Rays down on the farm May 22: Minor league pitching MIA

Not a great day for the organization.

Triple-A Durham Bulls (26-21)

Durham was off.

Double-A Montgomery Biscuits (24-21)

Two big swings doomed Montgomery in their 5-2 loss to Huntsville.  Up 1-0 in the fifth, Jared Mortensen allowed a two run home run to Greg Hopkins.  A two out double by Joey Rickard in the seventh tied the game, but Hopkins wasn't done doing damage.  Against Andrew Bellatti in the ninth, he hit a three run home run to break the tie and win the game for the Stars.  Mortensen allowed two runs on three hits and three walks in five innings with seven strikeouts, a season high.

Ryan Brett started the scoring with a solo home run in the third inning, his second of the season.  Other than that, the Biscuits rarely threatened despite outhitting Huntsville.  They had a runner reach base in every inning, but the ninth was the only time they had two on simultaneously.  Cameron Seitzer had two hits and also walked.

Class-A Advanced Charlotte Stone Crabs (23-22)

Jeff Ames' rough season continued in Charlotte's 9-4 loss to Lakeland.  Tommy Coyle's walk with two outs and the bases loaded gave the Stone Crabs a 1-0 lead after half an inning, but the game quickly fell apart for Ames.  He gave that run back in the bottom of the first, and the Flying Tigers scored again in the second on a solo home run.  He got a quick out in the third, but that's when things turned south.  He allowed a two run homer shortly after that, and even with a couple runners on base, he got the second out and could've limited the damage.  He didn't, and three hits later, Lakeland had six runs and lead 8-1.  Ames finished two more innings, allowing eight runs on eight hits and a walk in five innings with two strikeouts.

Charlotte loaded the bases with no outs in the second inning, but after failing to take advantage of that, the offense was missing in action until the ninth.  With four hits and a run-scoring groundout, the Stone Crabs scored three more runs, but the tying run never even reached the on-deck circle.  Leonardo Reginatto, Maxx Tissenbaum and Kes Carter had two hit games.

Class A Bowling Green Hot Rods (20-25)

After coming back from a six run first inning, Bowling Green gave up another big inning in their 13-8 loss to Lansing.  Starter German Marquez could not even last through one inning, facing 10 batters, only recording two outs and getting charged with six runs on five hits and two walks with two strikeouts.  Jorge Rodriguez settled the Lugnuts down for a few innings, and after the Hot Rods took a 7-6 lead, he allowed a leadoff double followed by two straight outs.  Andrew Hanse relieved him and allowed the next five runners to reach base, scoring four runs and putting Lansing up for good.  Hanse was charged with four runs in 1.1 innings, and Darryl George ended up recording the last two outs of the game.

The Bowling Green offense did a nice job battling back but just couldn't match Lansing.  After falling behind 6-1, they came back for three runs in the second inning, and they did it again in the fifth, taking advantage of Lansing mistakes the whole way.  They only needed one hit in the fifth thanks to two errors, a passed ball on a third strike, and a pair of sac flies.  Ariel Soriano and Granden Goetzman each had two of Bowling Green's eight hits.  Hot Rods hitters struck out 12 times and walked four.

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Star of the day- At least Bowling Green scored some runs.

Goat of the day- Marquez is a young pitcher, and he's going to have some games like this.

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

Durham @ Columbus 6:35 PM (CBS Sports Network, MiLB.TV, radio stream)
Enny Romero (2-4, 4.75) v. Kyle Davies (1-2, 3.26)

Montgomery v. Huntsville 8:05 PM (MiLB.TV, radio stream)
Victor Mateo (6-3, 3.40) v. Drew Gagnon (4-1, 2.36)

Charlotte @ Lakeland 6:30 PM
Leonel Santiago (1-4, 9.20) v. Joshua Turley (3-0, 2.13)

Bowling Green v. Lake County 8:05 PM (Radio stream)
Jaime Schultz (0-0, 0.00) v. Dace Kime* (0-6, 7.82)

*Listed as TBA on milb.com

Scouting the opposition

Columbus Clippers (Cleveland)
22-22 (2nd in IL West)
Offense: 178 R (10th) .710 OPS (5th)
Pitching: 3.66 ERA (6th) 1.27 WHIP (3rd)
Top 30 Prospects: RHP C.C. Lee (8), 2B Jose Ramirez (9), RHP Austin Adams (10), OF Carlos Moncrief (14), 1B Jesus Aguilar (15), LHP Scott Barnes (26)

Huntsville Stars (Milwaukee)
31-15 (1st in SL North)
Offense: 222 R (2nd) .702 OPS (6th)
Pitching: 3.10 ERA (2nd) 1.14 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)

Lakeland Flying Tigers
28-17 (2nd in FSL North)
Offense: 190 R (6th) .667 OPS (7th)
Pitching: 3.13 ERA (5th) 1.23 WHIP (3rd)
Top 30 Prospects: RHP Jake Thompson (4), RHP Calvin Drummond (29)

Lake County Captains (Cleveland)
16-30 (8th in MWL East)
Offense: 170 R (15th) .675 OPS (13th)
Pitching: 4.51 ERA (15th) 1.35 WHIP (7th)
Top 30 Prospects: OF Clint Frazier (2), SS Dorssys Paulino (6), RHP Dace Kime (16), RHP Adam Plutko (18), OF Anthony Santander (20), LHP Luis Lugo (21), RHP Mitch Brown (24), 1B Nellie Rodriguez (27)