AA Montgomery Biscuits (34-35)

BISCUITS 9, Mobile 7-Montgomery jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first, and extended that lead to 7-0 later on en route to a 9-7 win over the Mobile BayBears.  Mobile did briefly claw back in the game, scoring five runs in the sixth to chase LHP James Houser from the ballgame. All but one of those runs were unearned, however, as Houser saw his ERA drop to 2.08. The Biscuits and BayBears each made three errors in a sloppy ballgame, though four Biscuit players had multiple hits and the team had 12 total. RHP Ryan Reid closed out the ballgame for Montgomery, earning his second save of the year and possibly signaling a setup role for RHP Eduardo Morlan when he starts pitching regularly. The first half of Montgomery's season concludes today with a game in Mobile. By winning, the Biscuits can finish with a .500 record. 

BISCUITS Up Next-at Mobile, 7:05 EST (LH Jino Gonzalez)

Details on the other Rays minor league affiliates after the jump

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AA Montgomery Biscuits (33-35)

Morlan Activated-Biscuits RHP Eduardo Morlan has been activated off of the Disabled List; he was expected to arrive in Montgomery last night and could see game action as soon as today in Mobile. Morlan, placed on the DL April 25th with a sore right (pitching) shoulder, was rehabbing at the Naimoli complex in St. Petersburg. Acquired in the off-season as part of the Delmon Young trade from the Minnesota Twins, Morlan had struggled in six appearances for the Biscuits prior to going on the shelf, giving up six earned runs in 6.2 innings of work. Regarded as the organization's finest relief pitching prospect, Morlan will presumptively return to the closer's role that he had occupied prior to the injury.

BISCUITS 1, Mobile 0 (13)-The Biscuits and visiting BayBears exchanged zeros for 12 innings at Riverwalk Stadium on Friday night before two errors doomed Mobile in the bottom of the 13th. CF Rashad Eldridge came in to score when Mobile C John Hester dropped the incoming throw from 3B Cesar Nicolas that, executed properly, would have started a 5-2-3 double play to get Mobile out of the inning. Instead, 3B Chris Nowak reached base safely on the play, and his league-leading double play count stood pat at 15. RHP Wade Davis pitched seven shutout innings for the Biscuits to rebound from his poor start last Saturday.

BISCUITS Up Next-at Mobile, 8:05 EST (LH James Houser)

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AAA Durham Bulls (34-30)

BULLS 3, Charlotte 2-Durham tied the game in the eighth, and then LF Nathan Haynes drove in SS Reid Brignac with an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth as the Bulls earned a split of their two game home set against the Charlotte Knights. The Bulls now hit the road to play Rochester and Buffalo; they will not return home again until June 19th. 

BULLS Up Next-OFF Today

AA Montgomery Biscuits (31-33)

BISCUITS 6, Birmingham 2-After five scoreless innings from both sides, the Biscuits finally took the edge by scoring six in the final four frames to best division-leading Birmingham 6-2. 3B Chris Nowak drove in five of Montgomery's runs and LHP James Houser did not surrender a run in his return from the DL.

BISCUITS Up Next-at Birmingham, 8:05 EST (LH Jino Gonzalez)

A+ Vero Beach Devil Rays (32-31)

V-RAYS 6, Sarasota 0-RHP Heath Rollins threw a complete game, three hit shutout against the Sarasota Reds, relying primarily on good fastball command and the effectiveness of his off-speed pitches in racking up ten strikeouts. Four Devil Rays players had multiple hits in backing up Rollins' strong outing, and Vero Beach moved a game over .500 by winning three of four in the series.

V-RAYS Up Next-at Ft. Myers, 7:05 EST (LH Brandon Mann)

A- Columbus Catfish (23-40)

CATFISH 5, Rome 2-The Catfish picked up their first series win since April 15-16 (when they beat Rome) by scoring four in the final two innings. LHP Glenn Gibson, pitching for the first time out of the bullpen after a posting a 7.85 ERA in 12 starts to begin the year, picked up the win by working two scoreless frames in relief. 

CATFISH Up Next-at Savannah, 7:00 EST (RH Jesse Darcy)

AAA Durham Bulls (33-30)

Charlotte 6, BULLS 2-Durham starter Jeremy Cummings ceded the lead to division-rival Charlotte by giving up five runs in the fifth and sixth innings, and the Bulls' offense could not keep up as they dropped the first of a two game set to the Knights. 

BULLS Up Next-vs Charlotte, 5:05 EST (RH Ben Hendrickson)

AA Montgomery Biscuits (30-33)

Birmingham 12, BISCUITS 4-RHP Wade Davis was rocked for six runs in just two innings of work, and the Biscuits could never get closer than 7-4 in being thumped by the Birmingham Barons. 

BISCUITS Up Next-at Birmingham, 3:05 EST (LH James Houser)

A+ Vero Beach Devil Rays (31-31)

V-RAYS 7, Sarasota 3-LHP David Price showed that he was mortal, surrendering his first runs in his fourth start as a professional, but the Vero Beach bullpen held the Sarasota Reds at bay while the offense scored six runs in a two inning span late as the Devil Rays won 7-3.

V-RAYS Up Next-vs Sarasota, 1:00 EST (RH Heath Rollins)

A- Columbus Catfish (22-40)

Rome 3, CATFISH 2 (11)-An error by 3B Greg Sexton, one of four Columbus errors and one of seven total in the game, led to the winning run scoring as the Catfish allowed a strong start by RHP Alex Cobb to go for naught in an 11th inning loss. 

CATFISH Up Next-at Rome, 2:00 EST (RH Jeremy Hall)

Over the off-season I professed how I had a distaste for our bullpen, particularly the middle and back parts consisting of Gary Glover and Scott Dohmann. Every Monday I'll look at the usage over the past week, that obviously begins today.

Generally speaking the bullpen did an excellent job this week even with one loss credited to Al Reyes, and only one save to Troy Percival. The unit saw 13.6 innings worth of work, allowing six runs -- four by Reyes and the other two by Miller -- for an ERA of 3.97, quite an improvement over the 6.16 ERA last season, even at such a small sample size.

Beginning at the top, Percival was only called upon once and was efficient in preserving his first Rays save and the 325th of his career. Showing great poise Percival worked through an iffy non-strike call against Bobby Abreu and located his next pitch, striking the veteran out to end the game. Although his role thus far has been near minimal Percival's clubhouse demeanor and role have been unmatched, look for the new bullpen area configuration this week at the request of Percival.

Despite a bloodbath at the hands of the Baltimore Orioles Reyes has been solid in two of his three appearances, including cleaning up a mess left by Miller on Saturday. In the past I was skeptical about giving Reyes even more innings, but thus far it appears Joe Maddon is leaning towards using Miller and Reyes in union for the 8th inning, at least until their performance or address dictates otherwise.

Speaking of Miller he's hardly impressed, yet this is nothing unexpected. Over his career Miller has thrown more than 200 innings during the first half of the season and has an ERA of 5.18, as opposed to his 3.65 ERA in the second half. Another thing to watch during the unfortunately named "Miller Time" will be his pre-pitch tendencies, namely if he continues to go to the bill of his hat prior to each pitch.

We now reach a piece that the Rays have chosen as a core of the relief staff through 2010 at the earliest, yes the newest extension receiver, Dan Wheeler. Not only did Wheeler find himself with the most work this week but he also found himself as the most effective, not allowing a baserunner thus far while striking out two batters. As I've pointed out numerous times it wasn't hard to see that Wheeler was a candidate for performance regression, or in this case progression, based on his peripherals. His contract extension isn't just reasonable, it's a downright steal for an organization that since its inception has been hard-pressed to find consistently successful relievers and keep them in Rays uniforms.

From awful starter to potentially useful reliever, thus is the career path of one James Phillip Howell. As he showed Sunday Howell is able to go multiple innings without ill results, even against the most vaunted of lineups. To his credit, Howell also showed the ability to retire batters of either hand equally well, and even went on a streak of seven straight outs. For one day at least, Howell appears to have reached the point of his career where the talk of potentially becoming useful is turning into results and is certainly someone to watch for as this season ages.

Finally we reach Scott Dohmann and Gary Glover and while neither did anything to grant my ire, yet, I'm encouraged that Glover was used the least of all relief arms. To their credit both have been effective, but I sincerely question if the level of success achieved last year can be replicated by either. I'm skeptical, but hopeful, if the duo can at least be around league average the Rays pen could become amongst the deepest in the league.

Since the bullpen won't consist of these seven all season, or at least it's highly inconceivable that such a rarity would occur, I would also like to highlight some of the relievers at Durham during this space. Grant Balfour, the 8th reliever if you will, cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Durham. Steve Andrade remains on the disabled list to start the season meanwhile Chad Orvella has seemingly yet to recover from his injury, but the good news -- I guess -- is that Kurt Birkins has began throwing again and could join Durham soon. Dale Thayer, Calvin Medlock, Nick DeBarr and Scott Munter have been solid thus far with Ben Hendrickson  being anything but, allowing six runs in two and two-thirds innings of work.

AAA Durham Bulls (0-2)

Toledo 9, BULLS 2-The Toledo Mud Hens jumped out to a 6-0 lead by the end of the fifth inning, and the Bulls would not recover as they dropped their second in a row to start the season. CF Fernando Perez and RF Justin Ruggiano each had two hits in five at bats for the Bulls, including a double for Ruggiano. SS Reid Brignac went hitless in four at bats for the Bulls, but did draw a walk. 3B Evan Longoria went 0 for 4 and struck out, while 1B Joel Guzman doubled, his only hit in four at bats.

On the hill, RH Mitch Talbot took the loss for Durham, giving up three runs (two earned) in just four innings of work, surrendering eight hits and no walks while striking out two. He threw just 67 pitches as the Rays try to ease their starting prospects into the season. RH Ben Hendrickson gave away the farm for the Bulls; he was charged with six runs in just 2.2 innings of work. RH Nick DeBarr closed out the ballgame with a scoreless 1.1 inning stint.

BULLS Up Next-at Toledo, 7:00 ET (RH Chris Mason)

AA Montgomery Biscuits (0-1)

Chattanooga at BISCUITS, PPD-The scheduled game Friday evening between the Biscuits and Chattanooga Lookouts was postponed due to heavy rain in Montgomery, Alabama.  The game will be made up as part of a double-header on Sunday afternoon, with the first game beginning at 3:05 ET. The second game will follow, 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game. Both games will be seven inning affairs.

BISCUITS Up Next-vs Chattanooga, 8:05 ET (RH Wade Davis)

A+ Vero Beach Devil Rays (2-0)

V-RAYS 5, St. Lucie 3-RF Garrett Groce had a solo home run among his two hits while RHP Jeremy Hellickson tossed five innings of one-run baseball as Vero Beach remained the only undefeated team in the Rays organization. SS Jairo De La Rosa had three hits for the Devil Rays and drove in two runs, while CF John Matulia had a double among his two hits. LF Ryan Royster also homered for Vero Beach.

On the mound, meanwhile, Hellickson had a superb outing to open his season. He surrendered just five hits, including a home run. The solo shot was the only run the visiting Mets would get all day off of Hellickson, as the right-hander walked none and struck out five. LH Ryan Morse followed Hellickson and gave up the final two St. Lucie runs before RHs Chris Kelly and Neal Frontz combined for four strikeouts and two shutout innings to finish off the ballgame.

V-RAYS Up Next-vs Daytona, 6:00 ET (RH Josh Butler)

A- Columbus Catfish (0-2)

Savannah 7, CATFISH 4-The visiting Sand Gnats scored six of their seven runs in the first four innings off of Columbus LHP Glenn Gibson and sat on the lead for the remaining five as the defending SALLY League champions lost their second in a row to start the season. Gibson would pitch only those four innings and was charged with four earned runs on five hits and one home run, walking one and striking out four. Three Catfish relievers would combine to limit the Sand Gnats to just one run following Gibson's departure.

Offensively, the Catfish picked it up a notch from the previous day, when they were one-hit in a shutout loss to the same team, but they still didn't produce enough to overcome the early deficit. LF Reid Fronk went three for four with two runs scored for Columbus, while stealing three bases. C Mike McCormick was the only other Columbus player to record multiple hits; he also had three, including a double, but also committed a throwing error. DH Stephen Vogt accounted for half of the Catfish's runs with a two-run shot in the sixth inning, his only hit of the night. CF Emeel Salem grounded into a double play, part of an 0 for 4 night in which he also drew a walk.

CATFISH Up Next-vs Savannah, 7:00 ET (RH Josh Johnson)