Toledo and Erie rally late, West Michigan splits doubleheader and Rainer goes deep

Scores, news, and notes from the Detroit Tigers’ farm system for Saturday, May 24, 2025.

Toledo Mud Hens 5, Indianapolis Indians 4 (bo x)

The No. 2 prospect in the country, Bubba Chandler, kept the Mud Hens hitless through six innings, but some late life led to a walk-off win for Toledo on Saturday.

Indianapolis got out in front early with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the first and doubled that lead with an RBI single in the fourth. Gage Workman broke up the no-hitter in the seventh with a leadoff single. He and Ryan Kreidler scored on an Austin Murr home run later in the inning, giving Toledo a 3-2 lead.

Sawyer Gipson-Long did his best to keep Indy off the board for four innings. He gave up the two earned runs mentioned above on five hits and a walk while striking out four. Not a ton of swing and miss tonight from SGL, and a third of the batters he faced reached base.

Matt Seelinger and Dylan Smith combined for four scoreless innings of relief, allowing Toledo to get back in the game. Seelinger was first. He gave up a single and walked the last batter he faced before giving way to Smith, who walked the first batter he saw and retired the next four in a row. Seelinger’s cutter drew five whiffs on eight swings (63% whiff rate), and Smith had similar numbers with his slider (60%, 3 whiffs).

Toledo’s offense continued to hit after Murr’s three-run shot. Hao-Yu Lee and Jace Jung opened up the eighth with back-to-back singles, putting men on the corners. Jahmai Jones drove in a run with a sacrifice fly, but Kreidler and Workman both struck out to waste an opportunity to put the game away.

Of course, the baseball gods made sure to punish the Mud Hens in the ninth, with Matt Manning on the bump. Manning has a pattern of shutting out opponents in his first appearance of the week and then giving up runs later in the week.

The Indians jumped on him with a leadoff double, but Manning got one out away from closing the game and earning a save. A pair of walks loaded the bases, and Jack Suwinski singled in a pair to tie the game at four apiece. It’s Manning’s second blown save since transitioning to a bullpen role, and things are looking bleak for his MLB future right now.

Fortunately, he got out of the inning, and Manuel Margot walked things off with an RBI single to score Stephen Scott from second.

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

Jung: 1-3, 1 BB, 0K

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

Gipson-Long: 4.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K; 56 pitches (34 strikes)

Coming Up Next: With the series now locked up, 4-1, Toledo turns to lefty Nick Margevicius at 5:35 p.m. on Sunday to close out the week.

Erie SeaWolves 5, Hartford Yard Goats 3 (box )

The SeaWolves notched a seventh straight win on Saturday night.

Jaden Hamm gave up a two-run homer in the first but otherwise cruised through five innings of work. Two of his three hits allowed came in the opening frame, and he struck out five to two walks.

Hamm has struggled keeping the ball in the yard this season. His 17.6% home run to fly ball ratio is elevated and suggests some unluckiness, but a .299 BABIP could mean he’s just giving up homers at this level. That’s the key stat for Hamm moving into the second half of the year.

Chris Meyers got the two runs back with a homer of his own in the second, scoring Carlos Mendoza and tying up the game. Meyers came up clutch again in the fourth with a go-ahead RBI single. Both hits came off Hartford starter Gabriel Hughes (No. 15 COL), who left after five innings.

Hamm also left the game after five frames. Erie threw Richard Guasch, Matt Merrill and RJ Petit in that order.

The Detroit Tigers signed Guasch a couple of days ago and was assigned to Erie Saturday to make his debut. Guasch is a Cuban born pitcher who pitched with the Oakland A’s and Washington Nationals organizations but never cracked the big leagues. The Tigers acquired his contract from Rieleros de Aguascalientes of the Mexican League. The right-hander ran into some trouble in the sixth but stranded two runners in scoring position with a strikeout. The seventh was much cleaner, although Hartford did single in the inning.

Guasch is mostly fastball and slider with the former sitting 94-95 mph. Reports have him running it up to 98, but that kind of velocity wasn’t present on Saturday. He’s definitely hittable, but there’s stuff to work with and Erie needs arms with Yosber Sanchez hurt and Dylan Smith now in Toledo.

Merrill took over in the eighth and immediately got into trouble with a leadoff walk and one-out single. A sac fly drove in the runner on third, tying the game up at three in the penultimate inning.

Justice Bigbie and Carlos Mendoza made sure the game didn’t go to extras with an RBI double and an RBI single, respectively. Petit closed things out, but not without drama. He put the tying run on base with a single and a hit batter but also hurled a pair of strikeouts to end the game.

Anderson: 1-3, 1 R, 0 BB, 0 K

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

Campos: 1-4, 2B (7), 0 BB, 0 K

Cruz: 0-4, 0 BB, 1 K

Liranzo: 0-4, 0 BB, 2 K

Mendoza: 3-3, 2 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 0 K

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

Hamm: 5.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K; 78 pitches (48 strikes)

Coming Up Next: The SeaWolves are looking for a perfect week and on Sunday at 1:35 p.m. and are sending lefty Carlos Pena to the mound.

Great Lakes Loons 4, West Michigan Whitecaps 0 (F/7)(box )

Not much went right for West Michigan in the first game of a Friday doubleheader against the Great Lakes Loons.

The Whitecaps mustered just four hits and two walks together while striking out seven times over as many innings. Kevin McGonigle and Peyton Graham each had multi-hit days with a double, but the rest of the offense was lifeless.

Andrew Sears took the loss. He threw 3.2 innings and allowed three runs (one earned) on five hits and two walks while striking out four. Joe Adametz gave up a run on three hits and two walks in 1.1 innings of relief, and Marco Jimenez was perfect over the final two frames.

Great Lakes relied on Luke Fox for six innings and then went to Alex Makarewich to close it out. Fox had some shaky outings in April but has really pulled it together in May. Still, it’s never good to see a guy have his best day of the season against your team. It’s been a weird week with rain and doubleheaders for West Michigan, so maybe that has something to do with it?

Clark: 0-3, 0 BB, 1 K

McGonigle: 2-3, 2 2B (4), 0 BB, 0 K

Graham: 2-3, 2B (6), 0 BB, 0 K

Sears (L, 2-2): 3.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K; 72 pitches (45 strikes)

West Michigan Whitecaps 4, Great Lakes Loons 3 (F/8) (box )

The second game of the doubleheader went better for West Michigan, but it took until the fifth inning to score runs and some late-inning heroics were needed to push things to extras and ultimately walk it off.

Things started off well with a Max Clark leadoff walk and Seth Stephenson single to put men on the corners. Stephenson stole second, his fourteenth of the year, but neither runner ended up scoring. John Peck, Andrew Jenkins and Patrick Lee all struck out to end the threat. Graham walked with two outs, loading the bases for Lee but no dice.

That was the start of a dominant outing from Patrick Copen for the Loons. He struck out 10 of the 23 batters he faced and only gave up two runs on four hits and four walks. Copen struck out the side in the second and stranded Clark and Stephenson again in the third. It took until the fifth inning to get Copen out of there, and Great Lakes led by two at that point.

Colin Fields went four strong for West Michigan, but Great Lakes got to him in the third for a single and an RBI double. Despite giving up the lead, Fields struck out six and walked none, which is by far the best split of the day for any pitcher covered in this article.

Trevin Michael got the fifth and gave up a solo homer to Jackson Nicklaus, but Patrick Lee finally got West Michigan on the board with an RBI double to score Jenkins. Graham also singled earlier in the inning and scored on a wild pitch later on.

Another homer off Michael in the sixth put the Whitecaps behind again, and things came down to the very last strike in the bottom of the seventh. Lee got a pitch he liked and homered to send the game to extras.

Haden Erbe pitched a 1-2-3 seventh to keep West Michigan in it, and Carlos Lequerica did the same in the eighth. Izaac Pacheco singled over the automatic runner in the bottom of the eighth, setting up a game-winning sac fly from Bennett Lee.

Clark: 1-2, 2 BB, 0 K

P, Lee: 2-4, HR (1), 1 R, 2 RBI, 0 BB, 1 K

Fields: 4.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K; 71 pitches (46 strikes)

Coming Up Next: With the series at 3-2, West Michigan is looking to take the week with a win on Sunday at 6:35 p.m. ET. The Whitecaps have Carlos Marcano slated to throw.

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

Lakeland had an answer for every Fort Myers score on Friday night except for the deciding blow in the 10th inning.

The Mighty Mussels scored two in the first off a wild pitch and a single? Bryce Rainer answered with a two-run homer in the bottom half of the inning to tie it up. Flying Tigers starter Josh Randall gave up a solo homer in the third? Cristian Santana moves around the bases following a one-out single. Another solo home run in the seventh? Franyerber Montilla doubles and scores on a Carson Rucker single to respond immediately.

But the magic always runs out eventually, and playing from behind leads to more losses than wins. Rainer had a chance to end it in the ninth with one out and a man on first, but he struck out and Fort Myers won the next inning.

Ignacio Briceno was the third relief arm of the night for Lakeland, following Duque Hebbert and Jorger Petri. A leadoff single put Fort Myers back out in front, and Santana grounded into a double play to end it when Lakeland came up.

Rainer: 2-5, HR (4), 1 R, 2 RBI, 0 BB, 2 K

Montilla: 1-3, 2B (5), 1 R, 1 BB, 1 K

Randall: 4.1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K; 73 pitches (48 strikes)

Coming Up Next: Lakeland already won the series by winning the first four games, but a 5-1 week never hurt anyone. The Flying Tigers go at noon on Sunday with a TBD listed in the probable starters spot.