Down On The Farm: August 22

Kyle Lobstein will always go down as the pitcher when Billy Hamilton broke the minor league steals record. Or no one will remember that a week from now.

AA Montgomery Biscuits (33-25) ***Featured game of the day***

While Montgomery won the 1st game of their doubleheader at Pensacola 4-2, the big story was Billy Hamilton. He led off the game with a walk and eventually stole 3rd base, and two innings later, he made history. With two outs, he singled to reach base again. He then stole 2nd to tie Vince Coleman's MiLB stolen base record of 145 and proceeded to steal 3rd to go down in history as the all-time leader. Hamilton eventually stole his 4th base of the game to begin adding to his own record. Meanwhile, the game was a great pitcher's duel between Kyle Lobstein and pop-up prospect Tony Cingrani. Lobstein left after six scoreless innings with seven strikeouts, and Cingrani was perfect through five innings. Pensacola erased a 2-0 deficit in the 7th to send the game into extra innings, but Montgomery won in the 8th, headlined by a Michael Sheridan solo homer.

AAA Durham Bulls (60-72)

Behind a solid start by Lance Pendelton, Durham earned a 3-1 victory over Charlotte Tuesday. Pendelton has had a rough go of things in the last two months, but he earned a quality start last night by allowing one run on five hits and three walks in six innings with six strikeouts. The Bulls first got on the board in the 4th inning on Leslie Anderson's solo home run, his 13th of the year which ties a career high. After Charlotte tied the game an inning later, Tim Beckham drove in the go-ahead run with a double that scored Reid Brignac. Anderson added an insurance run in the 7th with a sac fly. Cole FIgueroa raised his batting average with Durham to .297 with three hits.

AA Montgomery Biscuits (33-25)

Montgomery kept the momentum rolling by winning the second game 3-1. Although Pensacola scored first, Matt Buschmann battled and threw a complete game, allowing just the one run in seven innings on four hits and four walks with three strikeouts. Mayo Acosta's solo home run in the 3rd tied the score, and his sac fly in the 7th gave Buschmann a little more breathing room before his last inning of work. Ty Morrison went 2/3 to end a four game hitless streak.

High-A Charlotte Stone Crabs (23-32)

Charlotte was rained out.

Low-A Bowling Green Hot Rods (34-23)

Parker Markel's strong second half continued in Bowling Green's 3-1 win over South Bend. Although he only struck out three, Markel allowed just one run on seven hits and a walk in 6.1 innings. In his last 10 starts, Markel has allowed 15 earned runs on 46 hits and and 17 walks in 62.2 innings with 52 strikeouts, and that includes an outing that he allowed seven runs in five innings. Meanwhile, the Hot Rods lineup got the scoring started early in the first inning. Back to back singles by Cameron Seitzer and Matt Rice plated a pair of runs, and that was all Bowling Green needed. While Alejandro Segovia has been receiving all the (deserved) attention lately, Rice has seven hits in his last three games and a .918 OPS in his last 10.

Short Season-A Hudson Valley Renegades (41-20)

Jesse Hahn's surge continued in Hudson Valley's 4-0 win over Connecticut. After the Rays eased him back into action after missing the last one and a half seasons due to an elbow injury, he has pitched five innings in consecutive starts, and Hahn has rewarded them with his best outings of the year. For the second straight start, he struck out six in five scoreless innings. Although he only lasted one hit last time out, this time he allowed a hit and walked a batter. The eventual winning run came across in the 3rd inning when the Tigers conceded the run on a Luke Maile groundout. With the 2nd run across in the 7th inning, Thomas Coyle hit a two run homer to provide valuable insurance.

Rookie Princeton Rays (32-29)

Princeton sent Braves' first rounder Lucas Sims to the shower early in their 5-2 win over Danville. Sims was charged with four runs (three earned) in just 1.2 innings of work. The Rays got three on the board in the 2nd inning, primarily due to some shoddy defense and great baserunning. The P-Rays stole four bases in the inning, including two by James Harris, and took advantage of two errors. With the early run support, Kevin James and Jacob Faria pitched pretty well, especially Faria. In four scoreless relief innings, he struck out five and only allowed one hit. While Omar Narvaez led the team with three hits and a walk, William Argo was hit by three pitches and only had one official at-bat all night.

Rookie Gulf Coast League Rays (25-30)

After scoring two 1st inning runs, the GCL Rays offense shut down in their 5-2 loss to the GCL Twins. They only had one hit in the 1st, and the two runs scored on a wild pitch and balk in a Jiminson Natera at-bat. Damion Carroll had a career long four inning outing, and he struck out five while only allowing an unearned run on one hit. Nolan Gannon relieved him and struck out a career high six batters in four innings, but he allowed four runs (two earned) and got tagged with the loss. Johnny Eierman was the only Ray to reach base twice with a single and double, and Isaias Velasquez was 0/4 in his continuing rehab assignment.

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Star of the day- Of course he's not a Rays prospect, but what a season Billy Hamilton is having.

Goat of the day- Nolan Gannon I guess, it was a pretty positive day for the farm.

Today's games (probables courtesy of milb.com)

Durham v. Norfolk 7:05 PM (MiLB.TV)
Chris Archer (6-9, 4.00) v. Jake Arrieta (3-3, 5.21)

Montgomery @ Pensacola 8 PM (MiLB.TV)
Nick Barnese* (3-1, 5.26) v. Kyle Lotzkar* (4-6, 5.21)

Charlotte @ Palm Beach 6:35 PM DOUBLEHEADER
Braulio Lara (6-8, 5.50) v. Ryan Sherriff (8-3, 3.49)
Enny Romero* (5-6, 3.69) v. Chris Corrigan* (2-8, 4.69)

Bowling Green v. Dayton 7:35 PM
Jake Floethe (10-3, 3.06) v. Robert Stephenson (2-1, 2.74)

Hudson Valley v. Connecticut 7:05 PM
Matthew Spann (2-4, 3.62) v. Endrys Briceno (4-2, 4.45)

Princeton v. Danville 7:05 PM
Bruedlin Suero (4-3, 3.95) v. Frank Lafreniere (5-2, 3.95)

GCL Rays v. GCL Red Sox 12 PM
TBA v. TBA

*Listed as TBA on MiLB.com

Scouting the opposition

Norfolk Tides (Baltimore)
68-64 (2nd in IL South)
Offense: 554 R (10th) .704 OPS (10th)
Pitching: 3.48 ERA (3rd) 1.27 WHIP (3rd)
Top 30 Prospects: OF L.J. Hoes (5), 3B Ryan Flaherty (7), OF Xavier Avery (9), 1B Joe Mahoney (13), 2B Ryan Adams (23), 1B Brandon Waring (25)

Pensacola Blue Wahoos (Cincinnati)
29-29 (3rd in SL South)
Offense: 493 R (10th) .691 OPS (8th)
Pitching: 3.74 ERA (3rd) 1.33 WHIP (3rd)
Top 30 Prospects: SS Billy Hamilton (2), RHP Daniel Corcino (6), OF Ryan LaMarre (14), RHP Tony Cingrani (15), C Tucker Barnhart (25), 3B David Vidal (26), RHP Kyle Lotzkar (30)

Palm Beach Cardinals
25-32 (5th in FSL South)
Offense: 482 R (12th) .667 OPS (12th)
Pitching: 3.80 ERA (5th) 1.31 WHIP (4th)
Top 30 Prospects: C Cody Stanley (24), RHP Seth Blair (28)

Dayton Dragons (Cincinnati)
25-30 (7th in MWL East)
Offense: 537 R (15th) .676 OPS (15th)
Pitching: 4.20 ERA (15th) 1.38 WHIP (13th)
Top 30 Prospects: RHP Robert Stephenson (7), OF Yorman Rodriguez (19), OF Kyle Waldrop (22), 3B Sean Buckley (24)

Connecticut Tigers
28-32 (2nd in Stedler)
Offense: 234 R (13th) .630 OPS (14th)
Pitching: 3.46 ERA (7th) 1.23 WHIP (5th)
Top 30 Prospects: RHP Ramon Lebron (11), OF Danry Vasquez (18), OF Jake Stewart

Danville Braves
33-24 (2nd in APP East)
Offense: 306 R (5th) .720 OPS (4th)
Pitching: 3.92 ERA (4th) 1.31 WHIP (4th)
Top 30 Prospects: LHP Carlos Perez (25), RHP Lucas Sims, C Josh Elander

GCL Red Sox
32-24 (1st in GCL South)
Offense: 260 R (2nd) .663 OPS (6th)
Pitching: 3.15 ERA (3rd) 1.21 WHIP (5th)
Top 30 Prospects: None