Rays prospects and minor leagues 9/2: Chris Kirsch strikes out ten over seven innings

The rookie leagues ended their regular season Thursday. The Princeton Rays will head to the Appalachian League playoffs, playing their first game Saturday against the Burlington Royals. Meanwhile, the GCL Rays will end the season 28-31, third in the GCL South.

Triple-A Durham Bulls (61-79)

Durham lost to the Gwinnett Braves in a 1-0, 11-inning pitching duel. Durham managed just two hits, with their first not coming until the seventh inning. The Bulls loaded the bases with walks in the sixth, but Casey Gillaspie grounded into a double play to end the inning. It was a bullpen game for Durham, with six different pitchers making appearances. Adam Kolarek wound up with the loss, giving up the lone run of the game in the bottom of the 11th.

Double-A Montgomery Biscuits (39-27)

Montgomery snuffed out a ninth-inning rally from the Tennessee Smokies to secure a 3-2 win. Chris Kirsch evened his record to 7-7, striking out 10 over seven innings while giving up just five hits. Montgomery spread their three runs throughout the game with Willy Adames, Granden Goeztman, and Braxton Lee all hitting RBI singles. Jaye Chapman nearly blew the lead, allowing two runs in the ninth. Thankfully, Chapman stranded the tying run on second base by retiring two straight batters to end the game.

Class-A Advanced Charlotte Stone Crabs (31-32)

Charlotte’s game was cancelled due to Hurricane Hermine.

Class-A Bowling Green Hot Rods (43-23)

Bowling Green couldn’t recover from Lansing’s three-run inning as the Hot Rods fell to the Lugnuts, 3-2. The Hot Rods did strike first on a RBI single from David Rodriguez in the opening inning. However, that went away when Jose Mujica gave up three runs in the third. Mujica made his shortest appearance of the year, lasting just three innings in fourth loss of the season. Brett Sullivan doubled and later scored on a wild pitch in the seventh to close the gap to one, but Bowling Green couldn’t even up the game.

Short-Season Hudson Valley Renegades (46-24)

Hudson Valley eked out a 3-2 win over the Vermont Lake Monsters to clinch a playoff spot.

The game started off poorly for the Renegades after Adrian Navas gave up a two-run home run in the second. Daniel De La Calle cut the deficit to one with a RBI single in the bottom of the inning. Hudson Valley then took the lead the following inning on a two-run double from Nathaniel Lowe. The Renegades’ bullpen was effective, with J.D. Busfield and Jayson McKinley allowing just one hit combined over four innings. McKinley notched his seventh save, striking out four in his two innings.

Rookie Princeton Rays (38-29)

Even though the Rays struck out 15 batters, Princeton lost 6-4 to the Bluefield Blue Jays in their regular-season finale. Princeton went down by six after Edrick Agosto, Bryce Zak, and Reign Letkeman gave up two runs apiece. The Rays started to mount a comeback when Blake Butera hit a two-run double in the seventh. Princeton managed a run in the eighth and ninth innings, but it wasn’t enough to tie the game.

Rookie GCL Rays (28-31)

The GCL Rays blew a two-run lead to the GCL Twins as they lost their last game of the season, 3-2. Michael Brosseau gave the Rays an early lead with a two-run double in the bottom of the first. Nicholas Padilla allowed a run in the second and was pulled after 3.2 innings. The loss fell on Eric Diomartich - his fifth of the year - as he gave up two runs in his relief effort. Matt Vogel was solid in his three relief innings, striking out six.

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

RHP Casey Coleman: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K
RHP Steve Geltz: 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K

Double-A

OF Granden Goetzman: 1-for-4, RBI (37)
OF Cade Gotta: 1-for-4, R, SB (19)
SS Willy Adames: 2-for-4, RBI (56), K
IF Juniel Querecuto: 3-for-3, R, 2B (11)
OF Braxton Lee: 2-for-3, R, 3B (3), RBI (22)

LHP Chris Kirsch: W (7-7), 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 10 K

Class-A

OF David Olmedo-Barrera: 2-for-4
C David Rodriguez: 1-for-4, RBI (61), 2 K
C Brett Sullivan: 1-for-4, R, 2B (32), K

RHP Elias Torres: 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K

Short-Season

2B Miles Mastrobuoni: 3-for-4, R
1B Nathaniel Lowe: 1-for-3, 2B (18), 2 RBI (39), BB, K
C Daniel De La Calle: 1-for-3, RBI (12)

RHP J.D. Busfield: H (3), 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K
RHP Jayson McKinley: S (7), 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K

Rookie (Princeton)

OF Isaac Bernard: 1-for-4, R, 2B (3)
OF Emilio Gustave: 1-for-3, BB, 2 K
1B Devin Davis: 1-for-4, R, 2B (6), 3 K
C Blake Grant-Perks: 2-for-4, R, HR (1), RBI (7)
2B Blake Butera: 2-for-4, 2B (12), 2 RBI (23)

RHP Edrick Agosto: L (3-3), 5.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
LHP Dalton Moats: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K

Rookie (GCL)

OF Bralin Jackson: 2-for-3, R, BB, K
SS Kevin Santiago: 1-for-2, R
IF Michael Brosseau: 1-for-4, 2B (12), 2 RBI (21)
C Joey Roach: 1-for-1

RHP Matt Vogel: 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K

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

Durham @ Gwinnett 7:05 PM ET (milb.tv, radio stream)
Jacob Faria (3-4, 4.15) v. Wilfredo Boscan (0-1, 9.00)

Montgomery v. Tennessee 8:05 PM ET (milb.tv, radio stream)
Hunter Wood (5-2, 3.40) v. Jen-Ho Tseng (6-7, 3.90)

Charlotte @ Palm Beach 6:30 PM ET (radio stream)
Benton Moss (7-9, 3.79) v. Junior Fernandez (2-2, 5.87)

Bowling Green @ Lansing 7:05 PM ET (radio stream)
TBA v. Josh DeGraaf (5-6, 3.24)

Hudson Valley v. Vermont 7:05 PM ET (radio stream)
TBA v. Xavier Altamirano (3-3, 2.69)

Princeton is off

Scouting the opposition

Gwinnett Braves
64-75, 1st in IL South
Offense: 556 R (7th) .700 OPS (7th)
Pitching: 3.96 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

Tennessee Smokies (Cubs)
29-36, 5th in SL North
Offense: 558 R (4th) .701 OPS (3rd)
Pitching: 4.02 ERA (9th) 1.39 WHIP (9th)
Top 30 Prospects: 2B Ian Happ (3), RHP Jen-Ho Tseng (20), RHP Brad Markey (23), C Victor Caratini (24), OF Jacob Hannemann (26), RHP Andury Acevedo (29), RHP David Berg (30)

Palm Beach Cardinals
23-43, 6th (Last) in FSL South
Offense: 439 R (11th) .619 OPS (11th)
Pitching: 3.51 ERA (6th) 1.31 WHIP (7th)
Top 30 Prospects: RHP Jack Flaherty (3), SS Edmundo Sosa (7), RHP Junior Fernandez (9), RHP Sandy Alcantara (19), SS Oscar Mercado (26), RHP Derian Gonzalez (27), RHP Dakota Hudson

Lansing Lugnuts (Toronto)
32-34, 4th in MWL East
Offense: 561 R (9th) .661 OPS (11th)
Pitching: 3.79 ERA (13th) 1.34 WHIP (14th)
Top 30 Prospects: RHP Justin Maese (9), LHP Ryan Borucki (14), RHP Tom Robson (21), 3B Carl Wise (25), LHP Angel Perdomo (26), RHP T.J. Zeuch, OF J.B. Woodman

Vermont Lake Monsters (Oakland)
26-46, 4th (Last) in NYPL Stedler
Offense: 252 R (T-11th) .628 OPS (10th)
Pitching: 3.95 ERA (12th) 1.34 WHIP (12th)
Top 30 Prospects: RHP Dakota Chalmers (16), LHP A.J. Puk, RHP Logan Shore, C Sean Murphy