Rays down on the farm May 1: Young slam powers Bowling Green

Only two of the four affiliates finish the month over .500, but Bowling Green has at least been playing better as of late.

Triple-A Durham Bulls (18-9)

Durham was off.

Double-A Montgomery Biscuits (16-10)

After trading two runs each in the first inning, Montgomery lost ground quickly in their 8-4 loss to Huntsville.  After Taylor Motter scored on a balk, Richie Shaffer hit an RBI triple to tie the game at two.  At that point, the Stars scored five consecutive runs to put the game out of reach.  Four of those runs came against starter Victor Mateo, who allowed seven hits and a walk in just four innings with three strikeouts.  Jake Thompson allowed three runs in two innings of work, doubling his run total for the season.

Aside from the two run first, the Biscuits offense was dormant.  From the second through seventh innings, only two batters reached base.  In the eighth, Ryan Brett reached on an error, and that was followed by a two run homer by Motter, but the tying run never even reached the on deck circle.  Curt Casali drew two more walks.

Class-A Advanced Charlotte Stone Crabs (12-14)

Leonel Santiago finally pitched well in Charlotte's 6-1 win over St. Lucie.  After allowing six or more runs in his last three starts and yet to complete five innings in the season, he finally cracked the five inning barrier, allowing just an unearned run (due to an error by Santiago himself) on two hits and two walks in five innings with three strikeouts.

That puts the Mets up 1-0, but the Stone Crabs responded immediately with two runs a half inning later in the top of the third.  After the first two batters of the inning struck out, Leonardo Reginatto and Tommy Coyle drew walks to set up a two run triple by Patrick Leonard.  In the sixth, Charlotte scored another run when the St. Lucie pitcher apparently attempted to pick off Kes Carter at third base and threw the ball away.  Toles' sac fly later in the inning extended the lead to 4-1, and an inning later, Justin O'Conner hit a two run home run to make it a 6-1 score.  Five Stone Crabs had two hit games, including Reginatto who reached base four times.

Class A Bowling Green Hot Rods (9-16)

In game one, Jake Faria went toe-to-toe with first rounder Braden Shipley and prevailed in Bowling Green's 4-0 win.  He allowed just one baserunner in the complete game shutout, a one out, sixth inning single and struck out six batters.  The Hot Rods got the only run of the game they needed in the first inning with a two out Armando Araiza double, but they added on more later.  Alexander Simon singled home two in the fourth inning, and Kean Wong's infield single two batters later drove home Simon to complete the three run inning.  Simon reached base three times.

Bowling Green used five home runs to win a game 2 slugfest by a 13-7 score.  A Darryl George single scored their first run in the first inning, and an inning later, a solo homer by Yoel Araujo and two run shot by Pat Blair extended their lead to 5-0.  A half inning after South Bend got on the board with two runs in the fourth, the Hot Rods immediately got back to work.  George doubled home another run, and after an intentional walk, Ty Young hit a grand slam off Jose Jose, and Oscar Hernandez followed that up with his second home run of the season.

Jordan Harrison pitched well through the first five innings, but with two outs in the sixth, the Silver Hawks broke out with a five run rally capped off with a triple and two run home run against Andrew Hanse and aided by an error by Ty Young..  A half inning later, Angel Soriano hit a two run home run to add some insurance.  Harrison was charged with five runs (two earned) on seven hits and a walk in 5.2 innings with a strikeout.  Blair and George each had three hits, and Young reached base four times.

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Star of the day- Faria continues to pitch well, just as he did last year.

Goat of the day- After allowing just one run over three starts, Mateo struggled today with four allowed in four innings.

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

Durham v. Columbus 7:05 PM (MiLB.TV, radio stream)
Enny Romero (2-3, 4.44) v. Josh Tomlin* (1-1, 2.77)

Montgomery v. Huntsville 7 PM (MiLB.TV, radio stream) DOUBLEHEADER
Dylan Floro (2-1, 6.41) v. Jacob Barnes (0-0, 5.40)
Jared Mortensen* (3-0, 2.82) v. Drew Gagnon (2-1, 3.03)

Both games will be seven innings

Charlotte v. Jupiter 6:30 PM (Radio stream)
Roberto Gomez (1-2, 4.08) v. Josh Hodges (0-3, 7.40)

Bowling Green v. South Bend 8:05 PM (Radio stream)
Chris Kirsch (1-3, 7.11) v. Blake Perry (0-1, 4.87)

*Listed as TBA on milb.com

Scouting the opposition

Columbus Clippers (Cleveland)
11-13 (2nd in IL West)
Offense: 100 R (9th) .727 OPS (6th)
Pitching: 4.11 ERA (11th) 1.35 WHIP (6th)
Top 30 Prospects: RHP Trevor Bauer (3), 2B Jose Ramirez (9), RHP Austin Adams (10), OF Carlos Moncrief (14), 1B Jesus Aguilar (15), LHP Scott Barnes (26)

Huntsville Stars (Milwaukee)
16-10 (1st in SL North)
Offense: 116 R (3rd) .672 OPS (8th)
Pitching: 2.86 ERA (2nd) 1.06 WHIP (1st)
Top 30 Prospects: OF Mitch Haniger (3), RHP Taylor Jungmann (6), RHP David Goforth (8), 1B Jason Rogers (20), RHP Kevin Shackelford (21), RHP Drew Gagnon (25), RHP Tyler Cravy (29), OF D'Vontrey Richardson (30)

Jupiter Hammerheads (Miami)
12-14 (T-4th in FSL South)
Offense: 121 R (3rd) .686 OPS (8th)
Pitching: 3.75 ERA (7th) 1.28 WHIP (5th)
Top 30 Prospects: 3B Colin Moran (2), RHP Trevor Williams (11), RHP Colby Suggs (17), C Austin Barnes (20), RHP Austin Brice (27), RHP Josh Hodges (29)

South Bend Silver Hawks (Arizona)
14-12 (3rd in MWL East)
Offense: 110 R (8th) .642 OPS (15th)
Pitching: 3.97 ERA (9th) 1.31 WHIP (7th)
Top 30 Prospects: RHP Braden Shipley (2), RHP Aaron Blair (5), OF Stryker Trahan (8), 1B Daniel Palka (17), C Michael Perez (20), LHP Daniel Gibson (21), RHP Geordy Parra (22), SS Joe Munoz (26), 2B Jamie Westbrook (27), 2B Andrew Velasquez (28)