Rays prospects and minor leagues: Hot Rods edge 2017 No. 2 pick Greene

I’ve been meaning to highlight a particular player for a while, but for whatever reasons, I’ve ended up focusing on other things in this space. Tristan Gray deserves recognition for how he turned his season around.

Not every college hitter skips right to Class A Advanced in their first full season, and the Rays rarely — if ever — promote a player that aggressively. They did with Gray, and his season started poorly. He batted .181 with a .523 OPS in April. Since then, he’s batting .311 and has his season OPS up to .736, all while playing three different positions in the infield.

Triple-A Durham Bulls (35-25)

Forrest Snow and three relievers were effective in Durham’s 3-1 win over Rochester. After consecutive appearances out of the bullpen, Snow returned to the rotation and pitched well, allowing just a run in six innings with four strikeouts. Andrew Kittredge, Adam Kolarek, and Hunter Wood combined to limit the Red Wings the rest of the way. Micah Johnson’s RBI bunt single in the sixth put the Bulls ahead for good.

SS Willy Adames: 0-for-3, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K
2B Brandon Lowe: 0-for-5, 2 K
RF Justin Williams: 1-for-5
C Nick Ciuffo: 1-for-3, 1 R, 2 BB
LF Kean Wong: 2-for-4, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 BB
1B Brandon Snyder: 1-for-3, 1 RBI, 2 BB

RHP Forrest Snow: 6 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K

Double-A Montgomery Biscuits (32-30)

A 7-0 hole was too much for Montgomery in its 7-4 loss to Chattanooga, ending its eight-game winning streak. The Lookouts got to Genesis Cabrera for three runs in the first and three more in the third, and the lefty could only complete 2 ¹⁄₃ innings, his shortest outing of the season. Nick Solak hit a solo home run in the seventh and scored again in the three-run ninth.

SS Jake Cronenworth: 0-for-4, 1 R
RF Ryan Boldt: 0-for-3, 1 BB, 1 K
LF Nick Solak: 2-for-4, 2 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI

LHP Genesis Cabrera: 2 ¹⁄₃ IP, 9 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 3 K
LHP Matt Krook: 2 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K

Class A-Advanced Charlotte Stone Crabs (27-31)

Charlotte rallied in the ninth for a 6-5 win over Clearwater. The Stone Crabs trailed 4-0 early and 5-3 entering their last at-bat. With two outs, Tristan Gray, Kevin Padlo, and Josh Lowe all hit singles to give Charlotte the walk-off win. While starter Kenny Rosenberg struggled, allowing four runs on 10 hits in 4 ²⁄₃ innings, Spencer Jones pitched well in relief, stranding the bases loaded and striking out four in 2 ¹⁄₃ innings.

SS Lucius Fox: 3-for-5, 1 R, 1 2B, 2 K
1B Brendan McKay: 0-for-4, 1 R, 1 K, 1 HBP
CF Josh Lowe: 2-for-5, 3 RBI, 1 K, 1 CS
LF Robbie Tenerowicz: 3-for-4, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 BB

LHP Kenny Rosenberg: 4 ²⁄₃ IP, 10 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
RHP Spencer Jones: 2 ¹⁄₃ IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K

Charlotte’s site offers this recap.

Class-A Bowling Green Hot Rods (39-21)

Tommy Romero and Bowling Green outdueled 2017 No. 2-overall pick Hunter Greene in a 1-0 win over Dayton. Greene pitched well, but Romero struck out four in six scoreless innings and has allowed just two runs in 15 ¹⁄₃ innings since being acquired in the Alex Colome trade. The Hot Rods scored the only run of the game in the second when Devin Davis scored on Emilio Gustave’s groundout.

2B Vidal Brujan: 0-for-3, 1 BB, 1 K
SS Taylor Walls: 1-for-4, 1 2B, 2 K
C Ronaldo Hernandez: 0-for-4, 2 K

RHP Tommy Romero: 6 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 4 K

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

Durham @ Rochester 1:05 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV, radio stream)
Chih-Wei Hu* (1-5, 5.30) vs. Zack Littell (1-1, 2.57)

Montgomery vs. Chattanooga 6:05 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV, radio stream)
Sam McWilliams (1-2, 6.92) vs. Kohl Stewart (3-3, 5.98)

Charlotte vs. Clearwater 12:35 p.m. ET (radio stream)
Brock Burke (1-5, 4.56) vs. Felix Paulino (0-2, 3.52)

Bowling Green @ Dayton 2 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV, radio stream)
Tobias Myers (6-3, 4.96) vs. Andrew Jordan (1-1, 2.81)

*Listed as TBA on milb.com

Scouting the opposition

Rochester Red Wings (Minnesota)
28-29 (3rd in IL North)
Offense: 193 R (14th) .664 OPS (14th)
Pitching: 3.45 ERA (2nd) 1.27 WHIP (4th)
Top-30 prospects: LHP Stephen Gonsalves (4), IF Nick Gordon (8), RHP John Curtiss (21), OF Zack Granite (27), IF Taylor Featherston, IF Leonardo Reginatto

Chattanooga Lookouts (Minnesota)
34-28 (1st in SL North)
Offense: 262 R (4th) .710 OPS (6th)
Pitching: 4.09 ERA (7th) 1.42 WHIP (8th)
Top-30 prospects: 1B Brent Rooker (7), LHP Tyler Jay (10), RHP Felix Jorge (12), LHP Lewis Thorpe (16), OF LaMonte Wade (17), RHP Kohl Stewart (30)

Clearwater Threshers (Philadelphia)
27-33 (4th in FSL North)
Offense: 274 R (2nd) .725 OPS (4th)
Pitching: 4.24 ERA (11th) 1.32 WHIP (10th)
Top-30 prospects: RHP Sixto Sanchez (2), RHP Adonis Medina (4), OF Adam Haseley (5), OF Mickey Moniak (9), SS Arquimedes Gamboa (19), RHP Mauricio Llovera (30)

Dayton Dragons (Cincinnati)
29-31 (5th in MWL East)
Offense: 271 R (5th) .723 OPS (5th)
Pitching: 5.34 ERA (16th) 1.60 WHIP (16th)
Top-30 prospects: RHP Hunter Greene (2), SS Jeter Downs (11), SS Jose Garcia (12), OF Stuart Fairchild (16), OF Miles Gordon (26), LHP Packy Naughton (28)

Daily news and links

Baseball America briefly summarized the Rays’ draft and offers a couple sleeper picks.

There have already been five no-hitters in the Midwest League this season.

Mat Latos is back in this video from Mike Ashmore: