AAA: Round Rock 7, Albuquerque (COL) 10
Round Rock: 9 hits, 5 walks, 17 strikeouts
Opponent: 12 hits, 5 walks, 7 strikeouts
Record: 11-5, tied for first
SP Jake Latz: 4 IP, 9 H (4 HR), 6 R, 1 BB, 4 SO, 83 P / 57 S, 4.74 ERA
RP Ryder Ryan: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 SO, 1.80 ERA
SS Josh Smith: 1-3, .246/.328/.386
C Yohel Pozo: 2-3, HR (1), HBP, .279/.326/.395
Round Rock trailed 6-0 early but made a game of it, even putting the winning run at the plate with one out in the 9th, but Sam Huff and Sherten Apostel both struck out. Huff, in fact, struck out in all five at-bats. Weirdly, he had only three swinging strikes, but the majority of pitches he stared at were called strikes. Huff has a 40% strikeout rate.
Bubba Thompson singled twice, and Davis Wendzel reached on a single and walk.
AA: Frisco 2, NW Arkansas (KAN) 11
Frisco: 8 hits, 4 walks, 9 strikeouts
Opponent: 8 hits, 6 walks, 9 strikeouts
Record: 10-3, 2 G up
SP Cody Bradford: 2.1 IP, 6 H (2 HR), 10 R, 4 BB, 1 HBP, 3 SO, 67 P / 37 S, 10.80 ERA
RP Seth Nordlin: 4 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 SO, 3.27 ERA
RP Lucas Jacbosen: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 0.00 ERA
SS Jonathan Ornelas: 3-5, .348/.362/.348
DH Blaine Crim: 1-3, HR (1), BB, .326/.380/.465
Me, two weeks ago: “Sometimes a single terrible outing can wipe out a reliever’s ERA. My favorite example is John Smoltz back in 2002. He allowed eight runs in 0.2 innings in early April and needed three months of quality outings (including 37 saves!) just to drag his ERA below 4.00.” Cody Bradford isn’t a reliever, but he’s in this predicament.
My memory of Jonathan Ornelas’s 2021 was faulty. I would have described his season in Hickory as up and down, but in fact he batted .300/.356/.485 during the final three months in Hickory, and he’s off to a similar if power-deprived start in Frisco.
Blaine Crim has his first homer. Crim had a stretch of 25 homerless games at Hickory last year, during which he, Ornelas, and his pals were one of minor league ball’s worst-hitting teams. That I remember correctly. Point being, Crim went deep 29 times last year despite the arid patch, so I wouldn’t worry about his lack of power at present.
High-A: Hickory 3, at Wilmington (WAS) 10
Hickory: 8 hits, 1 walk, 9 strikeouts
Opponent: 12 hits, 4 walks, 6 strikeouts
Record: 5-8, 4 GB
SP Owen White: 4.1 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 BB, 4 SO, 70 P / 44 S, 4.38 ERA
1B Jake Guenther: 2-3, 2B, HR (2), .276/.400/.517
For the first time since last August, Owen White had trouble throwing strikes. His season walk rate is still a hair below 10%, which in 2022 qualifies as better than average. Guenther, part of the Nate Lowe trade, is 25 next month and mostly a 1B, so games like this are exactly what he needs.
Low-A: Down East 6, at Columbia (KAN) 2
Down East: 12 hits, 3 walks, 12 strikeouts
Opponent: 10 hits, 4 walks, 11 strikeouts
Record: 6-7, 3 GB
SP Josh Stephan: 4 IP, 6 H (1 HR), 2 R, 3 BB, 2 SO, 81 P / 49 S, 2.77 ERA
RP Michael Brewer: 3 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 SO, 0.00 ERA
RP Destin Doston: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 SO, 0.00 ERA
RP Teodoro Ortega: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO, 11.57 ERA
LF Alejandro Osuna: 4-5, 2 SB (6), .273/.368/.364
CF Yosy Galan: 1-4, BB, SB (2), .231/.333/.385
2B Junior Paniagua: 2-4, 2B, .172/.273/.241
Down East scored four on four hits in the 10th. Yosy Galan plated two with a single up the middle. He’s known mostly for power, but Galan has 18 steals in 59 pro games and has played CF sparingly.
Abimelec Ortiz threw out two runners at the plate from right field, and catcher Eferenyer Narvaez picked off a runner at first. .
Today’s Starters
AAA: Arihara
AA: Leiter
Hi-A: Englert
Lo-A: TBD
Five Years Ago Yesterday
Round Rock’s Tyler Wagner and Iowa’s Jake Buchanan combined for 6.2 innings, 23 runners allowed and 158 pitches. It wasn’t pretty. Ronald Guzman improved to .349/.388/.476 with two hits.