Rays prospects and minor leagues: McClanahan strikes out 9 in Hot Rods win

Last season, the Quad Cities River Bandits set a minor league baseball record when they struck out 1,514 batters. At the pace they’re on, if the 2019 Hot Rods pitch as many innings as Quad Cities did last season, they’ll strike out 1,506 batters. There are still a lot of games to play, and the roster will surely change throughout the season.

Triple-A Durham Bulls (24-16)

Ryan Yarbrough pitched well in Durham’s 9-5 win over Rochester. The lefty allowed two runs in six innings and struck out 10 — his most since he punched out 13 on July 21, 2017. In the second, Nick Solak drove in the first run of the game and scored the second, and his two-run homer in the fourth broke a 2-2 tie. In the four-run sixth, a run scored on a wild pitch, Kean Wong doubled in two, and Nate Lowe drove in the fourth.

1B Nate Lowe: 1-for-5, 1 RBI (.845)
2B Nick Solak: 2-for-5, 2 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 2 K (.868)
RF Jake Smolinski: 2-for-5, 2 2B, 2 K (.762)
3B Mike Brosseau: 2-for-2, 2 R, 2 2B, 3 BB (.971)
DH Jason Coats: 2-for-4, 2 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 K (.790)

LHP Ryan Yarbrough: 6 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 10 K (2.14)
LHP Colin Poche: 1 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 K (7.23)

Durham’s site offers this recap.

Double-A Montgomery Biscuits (27-14)

Montgomery broke out late in a 9-0 win over Jacksonville. Through six innings, no one scored. In the seventh, David Rodriguez’s RBI single finally opened the scoring. Tristan Gray and Robbie Tenerowicz drove in runs in the three-run eighth, and the Biscuits scored five in a ninth inning that included a Jesus Sanchez three-run homer. Matt Krook opened with two scoreless innings, and Brian Shaffer threw four scoreless frames.

SS Lucius Fox: 1-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K (.647)
RF Jesus Sanchez: 2-for-4, 3 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K (.790)
CF Miles Mastrobuoni: 3-for-4, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 SB (.858)
LF Robbie Tenerowicz: 2-for-4, 1 2B, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 SB (.711)

LHP Matt Krook: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K (5.71)
RHP Brian Shaffer: 4 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K (0.00)
LHP Dalton Moats: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K (4.05)

Class A-Advanced Charlotte Stone Crabs (21-20)

Charlotte used a pair of four-run innings to help earn a 12-4 win over Clearwater. The first run of the game scored on an error in the second inning, and Jim Haley immediately followed with a three-run homer. In the third, Carl Chester drove in a run, and Thomas Milone added a three-run home run of his own. Tommy Romero allowed four runs in five innings.

SS Taylor Walls: 0-for-4, 1 BB (.656)
2B Vidal Brujan: 1-for-5, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 K (.738)
C Ronaldo Hernandez: 3-for-5, 3 R (.622)
DH Moises Gomez: 1-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, 3 K (.661)
CF Tanner Dodson: 1-for-4, 2 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB (.537)
RF Carl Chester: 2-for-4, 2 R, 2 RBI, 1 HBP (.713)
LF Thomas Milone: 2-for-5, 2 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI (.928)
1B Jim Haley: 3-for-5, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 HR, 4 RBI (.740)

RHP Tommy Romero: 5 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 0 BB, 4 K (2.81)

Charlotte’s site offers this recap.

Class-A Bowling Green Hot Rods (23-18)

Shane McClanahan pitched well in Bowling Green’s 3-1 win over Lake County. For the second straight start, he struck out nine batters and only allowed one run, and his 5 ²⁄₃ innings tied a season high. The Hot Rods scored all three of their runs in the fifth inning when Osmy Gregorio singled in two and scored on Ford Proctor’s single.

3B Connor Hollis: 1-for-2, 1 BB, 1 HBP (.831)

LHP Shane McClanahan: 5 ²⁄₃ IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 9 K (3.16)

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

Durham vs. Rochester 6:35 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV, radio stream)
Ryan Merritt (2-3, 7.82) vs. Lewis Thorpe (3-2, 7.36)

Montgomery @ Jacksonville 6:35 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV, radio stream)
Riley O’Brien (1-1, 3.48) vs. Robert Dugger (3-5, 4.08)

Charlotte @ Clearwater 6:30 p.m. ET (radio stream)
Paul Campbell (4-3, 5.09) vs. Ethan Evanko (0-0, 4.26)

Bowling Green @ Lake County 6:30 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV, radio stream)
TBA vs. Shane McCarthy (4-2, 3.41)

*Listed as TBA on milb.com

Scouting the opposition

Rochester Red Wings (Minnesota)
14-23 (5th in IL North)
Offense: 184 R (10th) .784 OPS (8th)
Pitching: 6.02 ERA (13th) 1.52 WHIP (12th)
Top-30 prospects: OF Brent Rooker (6), SS Nick Gordon (15), LHP Lewis Thorpe (17), LHP Stephen Gonsalves (18), OF LaMonte Wade (21), RHP Zack Littell (23), OF Luke Raley (24)

Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Miami)
14-28 (5th in SL South)
Offense: 102 R (10th) .575 OPS (10th)
Pitching: 3.30 ERA (4th) 1.22 WHIP (3rd)
Top-30 prospects: RHP Sixto Sanchez (1), RHP Jorge Guzman (7), OF Brian Miller (14), RHP Jordan Yamamoto (18), RHP Robert Dugger (22), SS Joe Dunand (23), SS Bryson Brigman (26)

Clearwater Threshers (Philadelphia)
19-21 (3rd in FSL North)
Offense: 157 R (4th) .719 OPS (1st)
Pitching: 3.74 ERA (7th) 1.33 WHIP (9th)
Top-30 prospects: 3B Alec Bohm (1), RHP Spencer Howard (7), RHP Colton Eastman (11), LHP Zach Warren (17), C Rodolfo Duran (20), 2B Daniel Brito (21), OF Jhailyn Ortiz (22), OF Matt Vierling (27)

Lake County Captains (Cleveland)
23-16 (T-2nd in MWL East)
Offense: 177 R (2nd) .697 OPS (4th)
Pitching: 3.64 ERA (7th) 1.33 WHIP (8th)
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

Jim Callis published a new mock draft at MLB.com, and if you’ve been reading other recent mock drafts, you may already be familiar with his selection for the Rays.

Every year, Keith Law takes a look back at the draft from 10 years ago. ESPN subscribers can read his 2009 redraft and what went wrong for some of the picks that didn’t work out, including an interesting note I didn’t know about regarding the Rays’ first pick that year, LeVon Washington.