Though he gave up some hits, too.
Worcester L 0-3
Yairo Muñoz, 3B: 1-4
Jonathan Araúz, SS: 0-3, 1 BB
Marcus Wilson, RF: 0-2, 1 BB
Enmanuel De Jesus (SP; L): 5 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 3 K (69 pitches)
Kevin McCarthy: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 0 K (15 pitches)
Jose Adames: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K (6 pitches)
Seth Blair: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K (24 pitches)
Offensively, this was just a brutal day for Worcester, who sat a handful of their best bats and managed just two singles and three walks on the game. Pitching wise, however, there was some interest. For one thing, De Jesus made his first career start at Triple-A. The southpaw has been in the Red Sox organization for years now, having made his debut back in 2014, but prior to this year he hadn’t made it above High-A. There’s not much in terms of prospect intrigue here, but it’s still nice to see these kinds of stories and guys moving up the ladder. Meanwhile, Adames is continuing a sneaky great season. Most of his year, his first in the Red Sox organization, was spent in Portland, but this was his sixth appearance up in Worcester. He has yet to allow a run at Triple-A, and overall he’s pitched to a 1.78 ERA over 25 1⁄3 innings, striking out 32 and walking 11.
Portland W 6-5 (F/10)
Jeisson Rosario, CF: 3-5, 1 R, 1 K
Pedro Castellanos, LF: 1-5, 1 HR, 2 R, 1 RBI, 2 K
Devlin Granberg, RF: 3-5, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 K
Tyreque Reed, 1B: 1-4, 1 HR, 1 R, 2 RBI, 2 K
Hudson Potts, 3B: 1-3, 1 BB
Ronaldo Hernández, C: 0-4, 1 K
Ryan Fitzgerald, SS: 1-4, 1 HR, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 K
Chris Sale (SP): 3.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 9 K (64 pitches)
Andrew Politi (BS): 4.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 5 K (66 pitches)
Alex Scherff (W): 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K (16 pitches)
Obviously this game was all about Sale, as any of his rehab outings will be. I was not in attendance for this one, but by the box score his stuff was good, though his location may have been lacking at times. Even with the hits, which included one home run, those nine strikeouts are an impressive number. Sale is expected to make at least one more rehab start at Worcester. Looking beyond Sale in this one, Castellanos continues what has been a really impressive season. He came into the year looking to prove his power surge to close 2019 was no fluke, and he’s sitting currently with a really solid .198 Isolated Power (SLG – AVG), and his 11 homers over 59 games would have him on pace for 28 over 150 games. He’s a sleeper in this system to carve out some sort of part-time role in the majors at some point.
Greenville L 2-8
Christian Koss, SS: 0-4, 1 E
Cameron Cannon, 2B: 2-4
Tyler Dearden, LF: 0-3, 1 BB, 1 K
Brandon Howlett, 3B: 0-4, 1 R, 1 K
Joe Davis, 1B: 1-4, 1 2B, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 K, 1 E
Grant Gambrell (SP; L): 2.1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 2 K (69 pitches)
Brendan Nail: 2.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K (52 pitches)
It’s been a tough go of late for Greenville, who have lost six of their last eight and have combined for only five runs over their last three games. Howlett has been a little hot and cold this year, and while his overall numbers still look good he’s trending more towards cold right now. He hasn’t had more than one hit in a game since July 4, and he’s hitless in his last three. That said, even in the month of July he’s been able to work around his lack of hits with both power and patience, posting a slash line of .197/.310/.426 this month. Meanwhile, Grambrell continues to be all over the place since coming to the Red Sox organization as a player to be named later in the Andrew Benintendi trade. Coming off his best start since that deal, he had one of his worst this time out. We’ve seen the flashes. Now we’re just looking for the consistency.
Salem W 3-0
Ceddanne Rafaela, CF: 2-4, 1 3B, 1 HR, 2 R, 2 RBI
Gilberto Jimenez, LF: 1-3, 1 RBI, 1 K
Matthew Lugo, SS: 1-4, 1 K
Nicholas Northcut, 1B: 0-3
Antoni Flores, 2B: 0-3
Jorge Rodriguez (SP; W): 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 8 K (69 pitches)
Ryan Fernandez (H): 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K (39 pitches)
Devon Roedahl (SV): 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K (14 pitches)
We should mention Rafaela here, who had a big day for this Salem offense and has been swinging a hot bat of late, but the real story from this one is Rodriguez and the rest of the pitching. Rodriguez was one of a lot of people’s favorite sleepers coming into this season, but he has not been very consistent. There have been some solid starts thrown in, but by and large he’s been largely unimpressive. Clearly, that was not the case here. This was his best start of the season by a wide margin, and hopefully a springboard for a big conclusion to his season. Meanwhile, both Fernandez and Roedahl boast ERA’s below 2.00 right now, and continued their domination in this one.
Player of the Day: Jorge Rodriguez
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