Third baseman Wes Hodges has been the Aeros most consistent offensive player through the first half of the season.

Batting .311 with a league-leading 62 RBI as Akron's cleanup man, he has been instrumental in the team's ability to bounce back from a rocky start that had them mired in the unfamiliar territory of last place in late April.

The Aeros posted season highs in hits (19), runs (16) and tied a season-high in margin of victory with 10 runs in a explosive 16-6 victory over the visiting Reading Phillies Friday night at Canal Park.

The game's outcome came as a bit of a surprise on a night they faced R-Phils pitching prospect Carlos Carrasco, who entered the game with 89 strikeouts in 94 innings. But against Akron, Carrasco (5-7, 4.18 ERA) did record a single punch out in what became his shortest outing of the season.

After falling behind by two runs just a half inning into the night's action, the Aeros offense exploded for five runs in the bottom of the inning and never looked back in knocking Carrasco out of the game after just three innings.

A night after rallying from deficits of 9-3 and 10-4 to record an exciting 11-10 victory over visiting Bowie in 10 innings Monday, the Akron Aeros came out flat in a double header sweep by the Baysox Tuesday night.

How flat? They managed one run in 14 innings.

Batting a mere .219 through 50 games, Wyatt Toregas was well aware of the fact that he was scuffling at the plate.

But he'd only been in Buffalo for two months. Certainly, the Indians up-and-coming catching prospect would be given more time to try and find his way in his first exposure at the Triple-A level.

Under normal circumstances, he probably would have.

The Aeros just happen to be the hottest team in the Eastern League, having gone 8-2 over the last 10 games and owners of seven consecutive wins - three of which were of the thrilling come-from-behind variety.

Playing on the road last week in Portland, the Aeros rallied back from a 10-0 deficit Saturday followed by a 6-0 deficit Sunday. Tuesday Akron continued the theme, spotting visiting New Hampshire a 6-1 advantage before rallying for an 8-6 home victory.

Several roster moves over the last week resulted in a handful of Aeros pitchers coming and going while the team was on its recent Northern Division road trip to New Hampshire and Portland.

The good news is that team didn't miss a beat, going 5-1 and capping the six-game road trip with a series sweep of the Sea Dogs to catapult into second place in the Eastern Division, just two games behind division-leader Bowie.