Rays down on the farm May 31: Bowling Green battles for win

Friday's results were much better than Thursday's.

Triple-A Durham Bulls (33-23)

Mike Montgomery was cruising to another outstanding outing before running out of gas in Durham's 5-4 win over Lehigh Valley.  As the Bulls built up a 3-0 lead through five innings, the only runner to reach base on Montgomery did so on an error.  In the sixth, the first three IronPigs reached base on their own merits to end the shutout, and after a sac fly and wild pitch, the game was suddenly tied.  A Maikel Franco single ended Montgomery's outing, and he finished with three runs allowed on three hits and a walk in 5.2 innings with three strikeouts.

It didn't take long for Durham to get that lead back.  After Vince Belnome led off the bottom of the sixth with a single, Curt Casali hit a two run homer, his second in three games.  Lehigh Valley pulled within one in the eighth on an error that left the bases loaded with one out, but Kirby Yates got out of the jam and finished with three strikeouts in two innings.  Hak-Ju Lee reached base three times and stole his seventh base.

Double-A Montgomery Biscuits (27-28)

A five run third inning barely held up for Montgomery in their 5-4 win over Jacksonville.  Willie Argo led off that inning with a walk, and after stealing second base, came home to score the first run of the game on an Alejandro Segovia double.  Later in the inning, two runs scored on a Ryan Brett infield single that ended in a throwing error, and two more scored on a two run single by Jeff Malm.  After that, the offense was mostly silent, but they already had enough runs.  Argo and Joey Rickard each reached base three times and stole a base.

Mike Colla pitched well with the early run support, and the two runs he allowed was just the third time in 11 starts this season he's allowed two or fewer runs.  Both runs against him were scored in the fourth inning.  The Biscuits conceded the first one to get the second out of the inning, and the second scored on a Malm error.  Colla finished with the two runs allowed on six hits and no walks in six innings with five strikeouts.  In the ninth, Jacksonville scored two runs and got the tying run on base with a two out error, but Santiago Garrido worked out of trouble to preserve the win.

Class-A Advanced Charlotte Stone Crabs (25-27)

Charlotte was postponed.

Class A Bowling Green Hot Rods (25-29)

Bowling Green managed to erase a five run deficit on their way to a 9-6 win over Fort Wayne.  Down 6-1 in the fifth, the Hot Rods cut into that lead with a three run inning, aided by an error and wild pitch in addition to their two hits.  They scored again in the seventh, but the big inning didn't come until the eighth when they scored four runs to storm ahead.  TinCap mistakes once again helped Bowling Green, but the biggest hit of the inning belonged to Johnny Field.  Before any errors were made, he tripled home the tying and go-ahead runs and came home to score on an Alexander Simon single.

Jake Faria's continuing struggles are what put Bowling Green in that hole.  He allowed all six Fort Wayne runs in five innings, and four of them came in the second.  He allowed those runs on 11 hits, including five for extra bases, and one walk with two strikeouts.  Aaron Griffin picked him up with four scoreless innings of relief.  Granden Goetzman had a big game for the Hot Rods, picking up three more hits including his 18th double.  Juniel Querecuto also had three hits, and Darryl George reached base three times.

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Star of the day- Casali's big hit led Durham to their win.

Goat of the day- David Ortiz is certainly not winning over any new fans.

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

Durham v. Lehigh Valley 7:05 PM (MiLB.TV, radio stream)
Merrill Kelly (5-1, 2.45) v. Barry Enright (3-2, 4.06)

Montgomery v. Mississippi 7:35 PM (MiLB.TV, radio stream)
Grayson Garvin (0-1, 2.38) v. Williams Perez (3-3, 1.92)

Charlotte v. Brevard County 6 PM (Radio stream)
Bruedlin Suero (3-2, 3.97) v. Damien Magnifico (3-4, 2.28)

Bowling Green @ South Bend 7:05 PM (Radio stream)
Chris Kirsch (2-5, 4.47) v. TBA

*Listed as TBA on milb.com

Scouting the opposition

Lehigh Valley IronPigs (Philadelphia)
29-26 (3rd in IL North)
Offense: 232 R (6th) .704 OPS (9th)
Pitching: 4.07 ERA (10th) 1.41 WHIP (10th)
Top 30 Prospects: 3B Maikel Franco (1), RHP Ethan Martin (10), C Cameron Rupp (13), RHP Ken Giles (18)

Mississippi Braves
32-22 (2nd in SL South)
Offense: 227 R (6th) .711 OPS (4th)
Pitching: 3.40 ERA (3rd) 1.26 WHIP (3rd)
Top 30 Prospects: RHP J.R. Graham (3), RHP Jason Hursh (4), RHP Shae Simmons (16), 3B Kyle Kubitza (22), OF Matt Lipka (24), RHP Aaron Northcraft (25), OF Robby Hefflinger (29), RHP James Hoyt (30)

Brevard County Manatees (Milwaukee)
28-25 (3rd in FSL North)
Offense: 198 R (10th) .676 OPS (8th)
Pitching: 2.64 ERA (2nd) 1.13 WHIP (2nd)
Top 30 Prospects: OF Tyrone Taylor (2), OF Victor Roache (5), SS Orlando Arcia (7), 3B Nick Delmonico (12), SS Yadiel Rivera (13), RHP Tyler Wagner (16), RHP Kevin Shackelford (21), RHP Damien Magnificio (23), RHP Jorge Lopez (24)

South Bend Silver Hawks (Arizona)
34-20 (1st in MWL East)
Offense: 298 R (1st) .757 OPS (2nd)
Pitching: 3.64 ERA (5th) 1.33 WHIP (7th)
Top 30 Prospects: RHP Jose Martinez (6), 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)