The top three teams played and won close games. Lehigh Valley jumped out to a lead and held on. Reading put up a crooked number and held on. Jersey Shore built a small lead and lost its shutout in the ninth but held on. Clearwater was rained out. The FCL Phillies game was cancelled. And, no games in the DSL on Wednesdays. Two more Threshers were added to the IL, the 7-day this time.
Lehigh Valley (33-41) beat Rochester, 5-3. David Parkinson (1-7, 6.36) picked up his first win. He pitched 5.1 innings and allowed 2 runs on 4 hits and a walk. He struck out four. Mike Adams (0.68) allowed both of the runners he inherited to score. He pitched 1.2 innings and gave up just one hit that allowed one runner to score when he entered the game. His inning went like this – RBI single runner moves to third, hit batter, sac fly double play with the runner from first out at third and the runner on third scoring.
Cam Bedrosian (4.00) pitched 0.2 innings. He gave up one run on 2 hits and 2 walks and exited with the bases loaded. Mauricio Llovera (4.76) earned his third save, stranding all 3 inherited runners and pitching 1.1 innings of perfect ball with one strikeout.
The IronPigs opened up a 5-run lead with a run in the first inning on Nick Maton’s RBI double. They put up a 4-spot in the fourth on Darick Hall’s RBI single and Rodolfo Duran’s 3-run HR (1). Matt Vierling (210) went 2-4.
Reading (30-44) beat Somerset, 5-4. Jack Perkins (3.83) pitched four innings and gave up 3 runs on 5 hits and 3 walks. He struck out five. The same batter tagged him for all 3 runs, Michael Beltre hit a sac fly and 2-run HR to account for all the runs against Perkins.
Austin Ross (6-2, 6.31) pitched one clean inning with a strikeout. Nick Lackney (2.14) pitched two innings and gave up one run on 3 hits. He struck out two. Zach Warren (2.67) pitched one inning, allowed a walk, and got a strikeout. Billy Sullivan (1.72) earned his second save. He went one inning, hit a batter, picked him off first base, gave up a single, got a fly ball out, allowed a stolen base, and recorded a strikeout to end the game.
The Phils took the lead for good with a 4-run second inning. Matt Kroon’s 2-run double started the scoring. Arquimedes Gamboa followed with an RBI single and Josh Stephen pitched in with a sac fly. Madison Stokes capped the Phils’ scoring in the fifth inning on a passed ball.
Arquimedes Gamboa (.233) went 2-5 with a double and RBI. Luke Miller (.214) went 2-4 with a double and RBI. He also committed two errors. Matt Kroon (.222) went 2-4 with a double and 2 RBI. Gamboa and Kroon also each stole a base. Bryson Stott (.256) went 0-3 with a walk.
Jersey Shore (33-41) beat Brooklyn, 3-1. Eric Miller made his High-A debut and pitched 3.1 innings of shutout ball allowing just 3 hits. His seemingly short outing might have been determined by his pitch count which was a little high at 67 pitches (37 strikes). This was undoubtedly affected by his 3 walks issued and 4 strikeouts.
Jhordany Mezquita (2-5, 5.30) followed with maybe his best outing of the season, certainly his best since May 19th. He pitched 4.2 innings and allowed no runs on 4 hits, no walks, only his second outing with no walks (and that includes some partial inning appearances), and seven strikeouts. Mezquita also stranded two inherited runners when he entered the game.
Tyler Burch (2.45) picked up his fourth save with one inning of one-run, one-hit ball. He struck out three. He balked in the run.
Hunter Markwardt drove in the game’s first run with a sac fly in the second inning. Nate Fassnacht followed with an RBI simngle. McCarthy Tatum topped off the scoring with a solo HR in the seventh, his eighth of the season but first at this level.
Tatum (.250) went 2-4 with a HR (1) in his second Low-A game. Jhailyn Ortiz (.267) went 2-4 but no HR. Cole Stobbe (.133) went 0-3 with a walk and 2 strikeouts. He now has 69 strikeouts this season. With his 158 plate appearances that’s a 43.7% K rate. Logan O’Hoppe (.270) went 1-4 with a double.
Clearwater (35-37) and Fort Myers were postponed, rain. Doubleheader on Thursday.
FCL Phillies (10-6) at FCL Tigers West was cancelled.
DSL Phillies Red (3-7) and DSL Phillies White (6-4) no DSL games scheduled on Wednesday.
The Affiliate Scoreboard, the FCL Scoreboard, and the DSL Scoreboard.
Transactions – Includes several for the 27th that didn’t post until this morning. I knew about 5 of them but they didn’t register with me when I wrote up the transactions for the 27th. For instance, I watched Martin play for the Threshers but didn’t notice that the transaction wasn’t posted and I didn’t think to add it that night.
7/28/2021 – Clearwater placed LHP Anton Kuznetsov on the 7-day IL
7/28/2021 – Clearwater placed RHP Chi-Ling Hsu on the 7-day IL
7/28/2021 – LHP Maikel Garrido assigned to Clearwater from FCL Phillies
7/28/2021 – RHP Victor Lopez assigned to Clearwater from FCL Phillies
7/27/2021 – Lehigh Valley activated RHP Adonis Medina from the 7-day IL
7/27/2021 – C Rafael Marchan assigned to Reading from Lehigh Valley
7/27/2021 – C Rodolfo Duran assigned to Lehigh Valley from Reading
7/27/2021 – 3B McCarthy Tatum assigned to Jersey Shore from Reading
7/27/2021 – LHP Erik Miller assigned to Jersey Shore from Clearwater
7/27/2021 – Jersey Shore activated CF Hunter Markwardt from the 7-day IL
7/27/2021 – 2B Casey Martin assigned to Clearwater from Jersey Shore
7/27/2021 – RHP Victor Vargas assigned to Clearwater from Lehigh Valley
Phuture Phillies 
Went to the Lehigh game last night here in Rochester.
Parkinson pitched much better than his incoming stats showed. Very crisp in five shutout innings. He gave up a hit and a walk in the 6th before being pulled. One of the runs allowed by Adams should not have scored, as Tilson in CF lost a routine pop to center in the dusk/lights.
Parkinson was 90-91 with the FB, 82 changeup which was working well, and a breaking ball at 77mph which he mixed in effectively. Adams has some real life on his stuff coming out his small frame. Sat 94-96 with a fastball Bedrosian was blah and got bailed out when Llovera came in and induced a bases-loaded popout to Duran behind the plate, who made an incredible leaping grab against the safety net. Lehigh manager needs to learn the art of the double-switch, as Llovera batted in the following half-inning before finishing with the save in the 9th. He popped out on the first pitch.
Duran’s 3-run HR was the most exciting stroke of the night. Rochester is a notorious pitcher’s park and Duran muscled one deep into his team’s bullpen. Maton ripped a nice double down the line in his first AB, and Vierling just seems to hit everything hard. Brito did not get a hit, but in his last AB fouled off 10 consecutive pitches with a 1-2 count before striking out. Pretty entertaining. Lots of happy kids with souvenirs.
Thanks for the update. FYI – the LHV doesn’t have to learn about the double switch as getting Llovera the extra inning of work was more important to them than winning the game. Minor leagues are about development not winning.
Well I thought it was slightly noteworthy as they could have kept Llovera in for the 9th and still subbed out a different player to hit 9th in a double switch. Maybe the bench was light. No sign of Moniak who I was hoping to see in the lineup.
Thanks for that report.
Duran was one guy I had high hopes on…more so than Marchan…..because he has power/pop in his bat…then he tore up his knee 2 years ago and it has taken him awhile coming around now.
Watched Miller’s start at Lakewood on MiLB. I think the effects of a nearly 21 month layoff with the COVID pause and his shoulder inflammation has him behind other pitchers and similar to what we would see in March from pitchers. That said the announcers mentioned he had some of the fastest stuff they had seen this year at Lakewood. Miller needs a long season and AFL to make up time.
Hopefully he stays healthy….seasons now extend to mid-Sept so that will give him a few more innings in,
….the AFL normally gets team’s top pitching prospects 20 to 25 innings pitched for that 6 week season. And that is what the mLB teams want.
As they say watch baseball long enough and you will see something that you would think couldn’t happen. First inning Miller sawed the bat off of a Brooklyn hitter and the broken bat spun backwards into the net behind home plate like a foul ball. The physics says the forward momentum of the bat – the force of baseball should have made that a stand off or the broken bat fly up the 1st/3rd baselines. Nope
Here’s the pitching stats for the Phils Minor Leagues. (I chose to include players with 20 or more IP but haven’t pitched in the Majors so a guy like Howard would not be included.)
WHIP: B. Sullivan (.938); B. Zarbnisky (.983); C. Reyes (1.01)
Ks: C. Hernandez (74); F. Morales (72); M. Abel (66)
BBs: F. Morales (36); M. Appel (35); J. Mezquita (32)
K/9: T. Burch (15); Z. Warren (14.5); JD Hammer (14.4)
BB/9: D. Jones (8.7); B. Brown (8.4); Z. Warren (8.2)
SVs: T. Burch (7); B. Marconi (7); B. Zarbnisky (5); J. Hernandez (5)
Sullivan looks like a prospect but he is barely out of the gate. I see why C. Hernandez was going to be included in the deal for the Bucs Starter. I hope what they saw to kill the trade isn’t something career threatening. Morales has to get “under Control”. BBs are high. He’s also tops in WPs and has a high number of HBPs.. His Ks are pretty good. Burch is very interesting. He’ll be 23 in September but with a Covid year off, it’s hard to evaluate properly. I’d like to see him in Reading in a couple of weeks. If he holds his own, Great! If not, no harm, no foul.
I don’t know how you do it Jimmy but I love it and I so appreciate it