Pawtucket W 6-5
Rusney Castillo: 1-4, 3B
Marco Hernandez: 1-4, HR, K
Chris Young: 0-2, K
Brennan Boesch: 0-3, BB
Kyle Martin: 3 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K
Heath Hembree: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 K
Well that's certainly an outlier performance for Heath Hembree, who quintuples the number of baserunners he's allowed since his return to Pawtucket in one inning.
And Chris Young lives! While Andrew Benintendi may have just dumped one platoon partner in Bryce Brentz, one could hardly blame the Red Sox for reinstating it with someone like Chris Young. That's a bat you actively want in the order against a lefty.
Portland L 2-5
Yoan Moncada: 1-4, HR, K
Mauricio Dubon: 2-4, HR, K, CS
Moncada returns with a bang, and Dubon continues with one. That Dubon is pushing a .500 SLG since he joined Portland is...well, I want to use the word "strange" here. "Unsustainable" is probably also appropriate, but on the whole, even over a middling sample like this, I wouldn't have thought it within his range. I do wish he was still walking the way he has throughout his career, but at the same time, I can understand a guy embracing a hot streak and just swinging the bat, especially when it's one that's taken them from on the verge of organizational filler to a top-10 type talent.
Salem L 2-3
Joseph Monge: 1-4, 2 K, CS, E
Rafael Devers: 2-4, 2 HR, K
Nick Longhi: 1-3, BB, K
Jake Cosart: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K
We're at that point in the year where it might be just a little too late for the Red Sox to bother uprooting Rafael Devers for a promotion, particularly given that he's facing one of the biggest jumps the minors has to offer. But it's remarkable how reasonable his season looks given how bad of a start he got off to. With a .992 second-half OPS, there's little question Devers has earned a bump to Portland for 2017. They do grow up fast.
Greenville W 8-3
Luis Alexander Basabe: 4-5, 2 2B
Josh Ockimey: 1-4, K
Michael Chavis: 1-4, 2 K
Kyri Washington: 2-3, 3B
Austin Rei: 2-4, 2B
Austin Glorius: 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K
[Looks at Devers' season]
[Looks at Basabe's season]
These are...awfully similar. Bad first half, huge second half, seven triples, eleven homers. Basabe has stolen bases, Devers has the much better K-rate and is one level higher despite being two months younger. But Basabe could do a lot worse than "poor man's Rafael Devers."
Well, less-extraordinarily-rich man's Rafael Devers. I don't know about you, but I certainly don't have a $450,000 signing bonus just lying around.
Lowell Game 1 L 2-13 (In 7)
Matt McLean: 0-3, BB
C.J. Chatham: 0-4, K
Ryan Scott: 1-2, 2B, BB
Bobby Dalbec: 2-3
Mike Shawaryn: 2 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 4 K
Brandon Workman: 3 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 1 HR
Lowell Game 2 W 7-0 (In 7)
Ryan Scott: 2-4, HR, 2 K
Yoan Aybar: 2-3, K
Rough going indeed for two of Boston's early-round college pitchers in Shawaryn and Anderson, which makes Stephen Nogosek's mostly seamless transition into professional pitching all the more impressive.
I don't have any concrete numbers to back this up, but it would not surprise me if the All-Star Game paradigm was very much in effect here. Individual at bats are no tougher for rookie hitters or pitchers than they were when they were facing the best opposition in college or high school. But the entire dynamic of an inning is thrown off hugely for a pitcher when every single player is talented enough to have been drafted. It's easy to see how that could inflate early struggles for some pitchers who struggle to make that adjustment in addition to the other adjustments professional baseball demands.