All three affiliates lost last night in playoff action, with Visalia's the most painful as they dropped the deciding Game 5 winner-take-all contest that would have sent them to the Championship Series. Archie Bradley got beat pretty soundly in Mobile's Game 1 Championship test, and South Bend lost a squeaker in their Game 1 Championship game.
Snake Stars
3 Stars: Jake Lamb, Visalia 4 for 5, 1 R, 1 DBL
2 Stars: Fidel Pena, South Bend 3 for 4, 1 R, 1 DBL, 1 HR, 2 RBI
1 Star: Braden Shipley, South Bend 6.2 IP, 5 H, 3 BB, 6 K, 2 ER
0 Stars: Brandon Sinnery, Visalia 2 IP, 6 H, 0 BB, 3 K, 6 R, 4 ER
Double A: Game 1. Mobile 3 Birmingham 8. Archie Bradley had one of his worst outings of the year allowing 6 runs in 5 innings on 7 hits and 4 walks with just 2 strikeouts. He just didn't have it last night. The offense did nothing all night either until scoring 3 meaningless runs in the 9th. Ender Inciarte went 2 for 5 with a double and an RBI.
High A: Game 5. Visalia 5 San Jose 9. The Rawhide ran out of quality pitching and had to turn to Brandon Sinnery to try and battle their way into the championship series. Unfortunately, Sinnery wasn't up to the task and it's illustrative of how desperate they were for a starter in such a huge game. Sinnery hadn't had a quality outing since August 7th. San Jose scored in each of the first 6 innings as the bullpen wasn't much better. The offense battled early on to keep things close with 4 runs through the first 4 innings. But the pressure became too much and they were eventually overtaken for good. Jake Lamb did his part with a 4 for 5 night, as did Tom Belza with 2 doubles and Evan Marzilli with 2 hits that included a triple. They racked up 15 hits as a group in their final game of the season.
Low A: Game 1. South Bend 2 Quad Cities 3. The Silver Hawks lost the lead late and lost a nail-biter 3-2. Braden Shipley started and was very good having allowed just 1 run through 6 innings and holding on to a 2-1 lead. Shipley gave up a game-tying homer leading of the 7th and Quad Cities scratched out the go-ahead run off Kyle Winkler and Daniel Gibson in the 8th. South Bend got the tying run to second in the bottom of the 9th but Justin Williams struck out and Michael Perez flied out to right to end the game. Pena went 3 for 4 and hit a 2-run homer in the 4th that gave South Bend the lead. Blake Perry takes the mound in Game 2 tonight in the best-of-five series.