Lehigh Valley (23-42) shut out the Norfolk Tides 2-0. Phillippe Aumont had one of those lines he puts up occasionally – 5.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 5 BB, 9 K, 106 pitches, 56 strikes – but pitched effectively when he had to, kept the Tides off the board, and got the win. Jason Berken was the bridge to the ninth inning, and Jake Diekman notched his second save. Brian Bogusevic hit a solo HR (6) in the first inning and Russ Canzler added an insurance run in the sixth. Gabriel Lino, the only “prospect” in a line up AAAA players, went 0-3. Anthony Vasquez (1-3, 2.73) pitches tomorrow. After the game, the Phillies announced the promotion of Aaron Nola from Reading to the IronPigs. Pitching in the losing environment that surrounds the Lehigh Valley affiliate should prepare him for a later call-up to the major league team.
Reading (33-29) lost to the Akron RubberDucks 5-1. Ben Lively hadn’t gone past the 6th inning since May 19th, but the Phils have had to rely on their bullpen to throw 29 innings the past three nights (okay, 5 of those were by position players). So, Lively was asked to begin the seventh with a heavy pitch count. He did get an out but was finally lifted after 110 pitches (72 strikes). His line – 6.1 IP, 9 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 6 K. He left with a runner on second. Of course, Nefi Ogando allowed that runner to score. If I had relievers strand rates for affiliates other than Clearwater, I would gladly post them. Sacrificial “arm” Will Morris, who was called up from Lakewood to give the bullpen some relief and who hadn’t pitched yet this month, pitched well for the last two innings, allowing a single run on a solo HR. J.P. Crawford went 2-4 with a double from the leadoff position. He scored their only run. Brock Stassi, surprise!, drove him in (49). Aaron Altherr played CF and went 2-3 with a double and a walk. Cam Perkins (1-4) and Brian Pointer (0-4) rounded out the outfield. C Rene Garcia also had 2 hits. Off tomorrow, Jesse Biddle (5-1, 4.11) pitches Tuesday. After Aaron Nola’s promotion to LHV was announced, Clearwater’s Mark Leiter was promoted to Reading. I’ve seen this kid a lot. He has a low 90’s FB and looks like he knows how to pitch. I hope he is as succesful at AA.
Clearwater (32-31) beat the Brevard County Manatees 9-5 in Mark Leiter’s last Clearwater start. Leiter struggled early, but battled for 5 innings. I don’t know his pitch count, but he left with the game tied. His line – 5.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 2 HBP. Miguel Nunez had his second consecutive ineffective outing after pitching well out of the bullpen for 6 weeks. However, he was in position to get the win when the Threshers took the lead in the bottom of the inning. Edubray Ramos slammed the door shut with 6 Ks in 3.0 perfect innings. Dylan Cozens went 4-4 with 3 doubles and stole third base (9, second on the team). Andrew Pullin went 2-5. Willians Astudillo had 4 RBI. Drew Stankiewicz and Mitchell Walding had 2 RBI each. Everybody hit except Angelo Mora who saw his average dip below .300 for the first time since May 9th. Kelly Dugan played LF and went 1-4. Colin Kleven (4-3, 3.00) pitches tomorrow. Phillies announced that Mark Leiter was promoted to Reading. Official transaction hasn’t posted to MiLB. No announcement on who will fill his spot in the rotation.
Lakewood (31-28) rained out. Double header tomorrow against the Hagerstown Suns. Ricardo Pinto (5-2 3.25) and Josh Taylor (3-4, 4.73) pitch tomorrow.
Williamsport (0-0) starts its season on the road against the State College Spikes on June 19th, home opener on June 20th.
GCL Phillies (0-0) start their season across the bay against the GCL Yankees1 on June 22nd, second game at the Carpenter Complex on June 23rd.
DSL Phillies (8-5) No game scheduled.
VSL Phillies (9-14) No game scheduled.
Here’s the affiliate scoreboard from MiLB.
Extra Innings –
- re:Quinn – Quinn reporting to Clearwater to rehab at the Carpenter Complex facilities, might be out until early July; will join Carlos Alonzo, Samuel Hiciano, et al
- Philadelphia Phillies recalled Domonic Brown from Lehigh Valley IronPigs.
- Philadelphia Phillies optioned Darin Ruf to Lehigh Valley IronPigs.
- Aaron Nola assigned to Lehigh Valley IronPigs from Reading Fightin Phils.
- Will Morris assigned to Reading Fightin Phils from Phillies Extended Spring Training.
- Reading Fightin Phils placed RHP Reinier Roibal on the 7-day disabled list retroactive to June 13, 2015. right groin strain.
- Several signed draft picks are headed to Clearwater per their Twitter accounts. After physicals and administrative stuff on Monday, they should start workouts Tuesday.
Phuture Phillies 
Good to hear Leiter got the call up. Looking forward to seeing him in Reading.
Perkins extends his hitting streak to 15 games, he’s having a nice month so far but Pointer seems to be having an even better month. Glad to see both pick it up.
Also watched the LV game, if Aumont could ever figure it out. He was throwing a nasty curve but on the other hand I lost count of how many pitches he threw that looked like they were going a foot wide.
Pointer is a weird case. He’s hitting .321 in his last 10 games but e is far from hot. He’s hit in only 4 or those games. One was a 5 – 7, back a few games. If you take that 1 games out, he’s hitting .190. It’s nice to know he has those types of games in him but I’d like to see more consistency from him. The guy can take a walk though. His .387 OBP looks pretty darn good.
Congrats to Nola- well deserved. I feel bad for him that he will have no offense backing him in LV but he may as well get used to it to prepare for Philly…Great game for Dylan Cozens! I had very high hopes for him this season and was disappointed at this slow start, He has really turned things around. Also pleased that Altherr seems to have a better idea of the strike zone this year. His Walk/K ratios have gone from 31/118 in 2014 to 25/37 so far in 2015. I know it’s only been two months, but that is significant improvement.
Not only no offense, but not really a great defense in Allentown right now either. Still looking forward to seeing him (Nola) face AAA hitters on Thursday, though.
During the game they said something like Pointer was hitting something like .360 or so either this month or over the last month. That’s why I added him. In the few games I’ve seen since I got Milb.tv, Perkins has looked better and really seems to be on a roll. He only had one hit yesterday but he put a charge into a couple.
With Dugan going to Reading, I wonder if that means someone is going to LV since the will have Perkins, Pointer, Dugan, and Altherr in the OF. Guess they could just DH someone and give Charles some time off unless it’s Stassi that is moving up which would make sense.
Mid-June, has Cozens turned the corner and will become the player we all expect?
Last ten games he is the best hitter on the team, sans Astudillo with a break for XST.
Here’s to hoping so, just wish the kid could drive the ball out of the yard a little more. But as true baseball people know, the box score is not a great indicator of how well or poor he is squaring the baseball up. Power is always the last to come. I am glad it looks like he’s staying mobile and in great shape. 2012 BA had him pegged as an un-athletic 1st baseman by now. Which is weird because he was a rush end recruit for AZ Wildcat football…
Does Altherr and possibly Charles or Stassi move up to LHV here soon? Creating room for Rhys to go straight to Baseballtown USA?
Maybe. He has been making good contact for a while now. He’s been having good at bats. He has lost a few home runs to unusually strong winds blowing in from right field. One of yesterday’s doubles died at the wall in RCF.
Astudillo on the other hand is an enigma. He has little plate discipline. He appears to have an undisciplined approach. Yes, he makes contact most at bats, but a lot of times it is weak contact. Too often, I have seen him half-swing a pitch toward RF only to pop out to shallow right.
I don’t understand why 23-year old Astudillo isn’t subjected to the same criticism here, as 22-year old Cam Perkins was when he was at Clearwater. They have similar A+ slashes/metrics.
Astudillo – .306/.337/.389/.726, wOBA.343, wRC+ 120
Perkins – .295/.346/.444/.790; wOBA .362, wRC+ 125
Astudillo – 194 PA, 3 BB, 1.5% BB%, 8 K, 4.1% K%, .083 ISO, .310 BABIP
Perkins – 424 PA, 25 BB, 5.9% BB%, 57 K, 13.4% K%,.150 ISO, .330 BABIP
Yes, he has a freakishly low K rate, but I’m not impressed with the way he keeps it low. I fear his approach will ot work as faces better pitching at higher levels.
Astudillo is certainly an enigma.
I look forward to his Reading appearance and how he will fare against stronger AA pitching.
Rats Reading is in Trenton this week and out of the 3 games I can only hit Tuesday and Thursday guess who pitches Wednesday…
Lively actually pitched an excellent game. Scorer was wrong listing all runs as earned in my opinion. Pierre had the worst game at 3rd I have ever seen. Charged a bunt that was about to go foul and let it hit him in the leg. that runner scored. Fielded a bunt with man on 1st and threw it down right field line for 2 base error. both runners scored. Man on 1st and third runner takes off on hit and run. He fields grounder to third, throws to second way late to get runner. So I attribute 3 of the 4 runs charged to Lively directly to Pierre’s bad plays.
Sounds like Reading needs a better defensive 3B as the staff is a ground ball staff. Thanks Tony for the report.
What a novel concept you actually had to have been there and seen what happened to know that Lively did his job well.
That’s next level thinking Tony great job! Just curious did Lively have a press conference after the game to chastise Pierre and talk about how all those runs were on him?
If he didn’t than he probably doesn’t have any guts…
Anyone have any updates on Pinto? Is he rising in our rankings? Seems to have a rather decent line at lakewood and I know there was some pre=season hype surrounding him.