Red Sox Minor Lines: A rough night for Darwinzon Hernandez

Pawtucket W 12-2

Tzu-Wei Lin, SS: 2-6, 2 2B, 1 R, 2 RBI, 2 K

Aneury Tavarez, RF: 1-3, 1 3B, 3 BB, 2 R, 2 K

Rusney Castillo, CF: 2-4, 1 R, 3 RBI, 1 K

Ramon Flores, LF: 3-3, 1 2B, 1 BB, 1 R, 2 RBI

Jantzen Witte, 3B: 2-3, 2 BB, 3 R

Chandler Shepherd: 5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 3 K (80 pitches)

Steven Wright 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K (14 pitches)

Ty Buttrey: 2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K (41 pitches)

Robby Scott: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K (20 pitches)

This was a huge game for the PawSox offense, who jumped out to an 8-0 lead before Shepherd even had to take the mound. Interestingly, Castillo was moved down to the middle of the order after hitting leadoff pretty much all year to this point. He was the same old guy, picking up a couple of hits, both of which were singles, At this point, if they need an outfielder in the majors it’ll come down to Flores or Tavarez, and both of these guys have been up-and-down this year. On the pitching side, Wright made his first appearance out of the bullpen, which is where he’ll be in the majors starting on Monday. The first outing went according to plan.

Portland L 1-5

Chad De La Guerra, 2B: 1-3, 1 3B, 1 BB, 1 RBI, 1 K

Cole Sturgeon, RF: 0-4

Tate Matheny, CF: 1-4, 3 K

Josh Ockimey, 1B: 1-3, 1 E

Danny Mars, LF: 0-3

Trey Ball: 2 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 3 K (46 pitches)

De La Guerra was easily the best hitter for Portland on Friday, though that’s a low bar to clear. He was recently demoted to Double-A after an awful start to his year in Pawtucket, which is a big setback who is sort of a fringe prospect with an outside shot at a bench role at the highest level. Getting sent down was obviously not ideal, but he’s looked good in four games since joining Portland and if he keeps this up he’ll get another chance at Triple-A. De La Guerra has defeated odds throughout his pro career, and there’s no reason he can’t do it again. As for Ball, well, we don’t have to talk about that.

Salem L 5-6 (F/10)

Santiago Espinal, SS: 1-5, 1 SB

Brett Netzer, 2B: 1-4, 1 BB, 2 R, 1 K

C.J. Chatham, DH: 3-4 2 2B, 1 BB, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 SB

Bobby Dalbec, 3B: 1-5, 1 HR, 1 R, 1 RBI, 2 K

Ryan Scott, RF: 2-4, 1 2B, 1 BB, 1 R

Darwinzon Hernandez: 0.2 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 4 BB, 0 K (33 pitches)

Jared Oliver: 4.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 6 K (67 pitches)

For the second straight night, an exciting Salem pitcher left their start early after poor performance. For Hernandez, this was the second consecutive outing in which he didn’t make it through two full innings, and his command has ben an issue all season. The strikeouts have mostly been there in most of his outings (not in this one, though), but he’s walked at least three batters in all of his outings despite throwing more than five innings just once. In fact, he’s failed to make it out of the first more often than he’s made it into the sixth. Not great!

Greenville W 6-4

Lorenzo Cedrola, CF: 0-3, 1 BB, 1 R, 1 K

Marino Campana, DH: 1-3, 1 3B, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 K

Zach Sterry, 1B: 2-4

Jagger Rusconi, LF: 1-3, 1 HR, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 K

Kervin Suarez, 2B: 2-4, 1 R, 1 K

Denyi Reyes: 5 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K (66 pitches)

Lukas Young: 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K (17 pitches)

I’m not going to lie to you, I don’t really understand how the Drive scored six runs in this game. Like, I’m looking at the box score and there are six runs scored and six RBI among the lineup. Nothing weird happened. And yet....it doesn’t make sense. I don’t know. This team just isn’t all that exciting at the moment, though Rusconi has had a couple nice games in a row and Reyes has somewhat quietly had a strong start to his season with a 2.72 ERA and 45 strikeouts to just four walks in 39 ²⁄₃ innings.

Player of the Night: The PawSox lineup was easily the best unit of the night, but in terms of individual performance I think C.J. Chatham has to take the cake. His strong day in High-A was overshadowed by a rough one for Darwinzon Hernandez, but Chatham deserves some props. It’d be nice to see him be able to get into the field at some point soon, but the development of his bat is a bigger question than that of the glove, and this was his breakout game at this new level for him. Hopefully, he can keep this up, and while he’s going to be in Salem for a while they could try to push him up to Portland later in the summer as he looks to get back on track after a lost 2017.