‘Cats end road trip with 5-3 loss to Scrappers

NILES – Taylor Jones homered (3) in the top of the 9th, but it wasn’t enough to beat the Mahoning Valley Scrappers (8-18), as the Tri-City ValleyCats (13-13) fell 5-3 on Wednesday night.

Alex Winkelman (L, 0-1) was pegged with the loss, allowing three runs to score in the first of his four innings, striking out five. Winkelman, who pitched with the ‘Cats in 2015, had his Quad Cities rehab assignment transferred from the GCL Astros to the ValleyCats earlier today.

Carlos Sierra pitched a scoreless 5th, lowering his ERA from 8.44 to 7.71, before Framber Valdez allowed two more runs to score in the final third of the game.

The Scrappers received back-to-back triples to kick off the home half of the first when Gabriel Mejia tripled on a line drive to right field, and Silento Sayles tripled on a sharp fly ball to left field. After Jodd Carter struck out swinging, Erlin Cerda doubled on a fly ball to right, scoring Sayles. Logan Ice hit a sacrifice fly scoring Cerda, before a groundout ended the inning.

The ‘Cats, who fell to 0-6 in Wednesday games, responded in the top of the 3rd when Alex De Goti was hit by a pitch, and Ryne Birk singled on a ground ball to right field. Chuckie Robinson doubled (3) on a hard-hit line drive to left field, and De Goti and Birk came into score.

In the bottom of the 8th, Tapia singled to left, scoring Andrew Calica and Logan Ice to give the Scrappers a 5-2 lead. Mahoning Valley swapped pitchers in the 9th, with Ping-Hsueh Chen replacing Argenis Angulo. Taylor Jones greeted Chen with his third home run of the year on a line drive to left field.

Micah Miniard (W, 1-2) earned his first victory of the season for Mahoning Valley, striking out five batters in six innings of two-run ball.

The ‘Cats come back to Troy for a six-game homestand at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium beginning tomorrow, July 14, at 7:00 pm against the Connecticut Tigers.

Probable match-ups: (CT vs. TRI)

Thursday, July 14: RHP Alfred Gutierrez vs. RHP Hector Perez

Friday, July 15: LHP Locke St. John vs. RHP Kevin Hill

Saturday, July 16: LHP Gregory Soto vs. LHP Ryan Hartman