Lehigh Valley lost a slugfest, with Cesar Hernandez a homer short of the cycle. Maikel Franco and Leandro Castro had two hit a piece. Hector Neris has put up five straight scoreless appearances. He’s had a handful of absolute trainwrecks at AAA, so a nice long stretch of scoreless would be nice. Reading managed just three hits and a walk off of Akron pitching. If it seems like Roman Quinn’s been walking a lot lately, it’s because he’s been walking a lot lately. Five straight games. His BB rate is spiking near 9% now. Notched his 15th steal as well, and four games in a row with one steal, and six steals in his last eight games. Nice to see. JP Crawford OPSing .875 in his last ten games. Also nice. Aaron Nola gave up one run on five hits, a walk and four strikeouts – the walk was his first free pass since his debut, 32 days earlier.
Tocci, Green, Astudillo and Greene with two hits a piece for Lakewood. Back-to-back days of two hits for Tocci and Green. In his eight starts, Yacksel Rios has struck out just 26 and walked 20 in 40.2 IP. That’s not great. It was 32:12 in 38 relief innings to start the year. You’d have to think he’ll eventually wind up back in the pen if he can’t improve on those K numbers when he’s stretched out.
Williamsport managed just two hits, though they had four walks, so not as bad as it sounds at first glance. Still bad though. Mahoning Valley starter Kieran Lovegrove pitched and whatever , but dang, that’s a pretty fine name. I called it an 80 on Twitter, but that was probably generous by a grade.
And a couple DSL notes – Bryan Martelo was 2-3 plus a walk. He’s having a rough go of it in his pro debut. And 17 year-old RHP Adonis Medina has been carving up DSL hitters in his couple of outings – he’s allowed eight hits, struck out 12 and walked just one in 10 innings. Call that a name to watch.
Phuture Phillies 