Red Sox Minor Lines: Don’t ignore Kole Cottam

Pawtucket W 11-7

Gorkys Hernández, CF: 2-4, 1 HR, 1 BB, 2 R, 4 RBI, 1 K

Marco Hernandez, 2B: 1-6, 1 RBI, 2 K, 1 E

Chad De La Guerra, DH: 1-6, 1 HR, 1 R, 2 RBI, 2 K

Rusney Castillo, RF: 3-5, 1 2B, 1 CS

Tzu-Wei Lin, SS: 0-3, 2 BB, 2 R, 1 K

Josh Ockimey, 1B: 2-3, 2 BB, 2 R, 1 E

Cole Sturgeon, LF: 2-5, 2 R, 2 RBI

Juan Centeno, C: 3-5, 1 2B, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 K

Josh Smith: 5.2 IP, 12 H, 7 R, 1 BB, 1 K (88 pitches)

Ryan Brasier: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K (23 pitches)

Trevor Kelley: 1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K (23 pitches)

Pawtucket’s offense has been red-hot of late, and that continued on Monday even with Chris “Babe Ruth” Owings in the lineup. The big swings of the night came in the seventh with the game tied at seven apiece. Centeno knocked in the go-ahead run with a big ground-rule double before Hernández smashed a three-run show to give Pawtucket a four-run lead. Hernández has been swinging the bat well of late, with hits in five of his last seven games, multiple hits in four of them, homers in his last two and three of the last seven. On the mound, Brasier does seem to be settling down with three scoreless innings out of four.

Greenville L 6-7 (F/10)

Devlin Granberg, 1B: 1-4, 1 BB, 2 R

Kole Cottam, C: 2-4, 1 2B, 1 HR, 1 BB, 3 R, 2 RBI

Chase Shugart: 5 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 6 K (90 pitches)

Logan Browning: 2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 2 K (21 pitches)

This was a tough loss for the Drive, who had the lead heading into the eighth before Browning gave up a two-run double that tied the game and eventually sent it into extras. Browning, as you know if you read this daily, has quietly been a stud for Greenville this year but everyone has rough days here and there. If you’re looking for a positive to take away from him in this game, he did come back with a scoreless ninth after struggling in that eighth. More positively, Cottam’s bat is really showing up of late. He is now hitting .261/.380/.425 on the year.

GCL W 9-1

Dominic D’Alessandro, 1B: 1-5, 1 R, 2 K

Daniel Bakst, 2B: 2-4, 1 2B, 1 BB, 2 R

Matthew Lugo, DH: 3-5, 2 R, 2 RBI, 1 K

Oscar Rangel C: 3-5, 1 R, 4 RBI, 1 K

Jorge Rodriguez: 5 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 12 K

A couple of quick notes here. For one thing, Lugo is taking to pro ball quite well. He’s not dominating or anything, but that was never the expectation for a raw 18-year-old player. Still, he’s holding his own with a .284/.346/.419 line on the year. Rodriguez, meanwhile was absurd on the mound and now has three straight starts in which he hasn’t allowed an earned run. He has 20 strikeouts and two walks over 15 innings in that span, too. The lefty is 18 and pitched to a 3.41 ERA in the DSL last year. Also, I’ll take this opportunity to remind people not to look at pitch counts from complex leagues. They said Rodriguez threw 40 pitches in this start, all strikes. I doubt that’s true!

DSL 1 L 4-5

Albert Feliz, 1B: 2-4

Eduardo Lopez, CF: 2-4, 1 R

Nelfy Abreu, LF: 2-4, 1 R, 1 K, 1 SB

DSL 2 W 7-2

Bryan Gonzalez, RF: 1-3, 1 BB, 1 R, 1 RBI

Faysel Gregorio: 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K