Red Sox minor lines: Espinoza unchallenged

Pawtucket L 0-5

Allen Craig: 1-4
Garin Cecchini: 0-4
Deven Marrero: 1-3

Edwin Escobar: 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 4 K
Heath Hembree: 1.2 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 K
Noe Ramirez: 1.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K

Ah Pawtucket, will your motley crew of relievers ever produce one that can actually be relied on in Boston?

Portland L 0-6

Carlos Asuaje: 1-4, K
Sam Travis: 0-4, K

Two games in and we are at zero runs. Let's see if Salem can--wait, it's Salem. Let's see what mediocre performance their middling prospect of the day produced and then see if Greenville can turn this thing around.

Salem L 3-5

Daniel McGrath: 5 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 4 K

A~yup.

Greenville W 7-5 (In 7)

Yoan Moncada: 0-3, BB, E
Michael Chavis: 1-4, 2 K
Rafael Devers: 1-3, BB
Nick Longhi: 1-4, HR, K

Greenville W 11-4 (In 7)

Michael Chavis: 1-5, HR, 2 K
Rafael Devers: 0-4, K
Nick Longhi: 2-5
Javier Guerra: 2-4, 2B

There we go, that's more like it. Granted, for 18 runs in 14 innings, the best was reserved for guys like Danny Mars and Mike Meyers, who aren't exactly interesting prospects. But certainly better than what the upper levels provided. Probably most noteworthy of the bunch is Longhi's solid 3-for-9 with a homer performance over the two games. He's been largely even-keel since a hot April and mediocre May balanced eachother out. Nothing spectacular, but not bad coming off a 2014 season cut short by injury, and enough to make him an interesting follow into 2016. Keep doing that year-in and year-out, and eventually you've got a job in the majors.

Lowell L 1-7

Luis Alexander Basabe: 2-4, BB, K
Andrew Benintendi: 2-4
Victor Acosta: 0-4
Tate Matheny: 0-3, BB, K
Kyri Washington: 0-4, K
Tucker Tubbs: 1-4, 2B, K

I'll acknowledge that this is going too far on a guy like Basabe, but if we could just find another B-name to go with him and Benintendi, we could have another incarnation of the three B's!

Or I guess we could just have Benintendi and be happy with that. Y'know, if you're not a fan of fun and stuff.

GCL Red Sox L 3-5 (In 7)

Yoan Aybar: 0-3, 2 K

Anderson Espinoza: 4 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K

Meanwhile Anderson Espinoza is just quietly the most exciting thing happening in short-season ball. Hopefully the Sox push him some in 2016, because it feels like just doing the GCL - Lowell thing that some prospects do just seems a little pointless for him. With a fastball that can hit the high 90s and any amount of control, there's just very little that 90% of guys at these levels can do against you. Honestly, his off-speed stuff probably won't even be challenged much until he's past Greenville, but probably best to make sure he can walk before they try running.

Just probably not worth bothering being really sure he's got this crawling thing down against another fresh batch of draftees.