Red Sox minor lines: The surprisingly steady Yoan Moncada

Pawtucket W 1-0

Aaron Wilkerson: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K

Aaron Wilkerson briefly seemed to be bumped from Pawtucket's rotation. In his return to a starting role, he shows why that would be a silly idea. Will this carry over to the majors in any capacity? Most think not, and it's hard to say. But so far the minor leagues have shown him nothing the independent leagues didn't prepare him for, and now he's sitting in Triple-A with a 2.25 ERA and 30:6 K:BB.

Portland W 7-1

Andrew Benintendi: 2-4, 2 K

Luis Ysla: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K

A three-game stretch at the end of may took what looked like an unlucky season to start the year and turned it into an outright bad one as he walked eight in the process of recording 10 total outs. He's going to have to work that off, but at least in his last couple games, he's gone 4.2 innings, allowed all of one baserunner (on a hit), and struck out seven. Need more of that if he's going to get himself into Pawtucket and into the bullpen conversation in 2017.

Salem W 6-5

Yoan Moncada: 2-4, BB, POCS
Mauricio Dubon: 2-4, BB, SB
Rafael Devers: 2-4, 3B, 2 SB
Nick Longhi: 0-3, BB, K
Joseph Monge: 2-4

Trey Ball: 5.1 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K

Do not let Trey Ball fool you! Look at the hitters, look at their positives, enjoy those performances! There is your hope in Salem. Do not turn to Ball for that. Note that the 3:2 K:BB is actually dramatically better than his season ratio!

Just saying, we've been here before. He went on a 55-inning run last year in June and July where he surrendered 16 earned runs. That's a 2.56 ERA, but it came with a 33:26 K:BB, and in August he allowed 25 runs in 22 innings, because that's what happens to pitchers who can't locate the strike zone, and can't miss bats. He needs to do a lot more than keep runs off the board for a couple months to earn any modicum of faith.

Also, found something really surprising for Yoan Moncada, at least to me. It's felt like his season has been on a (gentle, admittedly) downward slope since an insane start. And there are ways to paint that picture just because he had a .450 OBP in April and, well, yeesh. But his OPS has actually gone from .868 in April to .891 in May to .900 now in June. The worst interpretation is basically "consistently great" while the best would suggest he might even be improving.

Greenville W 11-8

Michael Chavis: 2-4, HR
Josh Ockimey: 0-5, K
Luis Alexander Basabe: 2-5, 2B, 2 K
Austin Rei: 1-2, BB

Roniel Raudes: 4 IP, 7 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
Marc Brakeman: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K

Michael Chavis' OPS creeps up over 1.000. I just wish he hadn't hit the disabled list for so long so that he'd have enough of a sample to be more certain of calling this a big bounce-back/breakout season after his disappointing 2015.