Anthony and Mayer each recoded two pivotal, high-leverage, some may even say clutch, hits in a Worcester win.
The Celtics won. The Red Sox, uh, well, they lost. And the affiliates went 2-1 with a rain out, including a great performance by you-already-know-who and you-already-know-who, and a five-hit game down in Greenville by Zach Ehrhard. Let’s get into it!
Worcester: W, 8-4 (BOX SCORE)
I’ve been patient, perhaps more patient than some of you, but with the way the Major League team is playing in late innings now, it’s time to start doing roster gymnastics to get at least one of the heralded two prospects up. It hasn’t been often a WooSox pitcher has gone six this season, but Brian Van Belle has done just that to aid a WooSox staff that saw one of their rotation arms, Cooper Criswell, depart for Boston after Tanner Houck hit the Injured List for 15 days. It wasn’t a pristine outing, but it got the job done, thanks to a strong fifth inning by the WooSox bats against the Bison (Blue Jays AAA). Also, Philip Sikes threw out a runner at home plate from right field, so, uh, if MiLB can get that video put up expeditiously, that would be amazing to watch, thanks very much.
Now, about that fifth inning: Trenton Wallace is a tough customer to start against, and Erik Swanson making a rehab appearance in the fifth after it all fell apart for Swanson may have slowed down even the most confident of Triple-A players. But, against a guy who’s a very serviceable reliever, Roman Anthony, Vaughn Grissom and Marcelo Mayer showed no quarter: all three singled and all three would score, albeit on Andrew Bash’s behalf through the bats of Trayce Thompson and Yasmani Grandal. Sometimes all it takes is one inning of strength, even on a night when each batter 1 through 9 struck out at least once. And it’s very much worth noting that both Anthony and Mayer contributed in that fateful inning in a major way by making a reliever with several years of Major League experience a non-factor.
Portland: PPD, Rain (Make Up 6/11)
Portland, who has now not played baseball since Sunday, had another rainout to their 11:05 AM first pitch time in Somerset (Yankees AA) and, with a double-header already being played today, the rain date is moved all the way to June.
Greenville: W, 9-6 (BOX SCORE)
Greenville’s pitching staff allowed three home runs but the Drive gutted out a win with consistent papercuts to the Spartanburgers (Rangers High-A). Afive-hit night by Zach Ehrhard matched Vaughn Grissom’s total last month for most hits by a minor league player in a single game this season. Ehrhard started off the scoring with a three-run homer in the first inning and raked from there. Nazzan Zanetello, a second round pick whose strikeout rate hovers around 40%, was the only Drive player to not manage a hit in this 14-knock performance by Greenville, and the Drive did some damage even with twelve of those hits being singles, as they were up 7-0 at the end of two and didn’t look back.
Salem: L, 2-4 (BOX SCORE)
Yoelin Cespedes’ third-three hit game in the month of May couldn’t outshine a rough start from Adam Bates, nor could it hide the fact that one of his two doubles on the night was the only time Salem would muster a hit with runners in scoring position. Managing two runs on ten hits is rough, and it’s even worse that the team capitalized minimally on the Riverdogs’ (Rays A) two defensive errors. With the loss and Greenville’s win, Salem is now the holder of the worst record in the farm, at 15-19.
Have a happy Thursday!