Written by Al Ciammiachella

---

Beau Mills, 1B-COL: 1-4, HR (7), RBI, R, K.

There was talk about Mills turning a corner and re-establishing himself as a prospect after a 2011 season that saw him post a .860 OPS between AA Akron and AAA Columbus. The mark was his highest since his Carolina League MVP season back in 2008 when he put up an .880 OPS with 21 HR for Kinston. Mills however, has been unable to follow up on his 2011 as he's sporting a season line of just .208/.248/.455 with 7 HR and 18 RBI. The power numbers are there, but Mills has walked just 5 times against 24 strikeouts, and needs to show that he can hit the advanced secondary stuff that AAA and especially major league pithers are going to be throwing. Mills' numbers in 2011 were largely compiled in the AA Eastern League, a league that he was playing in for the 3rd consecutive season. He's just 19 months younger than Matt LaPorta, and hasn't even proven that he can hit AAA pitching well enough to earn a shot at the big league level. If Mills can add some patience and hitting ability to his power, he's still got an outside shot to play in the majors someday. But even with a .248 ISO, he's still going to have to improve as a hitter to get to that point.

T.J. McFarland, SP-COL: 5 2/3 IP, 3 H, 3 K, 4 BB. McFarland has worked his way up to AAA Columbus, and made his first start yesterday afternoon. If he'd been able to record just one more out, he would have earned the victory, but as it is he'll just have to be satisfied with 5 2/3 scoreless innings in his International League debut.

Chris Ray, RP-COL: S (8), IP, H, 2 K, BB. Ray has a 2.42 ERA for the Clippers, and has struck out 21 and walked 11 in 22 1/3 innings of work. He's the next veteran in the queue if injury or inneffectiveness strikes the big league bullpen.

Jason Donald, SS-COL: 2-4, 2B, RBI, BB. Donald is 5 for his last 11 with a triple and a pair of 2B. He's hitting .315/.422/.519 in his return to AAA Columbus with 9 BB and 8 K.

Brett Brach, SP-AKR: 5 2/3 IP, ER, 9 H, 2 K, BB. Brach scattered 9 hits over 5 2/3's yesterday, and that inning total represented well under half of what would become a 14-inning Aeros victory.

Toru Muratu, RP-AKR: 3 IP, BB, K. Muratu came in and walked the first batter he faced, then promptly induced a doubleplay and retired the rest of the Bowie hitters in order for the remainder of his outing.

Loek Van Mil, RP-AKR: 2 IP, 2 K. Van Mil replaced Muratu, and threw two perfect innings with a pair of Ks. By the time he exited the game, Aeros pitchers had retired 14 consecutive Baysox hitters.

Jose De La Torre, RP-AKR: W (2-0), 2 IP, H, 3 K. De La Torre finally gave up a hit after the streak ran to 18 straight batters retired, but didn't allow a run and the Aeros finally came up with a run in the bottom of the 14th to send the Akron fans home happy. 

Roberto Perez, C-AKR: 1-5, RBI, BB. Not only did Perez catch all 14 innings (catching one of the two runners who tried to steal on him), he also came up with the one-out, walkoff single in the bottom of the 14th. Bowie leftfielder Josh Barfield (yes, that Josh Barfield) had his throw to the plate come up short, and Ben Copeland was able to score from 2B to finally end the marathon affair.

Tim Fedroff, CF-AKR: 2-5, 2B, RBI, BB. In a 14-inning game, Fedroff somehow was the only Aeros player with more than one hit.

Mike Rayl, SP-CAR: 7 IP, ER, 4 H, 8 K, BB. Rayl set a season high with 8 strikeouts yesterday, and the only run he gave up was on a solo HR. He left the game with a 2-1 lead, but got snaked by the bullpen.

Dale Dickerson, RP-CAR: W (4-2), IP, ER, H, 2 K. Dickerson snaked Rayl, giving up a solo HR of his own to tie the game but the Mudcats offense came alive with 5 runs in the bottom half of the 8th to give both Dickerson and Carolina the victory.

Jesus Aguilar, 1B-CAR: 2-3, 2B, 2 R, K. Big, Bad Jesus Aguilar is hitting .382/.500/.618 in his last 10 games with 4 2B and a pair of triples. His season OPS is up to .920, good for 7th in the Carolina League.

Jeremie Tice, LF-CAR: 2-3, 2B, RBI, R, K. The most interesting thing about Tice's performance yesterday was the position he played defensively, as the usual DH was in left field for just the 3rd time in his career. Some sort of position flexibility would be helpful for the slugger, as he's been limited mostly to DH. Tice leads the Carolina League in HR, RBI and OPS, so the Indians need to find a way to get his bat in the lineup somewhere. He's well overdue for a promotion to AA Akron at this point, as high-A clearly isn't challenging him enough anymore.

Jake Lowery, C-CAR: 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI, R, K. Jake the Snake is hitting just .222/.349/.306 in his last 10 games, and has hit just 2 HR this season. He's playing above-average defense behind the plate though, and the hits will come.

Ronny Rodriguez, SS-CAR: 1-4, 2B, 2 RBI, K. Rodriguez's overall line of .244/.277/.364 is actually similar to last year's #'s in Lake County, with the noteable exception that his SLG has dropped nearly 100 points. The Carolina League will do that to a player. Rodriguez's defense is much improved over last year, as he's still making the spectacular play but has worked to become a much more consistent defender on routine groundballs.  

Cody Anderson, SP-LCC: 5 IP, 2 ER, 7 H, 3 K, 3 BB. Anderson was in line for the win, but the Lake County bullpen gave up the lead and he had to settle for the no-decision. The 21-year old righty is 4-2 with a 2.52 ERA in 53 2/3 innings pitched for the Captains, with 44 K and just 12 BB.

Jordan Smith, RF-LCC: 3-5, 2B, 3 R, 2 K. Smith has a modest 6-game hitting streak going, in which he's 10-27 with a HR, 2 2B and 4 RBI. His overall line this season is up to .275/.312/.419.

Jarrud Sabourin, 1B-LCC: 3-5, 2 RBI, R, K. The former walk-on and undrafted free agent has hit in 8 of his last 9 games, and is up to .288/.361/.359 with a HR and 19 RBI in 48 games this year.

Alex Monsalve, DH-LCC: 2-4, RBI, R, K. Monsalve got off to a good start last season, and was named to the Midwest League All-Star team at midseason. This year however, he's hitting just .224/.286/.344 with 4 HR and 63 RBI in 46 games.