Rays prospects and minor leagues: Lowe brothers hammer Tampa

Charlotte’s offense has been impressive this season. The Stone Crabs are second in the league in runs, on-base percentage, and OPS, and they lead in average and slugging percentage. Their 50 doubles are eight more than the second-place team, and they’re one of two teams to have more than twice as many runs as Florida, ranked last in the league in offense.

Triple-A Durham Bulls (9-10)

Durham’s offense was relentless in a 10-4 win over Gwinnett. Jake Bauers homered off lefty Luiz Gohara in the first, and Brandon Snyder and Andrew Velazquez later hit home runs as the Bulls went up by as many as nine runs. Anthony Banda struck out eight and allowed two runs in 5 ²⁄₃ innings. He has eight strikeouts in four of his five starts this season.

1B Jake Bauers: 3-for-6, 2 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 2 K, 1 CS
SS Willy Adames: 1-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 K
LF Joe McCarthy: 1-for-5, 1 R
RF Jason Coats: 3-for-6, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 3B, 1 RBI, 1 K
3B Brandon Snyder: 2-for-4, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K
C Curt Casali: 2-for-4, 2 R, 1 2B, 1 BB, 2 K
CF Andrew Velazquez: 1-for-2, 2 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 2 BB

LHP Anthony Banda: 5 2/3 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 8 K
RHP Jaime Schultz: 1 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K

Double-A Montgomery Biscuits (8-14)

Zach Lee was at it again in Montgomery’s 3-2 win over Mobile. In all five starts this season, the former top prospect has allowed two or fewer earned runs. This time, he pitched six scoreless innings, striking out a season-high six batters. He was backed by an opportunistic Biscuits offense. Although they were outhit 8-4, they took advantage of their chances, scoring all three runs in the second inning. Michael Brosseau hit his first home run of the season.

DH Jake Cronenworth: 0-for-3, 1 BB
RF Ryan Boldt: 0-for-4, 1 K
LF Nick Solak: 1-for-4, 1 K
2B Brandon Lowe: 1-for-3, 1 R, 1 2B
SS Jermaine Palacios: 1-for-3
3B Michael Brosseau: 1-for-3, 1 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 K

RHP Zach Lee: 6 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K

Class A-Advanced Charlotte Stone Crabs (11-11)

Nate Lowe had an unforgettable game in Charlotte’s 10-4 win over Tampa. In each of the first two innings, he drove in his brother, Josh, with a hit, first with a single and then with a two-run homer. In the sixth, needing a triple for the cycle, he instead homered to score his brother again. Despite walking four in five innings, starter Willy Ortiz limited the Tarpons to one run.

SS Lucius Fox: 2-for-4, 2 R, 1 CS, 1 HBP
CF Josh Lowe: 3-for-5, 3 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 SB
1B Nate Lowe: 4-for-5, 3 R, 1 2B, 2 HR, 6 RBI, 1 K
2B Tristan Gray: 1-for-5, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 K
3B Kevin Padlo: 0-for-5, 1 R, 3 K

RHP Willy Ortiz: 5 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 5 K
RHP Deivy Mendez: 1 1/3 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 3 K
RHP Curtis Taylor: 2 ²⁄₃ IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K

Class-A Bowling Green Hot Rods (10-11)

Bowling Green wasted a nice tandem outing from Austin Franklin and Tobias Myers in a 1-0 loss to Lake County. Franklin’s start was certainly the best of his season so far, striking out seven and yielding just four hits and two walks in five scoreless innings. Myers struck out five but allowed the Captains’ only run over the final four innings. The Hot Rods had just four hits.

2B Vidal Brujan: 0-for-4, 3 K
DH Brendan McKay: 0-for-4, 1 K
C Ronaldo Hernandez: 1-for-3, 1 BB, 1 SB

RHP Austin Franklin: 5 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K
RHP Tobias Myers: 4 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K

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Saturday’s games (probables courtesy of milb.com)

Durham @ Gwinnett 6:05 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV, radio stream)
Chih-Wei Hu (2-1, 4.15) vs. Kolby Allard (1-1, 3.68)

Montgomery vs. Mobile 7:05 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV, radio stream)
J.D. Martin (0-3, 7.23) vs. Griffin Canning (0-0, 5.63)

Charlotte @ Tampa 6:30 p.m. ET (radio stream)
Brock Burke (1-2, 7.31) vs. Nick Green (3-0, 0.53)

Bowling Green vs. Lake County 7:35 p.m. ET (radio stream)
TBA vs. Juan Hillman (0-2, 6.94)

*Listed as TBA on milb.com

Scouting the opposition

Gwinnett Stripers (Atlanta)
7-12 (4th in IL South)
Offense: 68 R (8th) .683 OPS (10th)
Pitching: 3.31 ERA (6th) 1.31 WHIP (6th)
Top-30 prospects: RHP Mike Soroka (3), LHP Kolby Allard (7), RHP Patrick Weigel (16), OF Dustin Peterson (24), LHP Philip Pfeifer (29), OF Jaff Decker, “3B” Jose Bautista

Mobile BayBears (Angels)
10-11 (2nd in SL South)
Offense: 86 R (4th) .728 OPS (4th)
Pitching: 4.56 ERA (10th) 1.47 WHIP (8th)
Top-30 prospects: 1B Matt Thaiss (8), RHP Griffin Canning (9), RHP Jesus Castillo (12), LHP Jose Suarez (13), OF Brennon Lund (18), 3B Taylor Ward (19), RHP Luis Pena (20), RHP Jake Jewell (25), 2B Riley Unroe

Tampa Tarpons (Yankees)
12-10 (2nd in FSL North)
Offense: 85 R (5th) .693 OPS (7th)
Pitching: 2.95 ERA (1st) 1.20 WHIP (1st)
Top-30 prospects: OF Estevan Florial (2), RHP Albert Abreu (6), SS Thairo Estrada (9), RHP Freicer Perez (13), RHP Clarke Schmidt (14), RHP Trevor Stephan (18), RHP Jonathan Loaisiga (25), SS Diego Castillo (27)

Lake County Captains (Cleveland)
11-9 (3rd in MWL East)
Offense: 97 R (3rd) .741 OPS (2nd)
Pitching: 3.93 ERA (8th) 1.37 WHIP (9th)
Top-30 prospects: 3B Nolan Jones (4), OF Will Benson (10), OF Oscar Gonzalez (20), IF Ernie Clement (24), RHP Eli Morgan (29)

Daily news and links

I’ve been feeling under the weather since Thursday night and wasn’t up for compiling reading material. I hope for a return to normal for Sunday’s post.