Rays prospects and minor leagues: Walls leads Charlotte to win

The season isn’t quite a week old yet, but we haven’t seen every top prospect in action yet. That changes Wednesday as Brendan McKay the pitcher makes his 2019 debut, as long as the weather cooperates.

Triple-A Durham Bulls (2-4)

Jake Faria pitched Durham to a 3-0 win over Gwinnett. After opening the season with a rough outing, the righty was sharp Tuesday, striking out seven and walking none in five scoreless innings. The Bulls used four relievers to finish the shutout. In the second, Jake Smolinski’s RBI single put them in front, and Nathan Lukes and Andrew Velazquez later added insurance runs.

CF Andrew Velazquez: 1-for-4, 1 RBI, 2 K (1.120)
1B Nate Lowe: 1-for-4, 1 K (.940)
LF Nick Solak: 1-for-4, 1 R, 3 K (1.003)
3B Christian Arroyo: 1-for-2, 1 R, 2 BB, 1 K (1.250)

RHP Jake Faria: 5 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K (5.87)
LHP Colin Poche: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K (3.38)

Double-A Montgomery Biscuits (2-2)

Montgomery was off.

Class A-Advanced Charlotte Stone Crabs (3-3)

Taylor Walls’ home run lifted Charlotte to a 3-2 win over Bradenton. Through five innings, the Stone Crabs didn’t have a hit. After Zacrey Law singled and Russ Olive doubled to open the sixth, Walls went deep to give them a 3-1 lead. The homer provided the run support Riley O’Brien needed. He struck out eight and gave up just one run in seven innings.

SS Taylor Walls: 1-for-2, 1 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 2 BB, 3 SB (1.333)
2B Tyler Frank: 1-for-4, 1 K, 1 SB (.422)
RF Moises Gomez: 0-for-4, 2 K (.380)
DH Ronaldo Hernandez: 0-for-4, 2 K (.190)
CF Garrett Whitley: 0-for-3, 2 K (.259)

RHP Riley O’Brien: 7 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K (3.09)

Class-A Bowling Green Hot Rods (3-3)

Bowling Green won Game 1 of its doubleheader with Lake County, 6-3, in 10 innings. In the first two extra innings, neither team took advantage of its free baserunner, but in the 10th, the Hot Rods got a go-ahead single from Ford Proctor and added on some insurance runs. Starter Alan Strong struck out seven and only allowed two unearned runs in five innings.

Game 2 got away from Bowling Green and ended in a 13-4 loss. The Hot Rods scored twice in the top of the fifth to tie the game, but the Captains responded with nine in the bottom half of the inning. Easton McGee allowed two runs in 3 ¹⁄₃ innings.

SS Wander Franco (2): 0-for-3, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 K (.583)
SS Osmy Gregorio (1): 2-for-4, 1 R, 1 BB (.690)
3B Connor Hollis (1): 1-for-3, 1 R, 1 K, 2 HBP (1.103)

RHP Alan Strong (1): 5 IP, 1 H, 2 R (0 ER), 2 BB, 7 K (0.00)
RHP Easton McGee (2): 3 ¹⁄₃ IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K (3.38)
LHP Nick Sprengel (1): 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K (0.00)
RHP Connor Hollis (2): 1 ¹⁄₃ IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 1 K (20.25)

CLICK HERE FOR ALL BOX SCORES

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

Durham is off.

Montgomery vs. Biloxi 7:35 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV, radio stream)
Brendan McKay* (0-0, -.--) vs. TBA

Charlotte @ Bradenton 10:30 a.m. ET (radio stream)
Tommy Romero (0-0, 2.08) vs. TBA

Bowling Green @ Lake County 6:30 p.m. ET (radio stream)
Shane McClanahan (1-0, 0.00) v. TBA

*Listed as TBA on milb.com

Scouting the opposition

Biloxi Shuckers (Milwaukee)
3-2 (T-1st in SL South)
Offense: 16 R (5th) .749 OPS (3rd)
Pitching: 2.08 ERA (4th) 1.15 WHIP (4th)
Top-30 prospects: RHP Trey Supak (11), RHP Braden Webb (14), RHP Marcos Diplan (20), OF Trent Grisham (28)

Bradenton Marauders (Pittsburgh)
4-2 (2nd in FSL South)
Offense: 15 R (T-10th) .659 OPS (6th)
Pitching: 1.60 ERA (2nd) 1.00 WHIP (3rd)
Top-30 prospects: SS Oneil Cruz (3), OF Travis Swaggerty (4), OF Cal Mitchell (8), RHP Luis Escobar (11), RHP Cody Bolton (21)

Lake County Captains (Cleveland)
4-2 (2nd in MWL East)
Offense: 15 R (13th) .641 OPS (9th)
Pitching: 2.31 ERA (4th) 1.26 WHIP (7th)
Top-30 prospects: SS Tyler Freeman (3), C Bo Naylor (4), RHP Luis Oviedo (8), OF Will Benson (21), OF Quentin Holmes (27)

Daily news and links

Baseball America took its annual look at the youngest players in each league.

BA also had an interesting piece on the demographics of minor league rosters.