Rays prospects and minor leagues: Cronenworth, Wong set table in Durham win

Since Wander Franco left a game early just about two weeks ago, he’s on a nine-game hitting streak. His OPS is up 203 points, and he has six extra-base hits. He’s the youngest player in the Midwest League.

Triple-A Durham Bulls (7-10)

Durham received one of its best pitching performances of the season in a 9-2 win over Louisville. The Bulls had four pitchers combine to strike out 15, led by Casey Sadler’s six in 3 ²⁄₃ innings. Durham took a comfortable lead early with two runs in each of the first two innings. Kean Wong had an RBI hit in both of those innings, and he scored the final run of the game in the ninth.

1B Nate Lowe: 1-for-3, 1 R, 1 2B, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K (1.051)
LF Nick Solak: 0-for-5, 2 K (.724)
SS Jake Cronenworth: 1-for-3, 2 R, 2 BB (1.013)
2B Kean Wong: 3-for-4, 4 R, 1 2B, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 SB (.690)
DH Mike Brosseau: 3-for-5, 1 3B, 4 RBI (1.053)

RHP Casey Sadler: 3 ²⁄₃ IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K

Double-A Montgomery Biscuits (10-8)

Arturo Reyes pitched another fine outing in Montgomery’s 7-3 win over Mississippi. He threw his third straight quality start and lasted seven innings in consecutive starts. This time, he allowed three runs. Tristan Gray’s sacrifice fly in the first gave the Biscuits a 1-0 lead, and he doubled in two more in the third. He hit another RBI double in the fifth.

SS Lucius Fox: did not bat (.711)
CF Miles Mastrobuoni: 2-for-4, 2 R, 2 SB (1.120)
SS Tristan Gray: 2-for-4, 1 R, 2 2B, 4 RBI (.753)
LF Brett Sullivan: 1-for-5, 2 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 2 K (.689)
2B Jermaine Palacios: 2-for-3, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 SB (.431)

RHP Arturo Reyes: 7 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 K (3.13)

Class A-Advanced Charlotte Stone Crabs (6-13)

Charlotte lost a lead late in its 5-3 loss to Tampa. RBI triples from Vidal Brujan and Carl Chester gave the Stone Crabs a 2-1 lead in the third, and they added a run in the fifth. However, they didn’t have a hit over the final five innings. In the eighth, the Tarpons went ahead for good with four runs off Chandler Raiden. Jhonleider Salinas opened, and Tobias Myers threw four scoreless innings.

SS Vidal Brujan: 2-for-3, 2 R, 1 3B, 1 RBI, 2 BB, 1 K, 2 SB (.848)
LF Moises Gomez: 0-for-5, 2 K (.487)
DH Garrett Whitley: 1-for-3, 1 BB, 2 K (.745)

RHP Tobias Myers: 4 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K (4.41)

Charlotte’s site offers this recap.

Class-A Bowling Green Hot Rods (10-9)

Bowling Green’s comeback fell short in an 8-7 loss to Fort Wayne. The Hot Rods faced deficits of 5-3 and 8-4. In the seventh, Roberto Alvarez and Beau Brundage hit RBI singles, and a wild pitch pulled them within one. In the eighth, Wander Franco’s one-out double put two runners in scoring position, but Bowling Green squandered the opportunity. Joe Ryan was charged with five runs — two earned — in four innings.

SS Wander Franco: 3-for-3, 2 R, 3 2B, 1 BB, 1 HBP (.856)
LF Grant Witherspoon: 2-for-3, 2 R, 1 RBI, 1 K, 1 SB, 1 CS, 1 HBP (.800)

RHP Joe Ryan: 4 IP, 8 H, 5 R (2 ER), 0 BB, 6 K (4.32)

Bowling Green’s site offers this recap.

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

Durham @ Louisville 7 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV, radio stream)
TBA vs. Jose Lopez (1-1, 4.50)

Montgomery @ Mississippi 7:35 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV, radio stream)
Josh Fleming (1-1, 2.00) vs. Kyle Muller (0-0, 3.12)

Charlotte vs. Tampa 1 p.m. ET (radio stream)
Paul Campbell (1-2, 6.60) vs. Deivi Garcia (0-2, 3.75)

Bowling Green @ Fort Wayne 11:05 a.m. ET (MiLB.TV, radio stream)
TBA vs. TBA

*Listed as TBA on milb.com

Scouting the opposition

Louisville Bats (Cincinnati)
8-11 (3rd in IL West)
Offense: 82 R (8th) .727 OPS (10th)
Pitching: 4.04 ERA (5th) 1.38 WHIP (6th)
Top-30 prospects: OF Nick Senzel (1), RHP Vladimir Gutierrez (7), RHP Keury Mella (15), RHP Jimmy Herget (17), OF Aristides Aquino (18)

Mississippi Braves
9-8 (3rd in SL South)
Offense: 56 R (4th) .700 OPS (3rd)
Pitching: 2.77 ERA (2nd) 1.36 WHIP (9th)
Top-30 prospects: RHP Ian Anderson (2), OF Drew Waters (7), OF Cristian Pache (8), LHP Kyle Muller (11), LHP Joey Wentz (12), RHP Patrick Weigel (13), 3B CJ Alexander (18), RHP Huascar Ynoa (19), LHP Tucker Davidson (21), SS Ray-Patrick Didder (30)

Tampa Tarpons (Yankees)
8-11 (4th in FSL North)
Offense: 76 R (2nd) .645 OPS (6th)
Pitching: 4.22 ERA (11th) 1.42 WHIP (12th)
Top-30 prospects: OF Estevan Florial (1), RHP Deivi Garcia (6), RHP Clarke Schmidt (13), C Jason Lopez (21), RHP Frank German (23)

Fort Wayne TinCaps (San Diego)
10-8 (T-2nd in MWL East)
Offense: 76 R (3rd) .651 OPS (11th)
Pitching: 3.55 ERA (9th) 1.31 WHIP (5th)
Top-30 prospects: LHP Ryan Weathers (13), SS Xavier Edwards (21)

Daily news and links

At least one organization is taking a different approach to pitcher workload increases: