Welcome to August, everyone. We're heading down the stretch for minor league baseball with only a little more than a month left of the action. The Lowell Spinners are playing until September 8th, but all the teams at the higher levels are ending their season on September 5th, just in time for the September call ups. Portland needs to keep up their winning ways to hold on to the division lead and none of the other teams are eliminated from playoff contention just yet.
The Results
Pawtucket vs Syracuse - L, 10-9
Portland vs New Hampshire - W, 3-0
Wilmington vs Kinston - W, 3-1
Greenville vs Columbus - W, 3-2
Lowell vs Brooklyn - W, 2-0
The Prospects
Jacob Ellsbury - DNP
Christian Lara - 0-3, 2k, bb
Jed Lowrie - 1-4, 2b
Alejandro Machado - 1-4, 2b, 2rbi
Cla Meredith - DNP
Brandon Moss - 1-3, r, k
Dustin Pedroia - 0-3, r, rbi, bb
Hanley Ramirez - 0-4
Kelly Shoppach - 1-3, 2r, hr, rbi, bb
Luis Soto - 1-4, 2b, 2rbi
The Starters
name IP H R ER BB SO HR Dec
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Lenny Dinardo 3.1 5 7 2 1 1 1 ND
Denney Tomori 6.2 4 0 0 0 6 0 W
Andrew Dobies 6 4 1 1 0 6 0 ND
Gary Galvez 6.2 1 0 0 1 7 0 W
Clay Bucholz 3 1 0 0 0 7 0 ND
Other Notables
Kevin Youkilis - 3-5, r, 2 2b
Luis Figueroa - 2-4, r, 2b, k
Justin Sherrod - 2-5, 2r, hr, 2rbi, 2k
Jim Buckley - 2-3, r, rbi
Chad Spann - 1-3, r, hr, 2rbi
Logan Sorenson - 2-4, 2b, rbi, k
Chuck Jerolman - 2-3, r, 2b, bb, k
Yahmed Yema - 2-3, r, 2b, bb
Brett Rudrude - 2 IP, H, BB, K, W
Pete Fisher - 1 IP, SV
Brantley Jordan - 1.1 IP, BB, 3 K
Chris Jones - 2 IP, H, 3 K
Ismael Casillas - 3 IP, H, 3 K, W
The Bad Guys
org W-L place GB runs(rank) RA(rank)
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BRO NYM (shA) 23-16 3rd 2.5 194 (5 of 14) 168 (5 of 14)
News and Notes
It was another good night for the organization as most of the teams won some very close pitcher's duels. The only exception to the day was the 10-9 loss that Pawtucket suffered. I wrote a quick recap of that game in a diary. The rest of the games were dominated by a lack of offense as the good guys won the games by the score of 3-0, 3-1, 3-2, and 2-0. Not counting the poor game pitched by Lenny Dinardo, the organization's four starting pitchers from Lowell to Portland combined to go 22.1 IP and allowed only 1 run and 1 walk with 26 K's. It was definately a great day for the starters.
Dustin Pedroia made a return to the starting line up yesterday afternoon, batting second and playing second. He went 0-3, but scored a run on a Roberto Petaine sac fly and knocked in a run with a sac fly of his own. He also walked. His AVG is down to .234 in Pawtucket, but once he gets to playing every day his numbers will get better.
The Sea Dogs just completed a 3 game sweep of New Hampshire and will host New Britain for a four game series starting tonight. Portland is 7-5 in games against New Britain this year. The Rock Cats use a lot of different starters, so I'm not even going to begin to guess what their rotation will look like for the series, but according to soxprospects, Glenn Perkins (3.96, 2-1 in 38.2 IP w/ 7.2 K/9, 5.4 BB/9, and 0.2 HR/9) will be going for them tonight. The Sea Dogs will counter with ace Jon Lester.
Minor Leaguer Spotlight
Gary Galvez
Galvez, a 21 year old who joined the organization in 2003 as an undrafted free agent, is repeating low-A in 2005, but he is having a much better go at it this time. Last year he pitched 140 innings and put up a 5.14 ERA while putting up 6.6 K/9, 2.3 BB/9, and 1.0 HR/9. He was used mostly as a starter, starting 22 games while coming into the game from the bullpen in 8. This year his peripherals are around the same place with 6.9 K/9, 2.5 BB/9, and 0.9 HR/9, but his other numbers are looking a lot better with a 3.15 ERA in 91.1 IP. Again he is being used as a spot starter, appearing in 25 games, 12 of them starts. Galvez was a member of Cuba's Junior National team and he was aggressively pursued by several teams when he defected from the country in 2003. The Yankees were one of the teams going after Galvez, but the Sox ended up signing him. He's still a long ways away from the majors, but his numbers aren't bad. Nothing really sticks out as being overly good, but then again, none of his numbers are really that bad. He keeps the ball in the park, doesn't walk a lot of guys, and strikes out enough. If he maintains his performance as he rises through the system then he may be a useful guy in the bullpen some day.