10 Strikeouts and Two Homers Help Akron to 4-1 Win over Harrisburg
September 11, 2022 – Eastern League (EL) – Akron RubberDucks News Release
The Akron RubberDucks get six strong from Tanner Bibee and homers from Johnathan Rodriguez and Angel Martinez to down the Harrisburg Senators 4-1 on Sunday afternoon at FNB Field. With the Akron win and Bowie loss, the RubberDucks sit two games back of the Baysox and Erie SeaWolves in the Eastern League Southwest second half standings entering the final week of the regular season.
Turning Point
After an error gave Akron the early 1-0 lead in the third inning, the RubberDucks looked for more in the fourth. Angel Martinez opened the inning with a single before Johnathan Rodriguez launched one 103 mph off the bat and 378 feet off the top of the left field wall to make it 3-0 Ducks.
Mound Presence
Tanner Bibee got the start for Akron and picked up right where he left off in his start of Tuesday. Bibee baffled Senators batters allowing just one hit and one walk through his first six innings. After a walk and back-to-back singles by Harrisburg to start the seventh, Bibee’s day was over. Cade Smith entered in the seventh a got out of the jam allowing just one run on a sac-fly. In total, Bibee went six plus innings allowing one run on three hits while punching out five. Smith tossed three scoreless innings striking out five to earn the save.
Duck Tales
Akron’s first run came in the top of the third when Bryan Lavastida tapped a grounder out in front of the plate, Senators’ catcher Drew Millas tried to get Jose Tena advancing from second to third but threw the ball away allowing Tena to score and make it 1-0 Akron. After Harrisburg cracked the scoreboard in the bottom of the seventh, Martinez made sure to get it back for the Ducks in the top of the eighth when he launched one at 104 mph, 414 feet over the wall in right to make it 4-1 Akron.
Notebook
Bibee has punched out 19 Senators over 18 innings and three starts against them…Rodriguez’s homer was his third of the series…The RubberDucks will need to take four out of six from Bowie and win at least two more games than Erie this week to win the second half…Game Time: 2:32 (1:48)…Attendance: 1,873.
On the Pond
The RubberDucks will have Monday off before returning to Akron to start a very important six-game series with the Bowie Baysox on Tuesday, Sept. 13 at 11:05 a.m. The game broadcast, powered by FirstEnergy, is on 640 WHLO, the 640 WHLO iHeartRadio channel, and akronrubberducks.com, and available on MiLB.TV. Tickets for all RubberDucks home games, are available at akronrubberducks.com/tickets.
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