Rays prospects and minor leagues: Offenses find their stride

Johnny Field is making a campaign for promotion with 24 RBIs so far this year. Casey Gillaspie now has six home runs on the year, showing his power wasn't sapped by a wrist injury last year.

If you missed it, Taylor Motter is headed to the majors, which is long overdue. Motter has a 119 wRC+ in his minor-league career.

Taylor Motter is going to The Show! Our reigning MVP gets his first call up to @RaysBaseball #HairFlow pic.twitter.com/LqG6j4E1g1

— Durham Bulls (@DurhamBulls) May 15, 2016

Triple-A Durham Bulls (16-21)

A four-run first inning set the pace for Durham's offense as they went on to win 7-4 over the first-place Charlotte Knights. A sacrifice fly by Richie Shaffer started the scoring with Nick Franklin, Daniel Robertson, and Patrick Leonard driving in the other three runs. Franklin scored on a wild pitch in the third and Dayron Varona cranked a two-run home run in the sixth to cap off the scoring. Ryan Garton and Neil Wagner each had solid appearances in relief, allowing only three hits over 3.1 combined innings.

Double-A Montgomery Biscuits (21-14)

Chi-Wei Hu got plenty of run support in an impressive start as the Biscuits shut out the Jacksonville Suns, 5-0. Wu went seven innings, allowing only four hits and one walk. His ERA and FIP are incredibly low at 0.54 and 1.91, respectively. Kyle Bird pitched the last two innings, striking out one and allowing one hit. Johnny Field hit a solo home run to start off the game, his 24th RBI of the year. Casey Gillaspie went 3-for-4 with a solo shot in the seventh, and Juniel Querecuto, Kean Wong, and Granden Goetzman all contributed an RBI each.

Class-A Advanced Charlotte Stone Crabs (20-17)

Charlotte kept the offense up all game as they cruised to a 9-4 win over the Jupiter Hammerheads. Riley Unroe kept his torrid pace with a triple, run, and three RBIs, keeping his average at .320 on the year. Cade Gotta and Landon Cray had two RBIs each. Alec Sole had an RBI as well a stolen base. Yonny Chirinos was impressive in his first for the Stone Crabs, allowing just one unearned run on two hits and one walk. Mike Franco shut the door to end the game, striking out the two batters he faced.

Class-A Bowling Green (21-15)

An unfortunate start by Michael Velazquez ended up with a 9-3 loss to the Lake County Captains. The Hot Rods committed three errors leading to Velazquez being on the hook for five unearned runs. The only earned runs came on a three-run home run in the first. David Rodriguez and Brett Sullivan combined for three RBIs in the bottom of the first to tie up the game, but four runs in the top of the second ultimately doomed the Hot Rods. Sullivan now has 27 RBIs on the year.

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Notable Performances

Triple-A

OF Dayron Varona: 2-for-4, 2 R, HR (3), 2 RBI (17), BB, K
OF Mikie Mahtook: 2-for-4, BB
2B Nick Franklin: 3-for-5, 2 R, 3B (1), RBI (13), K
C Luke Maile: 2-for-4, R, BB
SS Daniel Robertson: 2-for-4, RBI (9), K
1B/3B/OF Patrick Leonard: 2-for-4, R, 3B (1), RBI (4)

RHP Ryan Garton: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K
RHP Neil Wagner: 1.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K

Double-A

OF Johnny Field: 1-for-5, R, HR (5), RBI (24), 2 K
IF Juniel Querecuto: 2-for-4, 2B (4), RBI (20)
1B Casey Gillaspie: 3-for-4, 2 R, 2B (10), HR (6), RBI (15)
2B/3B Kean Wong: 1-for-3, RBI (14), BB

RHP Chih-Wei Hu: W (2-0), 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K
LHP Kyle Bird: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K

Class-A Advanced

2B Riley Unroe: 1-for-4, R, 3B (3), 3 RBI (11), K
SS Alec Sole: 2-for-4, R, RBI (16), BB, K
IF Grant Kay: 1-for-4, 2 R, 2B (2)
OF Cade Gotta: 1-for-4, 2 RBI (10), K
3B Cristian Toribio: 1-for-3, 2 R, 2B (5), BB, K
OF Thomas Milone: 2-for-3, R
OF Landon Cray: 2-for-3, R, 2B (1), 2 RBI (5), BB

RHP Yonny Chirinos: W (3-0), 6.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
RHP Mike Franco: 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K

Class-A

C David Rodriguez: 2-for-2, R, 2B (4), RBI (17), BB
C Brett Sullivan: 1-for-4, R, HR (6), 2 RBI (27)
2B Brandon Lowe: 2-for-4
OF Zacrey Law: 1-for-4, 2B (7), 2 K

RHP Reece Karalus: 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0BB, 3 K
RHP Tyler Brashears: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K

Today's probables (All probables courtesy milb.com)

Durham @ Charlotte 2:05 PM ET (milb.tv, radio stream)
Blake Snell (1-3, 3.60) v. Erik Johnson (2-1, 3.77)

Montgomery @ Jacksonville 3:05 PM ET (milb.tv, radio stream)
Jacob Faria (0-3, 4.97) v. TBA

Charlotte v. Jupiter 12:35 PM ET (radio stream)
Hunter Wood (2-2, 1.71) v. Dillon Peters (3-2, 2.93)

Bowling Green v. Lake County 5:05 PM ET (radio stream)
TBA v. Shao-Ching Chiang (1-3, 4.26)

Scouting the opposition

Charlotte Knights (White Sox)
19-17, 1st in IL South
Offense: 167 R (1st), .725 OPS (2nd)
Pitching: 4.41 ERA (14th-Last), 1.39 WHIP (13th)
Top 30 Prospects: SS Tim Anderson (1), OF Jacob May (7), RHP Chris Beck (19), OF Jason Coats (20), 1B Danny Hayes (29), 3B Matt Davidson (30)