Red Sox Minor Lines: Triston Casas gets off the home run schneid

Worcester L 2-5

Jarren Duran, CF: 0-4, 2 K

Marcus Wilson, RF: 0-1

Franchy Cordero, 1B: 0-4, 3 K

Yairo Muñoz, 3B: 1-4

Jeter Downs, SS: 0-3, 1 K

Connor Wong, C: 1-3, 1 2B, 1 R

Jonathan Araúz, 2B: 0-2, 1 BB, 1 R, 1 K

Josh Ockimey, DH: 2-3, 1 2B, 2 RBI, 1 K

Raynel Espinal (SP): 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K (96 pitches)

Brandon Brennan (BS): 1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 1 K (35 pitches)

Matt Hall (L): 0.2 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 3 BB, 1 K (34 pitches)

Phillips Valdez: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K (18 pitches)

Kaleb Ort: 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 1 K (20 pitches)

This was a tough loss for Worcester, who got a little bit of early offense and held a 2-0 lead going into the sixth, but couldn’t hold it for Espinal. The starter did have a nice day to continue a solid season, though. He came over two winters ago as a minor-league Rule 5 pick from the Yankees, and while Ort has gotten much of the attention in that department — he was a minor-league Rule 5 pick from the Yankees this past winter — Espinal has a 3.49 ERA over 59 ¹⁄₃ innings. On the other side of the coin, Cordero has hit a little bit of a mini slump after tearing the cover off the ball immediately after his demotion. It’s not a terrible slum, to be fair, but he does have just five hits over his last six games. As for Wilson, he was hit by a pitch in the first and grounded out in the third before being taken out to start the fifth, so I’m not entirely sure what’s going on there but we’ll keep our ear to the ground.

Portland W 9-3

Pedro Castellanos, LF: 2-4, 1 2B, 1 BB, 2 R, 3 RBI

Triston Casas, 1B: 1-4, 1 HR, 1 BB, 1 R, 2 RBI

Joey Meneses, RF: 1-4, 1 HR, 1 BB, 2 R, 1 RBI

Hudson Potts, 3B: 2-5, 1 R, 1 K, 1 E

Ronaldo Hernández, DH: 1-5, 1 2B, 1 K

Ryan Fitzgerald, SS: 3-4, 3 2B, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 K, 1 SB

Devlin Granberg, CF: 3-5, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 K

Andrew Politi (SP; W): 5 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 4 K (93 pitches)

Alex Scherff: 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K (17 pitches)

Well, first of all it is very good to see that Casas left the yard last night. The top prospect’s power has been almost totally absent since he came back from playing with Team USA, and it was starting to raise some eyebrows. One homer won’t stop all of that concern, but it helps. But this was an overall great game, with a lot of players having big nights. Fitzgerald continues to look like he should get a shot at Triple-A, Castellanos is up to nine homers this season, while Granberg and Scherff are rolling even after their promotion. The former has an .866 OPS in 18 games since getting to Portland, while the latter has had a shorter time here but has not allowed a run over 3 ¹⁄₃ innings with four strikeouts and no walks. This is now eight wins in a row overall for the Sea Dogs.

Greenville L 4-11

Christian Koss, SS: 2-4, 1 HR, 1 R, 1 RBI, 2 K, 1 SB

Cameron Cannon, 2B: 1-4, 1 E

Tyreque Reed, 1B: 1-2, 1 BB, 1 R

Brandon Howlett, 3B: 1-4, 1 HR, 1 R, 2 RBI, 2 K

Tyler Dearden, LF: 1-4, 1 R, 1 K

Jaxx Groshans, DH: 1-3, 1 BB, 1 RBI

Brandon Walter (SP; L): 3.1 IP, 10 H, 9 R, 7 ER, 0 BB, 7 K (75 pitches)

Jacob Wallace: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K (12 pitches)

While Portland has been red-hot of late, Greenville has been struggling to get much going at High-A. This was another tough game, with Walter putting up a truly bizarre line. On the one hand, he struck out seven without issuing a walk over just 3 ¹⁄₃ innings. On the other hand, he gave up nine runs and 10 hits, three of which were homers. It’s hard to say how much of this was bad luck and how much was just him leaving balls over the plate, but ultimately it’s how he bounces back. Walter was great in Salem, particularly in two starts before being promoted, but his first two starts at Greenville have seen him get hit around a bit, even with 13 strikeouts and one walk over seven innings total. I’m really interested to see how things progress here.

Salem W 16-8

Gilberto Jimenez, LF: 1-3, 1 BB, 1 R, 1 RBI

Matthew Lugo, SS: 1-3, 1 2B, 1 BB, 3 R, 1 RBI

Stephen Scott, C: 3-5, 2 2B, 1 HR, 2 R, 8 RBI, 1 SB, 1 CS

Joe Davis, 1B: 1-3, 1 HR, 1 BB, 2 R, 2 RBI

Nick Decker, RF: 1-4, 1 2B, 1 BB, 2 R

Ceddanne Rafaela, CF: 1-5, 1 R

Nicholas Northcut, 3B: 0-2, 2 BB, 2 R, 1 K

Chih-Jung Liu (SP): 3 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 3 BB, 4 K (67 pitches)

Jordan DiValerio (W): 3 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 3 K (42 pitches)

Liu will be happy about this result, as he struggled a bit in his second start up in full-season ball but was picked up by a monster performance from the offense. Scott certainly led the way, smacking three extra-base hits including a grand slam to really break things open in the sixth. Scott, a 10th round pick from Vanderbilt in 2019, has really had a solid year, now hitting. 273/.392/.497. It’s interesting that he’s playing catcher, and while it’s probably not his future home if he does make it all the way to the majors, it’s nice to see some verstaility here. Davis is also ridiculous right now, but we knew that already.

Kelly O’Connor

FCL PPD

DSL Red L 4-8

Ahram Liendo, 2B: 1-2, 1 2B, 2 BB, 1 R

Allan Castro, CF: 1-4, 1 3B, 1 R, 2 RBI, 2 K, 1 E

Enderson Lira, C: 0-1, 1 RBI

Axel James, DH: 1-3, 1 3B, 1 R, 1 K

Luis Perales: 2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 3 K

DSL Blue W 7-2

Juan Chacon, RF: 1-2, 2 BB, 2 R, 1 K

Ronald Rosario, C: 3-4, 1 HR, 2 R, 4 RBI

Johnfrank Salazar, SS: 2-4, 1 RBI, 1 K, 1 SB

Alexis Hernandez, DH: 2-3, 1 BB, 1 R

Yizreel Burnet (SP): 2 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 5 BB, 0 K

Henry Morales (W): 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K

We were able to get both DSL teams in action on Wednesday for the first time this season. Chacon has looked good atop the lineup for both of his games thus far and is the most highly-regarded player in the lineup for either team in this one. Rosario had the biggest day, and while I don’t have much information I can say on my Little League team our best player was a catcher named Ronnie Rosario. I don’t think it’s the same guy though. And on the mound for the Red squad, Perales as a bit of a pop up name heading into last spring before everything got shut down. It was a decent start for him, and he’ll be a sleeper to watch down in the DSL this year.

---

Player of the Day: Stephen Scott

Player of the Day Chart