Rays prospects and minor leagues: Gillaspie has 1st 5-hit game

Saturday, Princeton begins its postseason with a three-game semifinal against Burlington. Princeton was nine outs away from a championship last season before allowing seven unanswered runs to lose Game 2 of the championship series against Greeneville and lost a one-run decisive Game 3. Princeton won the season series against Burlington, 5-4.

Triple-A Durham Bulls (62-79)

In a game between teams that are a combined nearly 30 games under .500 that sadly has playoff implications, Durham hammered Gwinnett 14-0 Friday. The Bulls scored in each of the first four innings, including a five-run fourth powered by Daniel Robertson's two-run homer. J.P. Arencibia also went deep with a 6th-inning solo shot. Jacob Faria was sharp on the mound, throwing seven one-hit innings with four strikeouts. Reid Brignac was probably Gwinnett's best pitcher of the night.

Double-A Montgomery Biscuits (40-27)

After falling behind 2-0, Montgomery rattled off nine straight runs in its 10-5 win over Tennessee. The Biscuits tied it in the second with RBI singles from Braxton Lee and Tommy Coyle, and Jake Bauers' two-run dinger an inning later put them in front. Although he allowed three home runs, Hunter Wood pitched seven innings for his longest outing with Montgomery, and he struck out five batters.

Class-A Advanced Charlotte Stone Crabs (31-33)

Charlotte started its last series of the season with a 4-2 loss to Palm Beach. Joe McCarthy's two-run single actually put the Stone Crabs up 2-0 in the third, but Palm Beach responded with a run in each of the next four innings. Starter Chris Pike allowed three runs on eight hits in five innings. Charlotte was outhit by Palm Beach, 11-5.

Class-A Bowling Green Hot Rods (44-23)

Bowling Green scored five runs in the third on its way to a 6-2 win over Lansing. Kevin Padlo got the scoring started with an RBI single, and Peter Maris delivered the biggest blow with a two-run double to make it a 4-0 game. After allowing nine earned runs over eight innings in his prior two starts, Michael Velasquez was much better, striking out seven and allowing just a run in six innings.

Short-Season Hudson Valley Renegades (46-25)

Hudson Valley allowed two runs in the 10th inning to drop a 4-2 game to Vermont. The Lake Monsters scored two in the third, but the Renegades answered back immediately, first scoring on an error and then getting an RBI single by Jonathan Popadics. In his second inning of work, Deivy Mendez loaded the bases with no outs in the 10th could not get out of the jam despite striking out the first batter. Starter Brock Burke allowed two runs on four hits and three walks in five innings.

Rookie Princeton Rays (38-29)

Princeton was off.

Rookie Gulf Coast League Rays (28-31)

The GCL Rays' season is over.

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

2B Daniel Robertson: 2-for-4, 3 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 2 BB, 1 K
1B Casey Gillaspie: 5-for-6, 2 R, 2 2B, 1 3B, 1 RBI
UT Taylor Motter: 0-for-3, 3 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 SB
C J.P. Arencibia: 2-for-6, 3 R, 1 2B, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 1 K
3B Richie Shaffer: 1-for-5, 1 BB, 1 K
OF Jaff Decker: 4-for-4, 2 R, 2 RBI, 1 BB
OF Johnny Field: 3-for-5, 1 2B, 4 RBI

RHP Jacob Faria: 7 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 4 K

Double-A

SS Willy Adames: 0-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K
1B Jake Bauers: 3-for-5, 2 R, 1 HR, 4 RBI
OF Cade Gotta: 2-for-3, 1 R, 1 BB
C Justin O'Conner: 2-for-3, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 K

RHP Hunter Wood: 7 IP, 5 H, 3 R (2 ER), 0 BB, 5 K
RHP Mark Sappington: two-thirds IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 0 K

Class A-Advanced

SS Andrew Velazquez: 0-for-4, 1 K
OF Joe McCarthy: 2-for-3, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K
C Nick Ciuffo: 1-for-4, 2 K
OF Nathan Lukes: 0-for-3, 1 K
OF Thomas Milone: 1-for-3, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 K

RHP Chris Pike: 5 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, 4 K

Class-A

2B Brandon Lowe: 1-for-3, 1 R, 2 BB, 2 K
3B Kevin Padlo: 2-for-5, 1 RBI

LHP Michael Velasquez: 6 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K

Short-season

OF Garrett Whitley: 0-for-5, 4 K
1B Nathaniel Lowe: 3-for-5
C Chris Betts: 1-for-3, 1 BB

LHP Brock Burke: 5 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 1 K
RHP Garrett Fulenchek: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 1 K

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

Durham @ Gwinnett 7:05 PM ET (MiLB.TV, radio stream)
Justin Marks (6-11, 4.04) v. (4-6, 6.32)

Montgomery v. Tennessee 7:35 PM ET (MiLB.TV, radio stream)
Chase Whitley (2-0, 1.50) v. Tyler Skulina (4-12, 5.39)

Charlotte @ Palm Beach 5:30 PM ET (radio stream)
TBA v. Junior Fernandez (2-2, 5.87)

Bowling Green v. Fort Wayne 7:35 PM ET (radio stream)
TBA v. TBA

Hudson Valley v. Vermont 7:05 PM ET (radio stream)
TBA v. Jesus Zambrano (2-2, 3.86)

Princeton v. Burlington 7 PM ET (radio stream)
TBA v. TBA

Game one of a best-of-three series (Series tied, 0-0)

*Listed as TBA on milb.com

Scouting the opposition

Gwinnett Braves
64-76, 1st in IL South
Offense: 556 R (7th) .700 OPS (7th)
Pitching: 3.96 ERA (12th) 1.47 WHIP (14th)
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)
29-37
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
24-43
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

Fort Wayne TinCaps (San Diego)
26-41
Offense: 524 R (10th) .666 OPS (9th)
Pitching: 3.67 ERA (12th) 1.31 WHIP (11th)
Top 30 Prospects: SS Ruddy Giron (4), LHP Logan Allen (8), RHP Austin Smith (9), RHP Jacob Nix (11), OF Jose Carlos Urena (24), RHP Emmanuel Ramirez (30), 1B Brad Zunica (31), RHP Anderson Espinosa, RHP Chris Paddack, RHP Cal Quantrill, LHP Eric Lauer

Vermont Lake Monsters (Oakland)
27-46
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

Burlington Royals
42-26, won AL East
Offense: 373 R (T-2nd) .749 OPS (3rd)
Pitching: 3.38 ERA (1st) 1.22 WHIP (1st)
Top 30 Prospects: None, but they are managed by Scott Thorman