Red Sox minor lines: Jackie Bradley crushes Masahiro Tanaka

5/26

Pawtucket L 3-4

Jackie Bradley Jr.: 1-4, K
Deven Marrero: 1-4, K, E
Travis Shaw: 0-3, BB, K
Allen Craig: 1-3, BB, K
Garin Cecchini: 0-4, K
Bryce Brentz: 0-0, BB, A

Portland W 8-5

Carlos Asuaje: 1-5, K

5/27

Pawtucket L 6-9

Jackie Bradley: 3-5, 2B, HR, K
Allen Craig: 1-4, BB, K
Bryce Brentz: 0-4, K
Travis Shaw: 1-3, 2B, K
Deven Marrero: 2-3, BB, K

Keith Couch: 3 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 1 K

A rough outing for a rehabbing Masahiro Tanaka, but especially against Jackie Bradley Jr. who picked up his double and his homer off him in the first two innings. If Castillo's injury ends up being anything significant, he might be right back up to the majors. Whether that means actually playing consistently or just sitting on the bench before heading back down is up to John Farrell.

Portland W 3-2

Carlos Asuaje: 0-4

Not the best couple of days for Carlos Asuaje after his huge outburst. These games end a stretch of ten straight with his OBP up over .400.

Salem W 5-4

Sam Travis: 2-4, 2B, K
Wendell Rijo: 2-4, 2B, POCS

Wendell Rijo seems to have had some trouble staying on the field this season. It hasn't been long absences, necessarily, just a couple games here an a couple games there. Given that, it's remarkable he's still hitting fairly well. Yeah, the OBP is mediocre-to-bad, but he's 19 in High-A, so that's about what you expect. If that matures with time, Rijo's an awfully interesting prospect. If not, he's still probably a decent utility infielder type.

Greenville Game 1 L 2-5 (In 7)

Rafael Devers: 2-4
Nick Longhi: 0-3, K
Javier Guerra: 2-3, 2B, K, SB
Michael Chavis: 0-3, K

Greenville Game 2 W 3-1 (In 8)

Rafael Devers: 1-4, 2B
Nick Longhi: 1-3, BB
Yoan Moncada: 0-3, K

Michael Kopech: 4 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K

I'd be interested to know exactly how many pitches it took Kopech to get through this outing. Yeah, it looks like it was shortened by the whole "eight strikeouts" thing, and it almost certainly was. But he's only been throwing five even in his longest outings, with the Red Sox playing it very safe with his development, so he probably wasn't even all that inefficient in racking up those strikeouts.

Whether it took him 60 pitches or 100, though, Kopech seems to be hitting a new gear after a couple iffy outings. He's allowe two runs in his last 14 innings, racking up 21 of his 38 strikeouts on the season in those games. He's the easy early season favorite for the breakout Sox prospect of 2015, if indeed a first rounder can be considered a breakout candidate at all.