Cleveland Guardians Prospect Report 7/11/25
DeLauter's on-base streak continues,
SCOREBOARD:
Columbus Clippers 6, Louisville Bats 0 - Statcast
Akron RubberDucks 9, Richmond Flying Squirrels 3
West Michigan Whitecaps 12, Lake County Captains 2
Hickory Crawdads 4, Lynchburg Hillcats 2 (F/7 - G1)
Hickory Crawdads 4, Lynchburg Hillcats 3 (F/7 - G2)
DSL Guardians Mendoza 12, DSL Orioles Orange 9
DSL Rojos 9, DSL Guardians Goryl 7
HIGHLIGHTS:
Milan Tolentino (SS, Columbus): 2-4, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 K - Tolentino, who has doubled in three of his last four games and has an extra-base hit in four of his last six, didn't just hit a pair of extra-base hits on Friday night, he crushed them. His seventh-inning double was the Clippers’ hardest-hit ball of the night at 103.6 MPH, barely edging out his 103.2 MPH, 354-foot leadoff homer in the bottom of the first.
Chase DeLauter (RF, Columbus): 1-4, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI - Speaking of hard hits DeLauter continued his season-long Triple-A on-base streak with the Clip Show’s third-hardest hit ball of Friday - a 101.6 MPH double in the opening frame.
Ryan Webb (SP, Columbus): W (4-4), 6 IP, 3 H, 3 BB, 2 WP, 8 K - After over a month of piggyback outings, Webb dominated in his return to starting with a scoreless, albeit sometimes wild, longest effort of the season. Ryan’s last time going 6+ innings was nearly a year ago when he went 6.2 frames against the then-Bowie Bayso last July 27 at Canal Park.
Kahlil Watson (DH, Akron): 3-5, 2 R, 2 2B, 3 RBI, 1 K - Watson’s second five-base game of the week was a microcosm of the RubberDucks’ offensive performance as a whole in that it crammed an entire stellar game worth of stats into the first three frames.
Jorge Burgos (1B, Akron): 1-5, 1 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI - Burgos continues to pull further away from the rest of the Eastern League in the RBI race, with his three-run blast in the second not only putting the game out of the Flying Squirrels’ reach, but also doing the same to Somerset (Yankees) C Rafael Flores, whose 55 RBI are now nine behind Burgos’ league-leading 64.
Luis Garcia (SS, DSL Mendoza): 2-for-5, R, 3 RBIs, SB - Garcia delivered a team-high three runs batted in in Friday’s victory. He got the game going on the right track with a first inning RBI single and tacked on two more in the fourth with a ball up the middle. His later hit put the Mendoza squad ahead and they would not trail from there. This marks just the second multi-hit game of the season for the switch-hitter (24 games).
Josh Perez (SP, DSL Goryl): 4.0 IP, 4 H, R, 0 BBs, 2 Ks, WP - If you remove his June 27 outing where he gave up six of his nine total runs this season, the 17-year-old has had a strong start to his professional career. He allowed a pair of two out hits to score a run in the second inning but recovered nicely for that being his only run surrendered.
NOTABLE PERFORMANCES:
Kody Huff (DH, Columbus): 2-4, 1 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI - Huff drove in a run on each of his two hits last night: a first-inning single and a third-inning solo shot to left (101.2 MPH, 358 feet).
Petey Halpin (CF, Columbus): 2-4, 2 R, 1 RBI - Halpin rounded out the trio of 100 MPH+ homers (and the evening’s scoring) with a 101.4 MPH, 396-foot blast to left center in the fifth
Christian Cairo (2B,Columbus): 2-4, 1 2B, 1 K, 1 SB - While his double was just short of 100 MPH (98.2 MPH), Cairo did steal his 16th base of the season, extending his team lead over second-place Milan Tolentino to two.
Cooper Ingle (C, Akron): 1-3, 2 R, 2 BB, 1 K - Ingle has shown good patience at the plate this week, drawing five walks in 17 plate appearances against Richmond hurlers.
Trenton Denholm (SP, Akron): W (9-4), 6 IP, 8 H, 3 R (all earned), 4 K - Not Denholm’s best outing of the season, but going six frames for the second start in a row and fifth time this season in Double-A is noteworthy, especially after how his second inning went.
Jacob Cozart (C, Lake County): 1-4, 1 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI - Cozart continued his July home-run spree on Friday night, with his fourth homer of the season (and fifth of his pro career) being all that stood between the Captains and getting shut out.
Ralphy Velazquez (1B, Lake County): 1-4, 1 3B - Velazquez’s ninth-inning triple was impressive but also the textbook definition of “too little, too late” as, according to Gameday, it increased the Caps’ chances of winning from nothing to…well, nothing.
Bennett Thompson (C, Lynchburg - G1): 2-3,1 K, 1 Pickoff - Thompson rebounded from seeing his 13-game hit streak end on Thursday by starting another one with this two-hit effort, extending his on-base streak to 15 games in the process.
Christopher Espinola (LF, Lynchburg - G1): 1-3, 1 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 Outfield Assist - Not only did Espinola drive in both of the Hillcats’ Game 1 runs on his second-inning homer, he also stopped a Crawdad tally from scoring with an outfield assist on a play at the plate in the following half-inning.
Alberto Mendez (2B, Lynchburg - G2): 2-3, 1 R, 2B, 1 RBI - Mendez, who was the nightcap's star for the Hillcats from the ninth spot in the lineup, is off to a stellar start to July with three two-hit games out of four played, each of them with at least one ectra-base hit.
Robert Alvarez (C, DSL Mendoza): 2-for-4, 2 RBIs, BB, E2T - The 17-year-old now has hits in each of his last three games played in this his second multi-hit game of the 2025 season. Both of his singles resulted in one run scored for the team.
Jefferson Vargas (3B, DSL Mendoza): 2-for-4, R, RBI, BB, SB, DP - Vargas was able to break a streak of nine consecutive games without a hit (0-for-26) with his two-hit day on Friday and reached base a third time with a walk.
Alejandro Blasco (RF, DSL Mendoza): 1-for-2, 2 R, 3B, RBI, 2 BBs, SF - The lone extra-base hit was tallied by Blasco with his first triple of the season to leadoff the eighth inning. He had productive at-bats throughout the day with a pair of walks and a sacrifice fly as well as a .965 OPS in 17 games thus far.
Jose Riera (2B, DSL Mendoza): 1-for-3, 4 R, 3 BBs, 2 SBs - Riera broke up his minor slump at 0-for-13 in the last four games with a team-high four runs scored.
Hiverson Lopez (DH, DSL Mendoza): 1-for-3, 3 R, RBI, 3 BBs - Lopez reached base four times as well and scored in three of those instances to set up Garcia as the cleanup man with runners on base.
Israel Alvarez (3B, DSL Goryl): 2-for-4, R, RBI - Alvarez was the lone man in the Goryl lineup with a multi-hit day and drove in a run in the midst of a seven-run sixth inning for the team that saw 12 men step to the plate.
Angel Abreu (SS, DSL Goryl): 1-for-1, R, 3 BBs, HBP, SB, DP - Abreu reached base five times in as many plate appearances yet only needed to make contact with the ball once. The 16-year-old has cooled off lately after a good start, but has started to increase his on-base percentage in recent games.