Surprise! It was another dull day on the farm, with the teams going 1-2. Durham avoided history, BG lost again, and Port Charlotte had an un-noteworthy performance. At this point, I can't wait for short season to start, because the upper levels are really shallow in terms of prospects.
AAA Durham Bulls (7-18)
The Bulls avoided having the worst losing streak in their long history Monday night by defeating Indianapolis by the score of 1-0. The hitters struggled again, combining for only 4 hits, but managed to draw 5 walks. The run came in the eighth inning, when Shawn O'Malley drew a walk, advanced to second on a wild pitch, and scored on a Feliciano double. On the pitching side, Torra had a superb start, going 8 innings while allowing only1 hit and 1 walk. Ramos came in the ninth and recorded the save, lowering his ERA to .73.
AA Montgomery Biscuits (10-15)
Did not play.
High-A Charlotte Stone Crabs (11-13)
The Stone Crabs were defeated Monday night (final score of 7-4) by top prospect Carlos Martinez and the Palm Beach Cardinals. Suarez received the start and struggled through his 3.2 innings of work, allowing 9 hits and 5 ER. CJ Riefenhauser pitched the middle innings and allowed only an unearned run. Nate Garcia came in struck out 5 batters in his 2 innings of work. Derek Dietrich went 1-3 with 2 BBs, Mikie Mahtook recorded a hit, Torrez had two hits, and Ty Morrison roped a double. The Stone Crabs stole 2 bases and committed an error.
Low-A Bowling Green Hot Rods (14-11)
The Hot Rods continued their recent slide by losing to the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers 7-2. Roberto Gomez made the start for the Hot Rods and pitched 5 innings, allowing an unearned run. Andrew Bellatti was tagged with the loss, giving up 3 runs in his 1.1 IP. Woodall managed to lower his ERA to 13.50 by only giving up one run in his inning. Once again, the bats were lackluster for the Hot Rods. Brett, Glaesmann, Malm, and Segovia each had a hit.
Star of the Day: Matt Torra
Goat of the Day: Bowling Green offense for continuing its recent slump.
Today's games (probables courtesy of milb.com)
Durham v. Louisville, 7:05 PM
TBD v TBD
Montgomery @ Tennessee (Milb.TV), 7:15 PM
Buschmann (MON) v. Raley (TEN)
Charlotte @ Bradenton, 6:30 PM
TBD v. TBD
Bowling Green does not play.
Notable Stat Lines:
- Reid Brignac: 0-1
- Stephen Vogt: 0-4
- Albert Suarez: 3.2 IP, 9 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO
- CJ Riefenhauser: 3.1, 4 H, 0 ER, 4 Ks
- Ty Morrison: 1-4, 2B
- Derek Dietrich: 1-3, 2 BB
- Mikie Mahtook: 1-4, SB
- Riccio Torrez: 2-4, SB
- Andrew Bellatti: 1.1 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 0 Ks
- Ryan Brett: 1-4, E
- Drew Vettleson: 0-4, 2 Ks
- Cameron Seitzer: 0-4, 2 Ks
- Todd Glaesmann: 1-4, 3B
- Jeff Malm: 1-4
- Tyler Goeddel: 0-3, 2 Ks
Thoughts for Discussion...
- Hak-Ju Lee is finally heating up, getting 12 hits in his last 25 ABs. In ST, he seemed a bit baffled by breaking balls (as he did last year in AA), so the slow start shouldn't have been too much of a surprise, even if it was disappointing. Hopefully the recent hot streak, which raises his season line to .248/.315/.327, is a sign of his starting to identify quality off-speed pitches.
- What a poor group of pitchers to see in the Bowling Green series (Milb TV). Carpenter, while his stat line was nice, was a bit underwhelming, throwing what looked like an average fastball (looked around 90, but that is going with my eyes). His curve drew some swings and misses, but it didn't look particularly sharp.
- Durham doesn't look like they will be a good team, but things should get better with the addition of Matsui and the returns of Beckham and Guyer. Meanwhile, Vogt and Brignac don't seem to have taken their demotions well, as both are hitting awfully.
- The big news is that Alex Torres has been moved to the bullpen. My thoughts are a bit mixed; I'm not so sure how Torres' stuff plays in the bullpen. He already throws with quite a bit of effort, so I'm unsure of how his velocity will be affected by the move. Plus, I'm a bigger fan of guys with plus fastballs coming out of the pen. But hey, I heard that he is practically Kimbrel, so the move should be great (inside joke)!