Down on the farm April 15: Torres stays hot

The organization's bullpens really struggled Sunday, with three affiliates losing games they were winning or had tied late.

Triple-A Durham Bulls (7-4) ***Featured game of the day***

Despite a second straight strong effort from Alex Torres, the Bulls dropped their second straight to Charlotte by a 5-2 score in 11 innings. Torres struck out eight and walked none in six scoreless innings, only allowing two hits to the Knights. Even more encouragingly, of his 89 pitches, 62 (69.6%) were strikes. Durham's offense gave Torres a 2-0 lead in the fifth when a Rich Thompson squeeze bunt scored Hak-Ju Lee and a Jason Bourgeois single scored Juan Apodaca, but the bullpen couldn't hold it. Frank De Los Santos was charged with two runs that Josh Lueke allowed to score, and catching prospect Josh Phegley hit a three run walkoff home run off Jim Paduch to win the game. Leslie Anderson picked up three more hits, and Lee reached base four times with a pair of doubles and two walks.

Double-A Montgomery Biscuits (5-5)

After scoring a first inning run, Montgomery quickly fell behind and wasn't particularly competitive in their 7-1 loss to Jackson. Todd Glaesmann's RBI single gave the Biscuits that 1-0 lead after a two out error extended the inning. Victor Mateo couldn't get the shut-down inning though, and he stumbled through five innings, allowing four runs on four hits and five walks while only striking out three. Andrew Bellatti made his Montgomery debut, and he allowed three runs in three innings of work. Ty Morrison and Cameron Seitzer each reached base twice.

Class-A Advanced Charlotte Stone Crabs (4-6)

Fort Myers improved to an impressive 10-0 on the season as Charlotte blew a late lead in their 5-2 loss. Jake Partridge came on for the seventh inning and allowed a leadoff double. After a sac bunt and sac fly allowed the tying run to come home, Partridge walked and hit the next two batters before Miguel Sano hit a three run homer to give the Miracle a lead. This ruined another strong start from Ryan Carpenter. After allowing a first inning run, Carpenter cruised through six innings, allowing just the one run on five hits and a walk while striking out six. Luke Bailey picked up Charlotte's only RBI on the day, and Jaker Hager collected two more hits including his first triple of the year.

Class A Bowling Green Hot Rods (8-3)

Although they eventually tied the game, a seven run fifth inning doomed Bowling Green in their 10-7 loss to West Michigan. The Hot Rods actually took a 2-0 lead in the second inning when they hit three singles to open the inning and picked up a second run later in the frame on a sac fly. In the fifth, one inning after starter Taylor Guerrieri was removed, the wheels fell off. Eduar Quinonez relieved him, and the floodgates opened. A sac fly with one out gave the Whitecaps their second run of the inning, and they went on to get five more runs to go up 7-2. Over the next three innings, the Hot Rods picked up five runs to tie the game, four of which can be credited to a pair of doubles by Andrew Toles. Unfortunately, West Michigan got to Quinonez again as well as Marcus Jensen to pull away for the win. The two doubles were two of Toles' three hits on the day, and Joey Rickard and Justin O'Conner each picked up a pair of hits.

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Star of the day- I usually don't award this on sweep days, but Torres was just so good.

Goat of the day- Most players besides Torres and Toles

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

Durham @ Charlotte 7:15 PM (MiLB.TV)
Chris Archer* (2-0, 4.50) v. Zach Stewart (0-1, 6.30)

Montgomery v. Mobile 8:05 PM
Jake Thompson (1-0, 0.00) v. Derek Eitel (0-0, 0.00)

Charlotte @ St. Lucie 6:30 PM
Parker Markel* (0-1, 6.00) v. Hansel Robles* (0-1, 2.79)

Bowling Green is off

*Listed as TBA on milb.com

Scouting the opposition

Charlotte Knights (White Sox)
4-7 (4th in IL South)
Offense: 66 R (1st) .809 OPS (5th)
Pitching: 4.87 ERA (9th) 1.45 WHIP (9th)
Top 30 Prospects: SS Carlos Sanchez (3), RHP Andre Rienzo (7), OF Jared Mitchell (9), RHP Jhan Martinez (13), RHP Brian Omogrosso (17), C Josh Phegley (18), RHP Simon Castro (20)

Mobile BayBears (Arizona)
6-4 (2nd in SL South)
Offense: 34 R (9th) .645 OPS (7th)
Pitching: 2.15 ERA (1st) 1.18 WHIP (4th)
Top 30 Prospects: LHP David Holmberg (6), RHP Zeke Spruill (9), SS Nick Ahmed (11), RHP Anthony Meo (13), 1B Jon Griffin (17), RHP Kevin Munson (28)

St. Lucie Mets
7-3 (T-2nd in FSL South)
Offense: 40 R (5th) .592 OPS (12th)
Pitching: 2.18 ERA (1st) 1.27 WHIP (5th)
Top 30 Prospects: RHP Noah Syndergaard (3), RHP Luis Mateo (4), RHP Domingo Tapia (9), RHP Jake deGrom (11), RHP Hansel Robles (12), 3B Aderlin Rodriguez (19), SS Matt Reynolds (23), C Cam Maron (30)