AAA: Round Rock 4, at Oklahoma City (LAD) 2
Round Rock: 11 hits, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts
Opponent: 6 hits, 4 walks, 8 strikeouts
Record: 35-20, 1.5 G up, 79-50 overall
SP Marc Church: 2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 2 SO, 41 P / 20 S, 3.06 ERA
RP Fernery Ozuna: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 4.60 ERA
RP Jake Latz: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 SO, 4.30 ERA
2B Justin Foscue: 2-4, 2B, BB, .264/.392/.442
SS Jonathan Ornelas: 3-4, 2B, .253/.365/.359
Last night, Corey Seager homered at 114.4 MPH, his hardest-hit ball of the season. Soon after, someone with the Express hit a ball the exact velocity. Care to guess? Not Sam Huff; he was called up yesterday.
Jonathan Ornelas, who now has the highest exit velo reading of any fair ball hit in an Express game this season. Ornelas’s hard-hit rate of 33% is slightly below average, but the top side of his range is strong. His 90th-percentile velo is 104.3, higher than anyone on the team except Sam Huff and Blaine Crim. Ornelas is hitting .633 and slugging .967 on the top 10% of his exit velocities, which sounds impressive but actually isn’t. The respective figures for all hitters in Round Rock’s games are .688 and 1.452. Ornelas is easily the most grounder-oriented on the team, so a good number of those scorchers end up singles or outs. Fly-ball master Davis Wendzel is batting .862 and slugging 2.138 on his hardest-hit balls.
AA: Frisco 2, Corpus Christi (HOU) 3 (9)
Frisco: 3 hits, 4 walks, 16 strikeouts
Opponent: 6 hits, 2 walks, 17 strikeouts
Record: 28-27, 3 GB, 59-64 overall
SP Ryan Garcia: 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 SO, 77 P / 53 S, 7.11 ERA
RP Grant Wolfram: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 SO, 2.02 ERA
RP Antoine Kelly: 2 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 5 SO, 1.95 ERA
The game was shortened to seven innings because of a lengthy delay but lasted nine anyway. Neither team scored during the regular frames. Frisco committed three errors in the two extra innings, although two of Corpus’s three runs would have scored regardless. Ryan Garcia had a heartening outing after lasting a combined 2.1 innings in his previous two starts.
Hi-A: Hickory 10, at Greensboro (PIT) 8
Hickory: 11 hits, 5 walks, 10 strikeouts
Opponent: 13 hits, 4 walks, 9 strikeouts
Record: 37-20, 4 G up, 64-54 overall
SP Mitch Bratt: 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 SO, 38 P / 21 S, 3.72 ERA
SS Max Acosta: 1-4, HR (11), BB, .251/.302/.384
LF Wyatt Langford: 3-4, 2B, BB, SB (7), .346/.474/.641
1B Abi Ortiz: 3-5, HR (24), .298/.356/.629
RF Yosy Galan: 1-4, HR (5), .236/.290/.438
Wyatt Langford returned after a couple of games off. In addition to the usual batting heroics, Langford saved a possible walk-off by tracking down a liner to the gap. It’s early and I’m only going off MiLB.tv video, but my impression is that Langford is taking advantage of his speed as a professional. The complaint at Florida is that his solid speed didn’t produce the expected benefit in the field or on the bases. On a combination of speed and smarts, Langford also legged out a double on an ordinary medium-hard fly to left-center.
Mitch Bratt returned from a lat injury and pitched well in an intentionally short outing.
Abimelec Ortiz: most homers in high-A, third most in the minors.
Lo-A: Down East 3, at Carolina (MIL) 4 (11)
Down East: 7 hits, 5 walks, 8 strikeouts
Opponent: 9 hits, 3 walks, 9 strikeouts
SP Joseph Montalvo: 4 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 HBP, 4 SO, 53 P / 33 S, 2.75 ERA
RP Skylar Hales: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 SO, 2.84 ERA
DH Anthony Gutierrez: 1-1, BB, .259/.326/.338
CF Jojo Blackmon: 1-3, BB
LF Tommy Specht: 2-3, BB, .232/.335/.300
Lo-A: Down East 4, at Carolina (MIL) 0 (7)
Down East: 9 hits, 3 walks, 7 strikeouts
Opponent: 4 hits, 1 walk, 8 strikeouts
Record: 27-31, 7 GB, 64-55 overall
SP Leandro Lopez: 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 SO, 46 P / 28 S, 3.11 ERA
RP Eury Rosado: 4 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 SO, 1.86 ERA
CF Jojo Blackmon: 2-3, 2B, 3B, BB, .208/.321/.368
C Ian Moller: 2-3, 2B, .190/.328/.300
Low-A hitters are in trouble against an in-control Leandro Lopez. In his last four starts, Lopez has walked two versus 20 strikeouts in 14 innings, and the ERA is 1.93. For the rest of the season, Lopez has a 19% BB/HBP rate.
DH Anthony Gutierrez exited after sliding into second halfway through the opener. Echedry Vargas is on the IL one day after pulling his left hand off the bat early into his swing on Thursday.
4th-rounder Skylar Hales has three increasingly long scoreless appearances in a row after allowing runs in each of his first three pro outings.
Today’s Starters
AAA: Dugger
AA: Krauth
Hi-A: Gessner
Lo-A: TBA (Porter day)
Five Years Ago Yesterday
Spokane won 6-0 behind 5.2 scoreless from Jake Latz and a homer and single from JP Martinez. Spokane had gained three games in the standings in three days and needed to win just one of the next two to claim a playoff spot.