman (H, 3): 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K; 31 pitches (21 strikes)

Coming Up: West Michigan looks to build on its series lead Wednesday at 6:05 p.m. ET with Carlos Marcano scheduled to start.

Max Clark weighed in on social media about his setup and hitting mechanics in response to a tweet from Aram Leighton from Just Baseball Media. If you’re interested, Clark gets involved in the replies to describe some adjustments he’s worked on.

Lakeland Flying Tigers 4, Bradenton Marauders 2 (box)

An early strike from the Flying Tigers’ offense put Lakeland in command against the Bradenton Marauders. Four of Lakeland’s seven hits on Tuesday and three of its four runs came in the first inning, but that’s all that was needed to beat Bradenton.

With one out in the top of the first, Bryce Rainer got things started with a single up the middle and Franyerber Montilla drew a walk. Jackson Strong pulled a grounder through the right side of the infield to score Rainer, and Carson Rucker plated Montilla with another single to right field. Ricardo Hurtado struck out, but before the inning ran out of mojo, Garrett Pennington brought in Strong with a single of his own. 3-0 Lakeland.

Starting pitcher R.J. Sales didn’t miss too many bats, but he was able to scatter three hits and a walk over five innings. He worked his fourseamer from 94-96 mph, getting whiffs with his cutter and showing some solid changeups here and there.

The Flying Tigers missed a scoring chance in the fourth when Hurtado, Cristian Santana, and Patrick Lee all walked. But with one out, Woody Hadeen grounded into a double play to snuff that threat.

In the fifth, the Marauders broke through for a run against Sales, with a two-out single and then a double doing the trick. A passed ball and a walk followed, but Sales dug down to punch out Konnor Griffin with a cutter to end the rally as well as his outing.

Pennington struck right back with a solo shot, his third home run, in the top of the sixth.

Jorger Petri took over from Sales, but after a scoreless sixth, he loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh, giving up a single and two walks after getting the first out of the inning. Ronny Chalas was able to clean things up, allowing just one inherited runner to score. He handled the eighth as well, while Moises Rodriguez was up to 98 mph in collecting his fourth save of the season.

Pennington: 2-4, R, 2 RBI, HR

Rainer: 2-5, R, K

Strong: 1-3, R, RBI, BB, 2 K

Sales (W, 1-1): 5.0 IP, ER, 3 H, BB, 3 K

Coming Up: Lakeland plays at 6:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday, but no starter is listed for the Flying Tigers. There was also some unfortunate news on Wednesday, as LHP Paul Wilson, the Tigers 2023 third rounder, joined RHP Zach Swanson, among others, on the full season injured list.