Rays prospects and minor leagues 8/26: Bowling Green secures playoff spot

With ten games left in the regular season, Bowling Green punched their ticket to the playoffs with a 14-2 win Thursday night. The Hot Rods maintain a two-game lead in the Midwest League’s Eastern division in the second half after finishing fourth in the first half.

Triple-A Durham Bulls (57-76)

Even after collecting six late-inning runs, the Bulls couldn’t overcome the deficit in a 12-7 loss to the Charlotte Knights. Jaime Schultz allowed more than three runs for the first time since June 11, giving up six to the Knights before being removed after just 1.2 innings of work. Johnny Field got one run back in the third on a solo shot, but the gap only grew after Parker Markel surrendered three more runs over the next three innings. The Bulls finally started putting things together in the eighth when they tallied two runs. Outfielder Jaff Decker came in to pitch an inning of relief, showing why he is a position player as he yielded three more runs. Durham made the ninth inning interesting, tallying four runs before the rally was finally ousted by Charlotte.

Double-A Montgomery Biscuits (34-25)

Montgomery won their pitching duel with the Birmingham Barons as the Biscuits battled for a 1-0 victory. Brent Honeywell was effective in seven shutout innings, allowing just two hits and no walks while striking out four batters. Montgomery got their lone run in the second off the bat of Granden Goetzman, who lined a RBI single to plate Patrick Leonard. Kyle Winkler recorded his eighth save with the Biscuits this year, striking out three batters.

Class-A Advanced Charlotte Stone Crabs (29-29)

Charlotte had a game to forget as the St. Lucie Mets blew out the Stone Crabs, 13-0. Chris Pike pitched especially bad, giving up nine runs on 11 hits in 3.1 innings. Henry Ceteno was the only Charlotte pitcher to go without surrendering a run, throwing two hitless innings of relief. The Stone Crabs managed just four singles at the plate and made three errors on defense.

Class-A Bowling Green Hot Rods (40-20)

Bowling Green secured a spot in the playoffs with their 40th win of the second half, a 14-2 battering of the Lake County Captains. The Hot Rods scored four runs in the second, and the attack was on from there. Seven different players drove in a run for the Hot Rods, with David Rodriguez leading the team with three. Rodriguez hit a three-run home run, and Brandon Lowe knocked a two-run shot. David Olmedo-Barrera and Peter Maris both drove in two. Jose Mujica had another dominant start, striking out eight over six innings with just one run allowed.

Short-Season Hudson Valley Renegades (41-22)

Hudson Valley won their ninth game in a row, shutting out the Connecticut Tigers in a 4-0 win. Three Renegades pitchers combined for a one-hitter, with Travis Ott continuing his dominance of the New-York Penn League. The lefty won his sixth game of the year, striking out six in five innings. Deivy Mendez and Spencer Jones each threw two hitless innings of relief, with Mendez punching out four batters. Garrett Whitley plated Hudson Valley’s first run with a fifth-inning RBI triple. Whitley, Jake Fraley, Miles Mastrobuoni, and Chris Betts all drove in a run each.

Rookie Princeton Rays (32-27)

Princeton tallied 11 hits, but they struggled converting those hits to runs as they fell to the Kingsport Mets, 10-4. The Rays went 3-for-10 with runners in scoring position, leaving seven runners on base. Eleardo Cabrera opened up the scoring in the third with a RBI single, but that lead went away when Resly Linares gave up three runs in the bottom of the inning. Linares lasted just 2.1 innings as he took his third loss of the year. Edrick Agosto took the most damage, allowing six runs to the Mets. The Rays didn’t help themselves on defense, making four errors, which turned into four unearned runs. First-round pick Joshua Lowe hit two RBI triples, but he also made a throwing error.

Rookie GCL Rays (25-29)

The GCL Rays’ pitching fell apart late in the game, surrendering all nine runs after the sixth inning in the Rays’ 9-0 loss to the GCL Red Sox. Jhonleider Salinas was solid in his fourth start since being traded to the Rays, going five shutout innings in a no-decision. V.J. Collins took the loss as he fell apart in his second inning of relief, allowing four runs in the seventh and being charged with three more in the eighth. The GCL Rays didn’t get to bat in the bottom of the ninth due to rain, but it probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference anyway.

The preceding stories were not generated by the Associated Press computer using data from and in cooperation with MLBAM.

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Notable Performances

Triple-A

SS Daniel Robertson: 2-for-4, 2 R, 2B (17), RBI (39), BB
OF Jaff Decker: 2-for-3, RBI (32), 2 BB
C J.P. Arencibia: 2-for-5, 2B (15), 3 RBI (40), K
OF Johnny Field: 2-for-4, 2 R, 2B (21), HR (5), RBI (20)

LHP Dana Eveland: 2.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K

Double-A

1B/3B: Patrick Leonard: 2-for-3, R, K, SB (7)
OF Cade Gotta: 1-for-3, 2B (19)
OF Granden Goetzman: 1-for-2, RBI (32), BB

RHP Brent Honeywell: W (3-1), 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K
LHP Kyle Bird: H (5), 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K
RHP Kyle Winkler: S (8), 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K

Class-A Advanced

OF Nathan Lukes: 1-for-3, BB, 2 K

RHP Henry Ceteno: 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K

Class-A

2B Brandon Lowe: 2-for-5, 2 R, HR (5), 2 RBI (37), BB, K
3B Kevin Padlo: 3-for-6, 2 R, 2 2B (20), RBI (63), K
C Brett Sullivan: 2-for-5, R, RBI (76), BB
OF David Olmedo-Barrera: 2-for-5, 2 R, 3B (4), 2 RBI (37)
IF Michael Russell: 3-for-4, 2 R, 2B (28), BB
IF Peter Maris: 2-for-5, 2 R, 2 RBI (39), K
C David Rodriguez: 1-for-3, R, HR (9), 3 RBI (60), BB, K
OF Manny Sanchez: 2-for-5, 2 R, 2B (12), RBI (37), 2 K

RHP Jose Mujica: W (8-3), 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 K

Short-Season

OF Jake Fraley: 1-for-4, R, 3B (7), RBI (15), K
OF Garrett Whitley: 1-for-2, 3B (4), RBI (27), 2 BB
2B Miles Mastrobuoni: 2-for-4, 2B (9), RBI (15) K
3B Jonathan Popadics: 2-for-3, R, BB
C Chris Betts: 1-for-4, 2B (3), RBI (5), 2 K
SS Bill Pujols: 1-for-2, 2 R, 2 BB, K

LHP Travis Ott: W (6-0), 5.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 6 K
RHP Deivy Mendez: H (2), 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K
RHP Spencer Jones: 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K

Rookie (Princeton)

OF Eleardo Cabrera: 3-for-5, 2B (9), RBI (35), K
C Blake Grant-Parks: 1-for-1, R, 2B (5)
2B Robbie Tenerowicz: 2-for-4. 2 R, 2B (16), RBI (37)
3B Joshua Lowe: 2-for-4, 2 3B (2), 2 RBI (10)

Rookie (GCL)

OF Ryan Calloway: 1-for-3, 2B (1)

RHP Jhonleider Salinas: 5.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K

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

Durham v. Gwinnett 7:05 PM ET (milb.tv, radio stream)
Austin Pruitt (8-9, 3.34) v. Tyrell Jenkins (6-3, 2.91)

Montgomery v. Birmingham 8:05 PM ET (milb.tv, radio stream)
Chris Kirsch (6-7, 3.54) v. Thaddius Lowry (0-0, 2.57)

Charlotte @ Bradenton 6:30 PM ET (radio stream)
Henry Ceteno (3-3, 3.03) v. Jonathan Brubaker (2-6, 5.90)

Bowling Green v. Dayton 7:35 PM ET (milb.tv, radio stream)
Michael Velasquez (7-8, 4.94) v. Wendolyn Bautista (0-0, 4.58)

Hudson Valley @ Aberdeen 7:05 PM ET (radio stream)
TBA v. TBA

Princeton @ Kingsport 7:00 PM ET (radio stream)
TBA v. Adonis Uceta (3-5, 5.07)

GCL Rays v. GCL Orioles 12:00 PM ET

Scouting the opposition

Gwinnett Braves
60-72, 2nd in IL South
Offense: 525 R (7th) .695 OPS (8th)
Pitching: 3.98 ERA (12th) 1.47 WHIP (14th-Last)
Top 30 Prospects: RHP Aaron Blair (2), RHP Chris Ellis (13), RHP Tyrell Jenkins (14), 3B Rio Ruiz (17), RHP Jason Hursh (21), RHP Shae Simmons (22), RHP Steve Janas (30), SS Daniel Castro (31), IF Reid Brignac

Birmingham Barons (White Sox)
18-41, 5th (Last) in SL North
Offense: 523 R (6th) .674 OPS (7th)
Pitching: 4.58 ERA (10th-Last) 1.43 WHIP (10th)
Top 30 Prospects: RHP Spencer Adams (4), 3B Trey Michalczewski (6), LHP Jordan Guerrero (11), OF Courtney Hawkins (12), LHP Brian Clark (14), RHP Brandon Brennan (25), C Alfredo Gonzalez (26), 1B Keon Barnum (31)

Bradenton Marauders (Pittsburgh)
29-31, 5th in FSL South
Offense: 598 R (2nd) .719 OPS (2nd)
Pitching: 3.55 ERA (7th) 1.30 WHIP (7th)
Top 30 Prospects: SS Cole Tucker (7), 3B/OF Jordan Luplow (14), RHP Yeudy Garcia (16), LHP Stephen Tarpley (17), 2B/3B Kevin Kramer (28)

Dayton Dragons (Cincinnati)
23-37, 7th in MWL East
Offense: 451 R (15th) .627 OPS (16th-Last)
Pitching: 4.29 ERA (16th) 1.43 WHIP (16th)
Top 30 Prospects: C Tyler Stephenson (4), RHP Tony Santillan (13), RHP Tanner Rainey (17), OF Narisco Crook (28), 3B Nick Senzel, C Chris Okey

Aberdeen IronBirds (Baltimore)
27-37, 4th (Last) in NYPL McNamara
Offense: 205 R (14th-Last) .606 OPS (11th)
Pitching: 3.27 ERA (8th) 1.26 WHIP (6th)
Top 30 Prospects: RHP Cody Sedlock (1st Round Pick), LHP Keegan Akin (2nd Round Pick), RHP Matthias Diaz (3rd Round Pick), OF Austin Hays (4th Round Pick)

Kingsport Mets
22-39, 5th (Last) in AL West
Offense: 293 R (6th) .697 OPS (8th)
Pitching: 4.68 ERA (9th) 1.46 WHIP (10th-Last)
Top 30 Prospects: None

GCL Orioles
24-30, 4th (Last) in GCL South
Offense: 233 R (6th) .615 OPS (15th)
Pitching: 3.06 ERA (4th) 1.25 WHIP (6th)
Top 30 Prospects: RHP Brennan Hanifee (4th Round Pick), SS Alexis Torres (5th Round Pick)