Red Sox minor lines: A rough weekend

May 8th

Pawtucket L 0-7

Jackie Bradley Jr.: 1-4, POCS
Rusney Castillo: 1-4, K
Bryce Brentz: 0-3, 2 K
Garin Cecchini: 0-3, K, E
Deven Marrero: 0-3
Sean Coyle: 0-3, K

Eduardo Rodriguez: 5 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 1 HR

Portland L 1-5

Shane Victorino: 0-3
Carlos Asuaje: 2-4, 2B, K
Keury De La Cruz: 0-4, 2 K

Salem W 1-0

Manuel Margot: 0-4, K
Sam Travis: 0-2, BB

Ty Buttrey: 7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 K

Greenville L 1-5

Nick Longhi: 0-3, 2 K
Rafael Devers: 0-3, K
Michael Chavis: 0-3, 2 K
Javier Guerra: 0-3, K

We start off the weekend with a pretty terrible Friday. Ty Buttrey and Carlos Asuaje are the only two players who can claim solid games, with Buttrey's excellent start leading his team to the only win. Even the typically reliable Eduardo Rodriguez can't avoid the organization-wide slump, producing his first mediocre-or-worse start of the season.

5/9

Pawtucket L 2-3 (In 10)

Rusney Castillo: 0-4, BB, K, E
Bryce Brentz: 0-3, BB
Travis Shaw: 1-4
Garin Cecchini: 1-4, 2B, K
Deven Marrero: 2-3, K

Brian Johnson: 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 1 HR
Heath Hembree: 1.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 0 K

Portland L 0-3

Shane Victorino: 0-3
Keury De La Cruz: 0-3, 2 K
Carlos Asuaje: 0-2, BB, E

Shane Victorino starts 0-for-rehab. He has to be on a short leash in his return to action given how poorly he performed to start the season and his 2014 campaign. It "helps," I suppose, that Runsey Castillo is slow to come back from his injury, with his return to Pawtucket not going particularly well either.

Salem Game 1 L 1-6 (In 7)

Sam Travis: 0-2

Trey Ball: 5 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 1 HR

Salem Game 2 W 4-2 (In 7)

Manuel Margot: 0-4, E
Sam Travis: 2-3, 3B

Greenville L 7-11

Rafael Devers: 2-5, 2B

This is definitely our best day of the three, despite a 1-4 record when it comes to the actual games. Brian Johnson bounces back from a terrible performance his last time out, and there's at least a few hits to go around.

I do wonder how much grief could be prevented by just pretending Trey Ball didn't exist.

5/10

Pawtucket L 1-4

Rusney Castillo: 1-3, BB, K, CS
Bryce Brentz: 1-4, K
Travis Shaw: 0-2, 2BB
Deven Marrero: 1-3, HR
Sean Coyle: 0-3, 3 K

Henry Owens: 4 IP, 0 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 6 BB, 3 K
Noe Ramirez: 2.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K

Deven Marrero is a bit of a bright spot in all this. 3-for-9 with a double and homer is certainly reasonable, and any power coming from him--much less three homers in the first 28 games he's played--is certainly worth noting.

But however bright Marrero is, Owens is twice as dire. He is broken right now, plain and simple. It's not that he can't be fixed, but if control was a slight issue for him in the past, it's never come anywhere close to this. 25 walks in 31 innings now. Throwing no-hit ball and he can't get more than 12 outs because every third batter is getting a free pass, and half of those scoring. He's just a mess right now. Has been all season.

Portland L 3-7

Carlos Asuaje: 1-5, E
Keury De La Cruz: 2-4, 2B

Salem L 2-5

Sam Travis: 0-3

Teddy Stankiewicz: 6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K

Coming off a couple rough outings, Stankiewicz needed a nice rebound outing like that.

Greenville L 0-2

Nick Longhi: 1-2, BB, 2 SB
Rafael Devers: 1-4, 2B, 2 K
Michael Chavis: 0-2, BB
Javier Guerra: 0-4, 2 K

Rafael Devers is still hitting, but it seemed for a second there like he was ready to go on one of those huge tears he produced last year, and that's sort of petered out in a hurry. Also worth noting that he's only drawn a pair of walks in something like 100 plate appearances now.

He makes up for that by striking out only relatively rarely. Which, when compared to Michael Chavis' approach of drawing a few extra walks and putting up a K-rate of 33%, seems preferable.

All told, a rough weekend for the farm system to go with a rough weekend for the major league team. Not a whole lot is going right when it comes to the Red Sox these days.