Worcester L 2-7
Danny Santana, 1B: 0-3, 1 BB, 1 R, 1 K
Yairo Muñoz, 3B/1B: 3-5, 2 K, 2 SB
Franchy Cordero, LF: 2-3, 1 2B, 2 BB, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 K, 1 SB
Marcus Wilson, RF: 1-5, 1 2B, 3 K
Jeter Downs, SS: 0-4, 2 K
Jonathan Araúz, 2B: 1-5, 1 SB
Connor Wong, C: 1-4, 1 RBI, 1 K
Stephen Gonsalves (SP; L): 6 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 9 K (106 pitches)
Brandon Brennan: 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 0 K (21 pitches)
Phillips Valdez: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 2 K (17 pitches)
Jose Adames: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K (12 pitches)
Worcester grabbed an early 1-0 lead in this game and was in it for most of the night, but Gonsalves had a tough sixth inning of work to put a damper on what would have been a great night and that put the game away. Overall, it was still a solid night for the starter, who has been up and down this year. Offensively, Santana got in there for a rehab appearance as he works his way back to the majors, and it must have woken Cordero up. The slugger has been in a bit of a mini slump, but he had a nice game here that can hopefully propel him to get back on a hot streak. And over in the bullpen, Adames continues a quietly great season for him, putting up a 2.33 ERA in Portland before coming up to Worcester and not allowing a run over his first four appearances.
Portland W 4-1
Jeisson Rosario, CF: 0-3, 1 BB, 1 CS
Pedro Castellanos, LF: 1-4, 1 RBI
Devlin Granberg, RF: 2-4, 1 HR, 2 R, 1 RBI
Tyreque Reed, 1B: 0-2, 2 BB, 1 K
Hudson Potts, 3B: 0-4, 3 K
Ronaldo Hernández, DH: 2-4, 1 HR, 1 R, 1 RBI
Jhonny Pereda, C: 2-4, 1 K
Frank German (SP; W): 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 5 K (98 pitches)
Alex Scherff (SV): 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K (25 pitches)
It’s kind of gotten lost in the shuffle for whatever reason, but this has not been a great season for Hernández. Coming over in an offseason trade, he put himself in the conversation with Connor Wong as the best catcher in the system. That profile was built on his bat, not his glove, but the offense hadn’t been there in a big way this year. That has started to change. His OPS is up to a solid .748 — it was down to .632 at the end of June — as he’s really gotten going in July. For the month, he’s hitting .412/.429/.794. As for the pitching, I’m officially in on Scherff. It’s been a great season, and it’s as if he’s only getting stronger.
Greenville W 8-3
Christian Koss, SS: 3-5, 1 2B, 2 R, 1 RBI
Cameron Cannon, 2B: 1-4, 1 2B, 1 BB, 1 R, 1 K, 1 SB
Brandon Howlett, DH: 1-4, 1 BB, 1 RBI, 2 K
Tyler Dearden, LF: 1-5, 1 RBI, 3 K
Nick Sogard, 3B: 2-3, 1 2B, 2 BB, 2 R, 1 RBI, 1 K
Dominic D’Alessandro, 1B: 2-5, 1 HR, 1 R, 2 RBI, 2 K
Chris Murphy (SP; W): 6 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 9 K (91 pitches)
Jacob Wallace: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K (14 pitches)
Greenville had this one in the bag all night, and we have to start with the guy on the mound. This was going to be an interesting start for Murphy, who had been on a hot streak coming into his last start before allowing six runs over five innings of work. He did give up a couple more homers as the long ball continues to be an issue — the lefty has given up eight homers in his last five starts — but beyond that it was a big night. His strikeout rate has been consistently up there for five starts in a row now as well, as he’s racked up 36 strikeouts over 27 2⁄3 innings. Meanwhile, Koss might be the hottest hitter in the whole system right now. This is his third straight game with at least three hits and fourth straight with multiple hits. Over the month of July, he’s hit .458/.509/.708.
Salem L 6-7
Nick Yorke, 2B: 1-3, 1 2B, 2 RBI
Gilberto Jimenez, LF: 1-5, 1 R, 2 K
Matthew Lugo, SS: 1-3, 1 BB, 1 R, 1 K, 1 E
Stephen Scott, 1B: 2-4, 2 2B, 1 R, 1 RBI, 2 K
Nick Decker, DH: 0-4, 1 RBI, 2 K
Ceddanne Rafaela, CF: 1-4, 1 2B, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 K
Nicholas Northcut, 3B: 2-4, 2 2B, 2 R, 1 K
Bradley Blalock (SP; L): 6 IP, 5 R, 2 BB, 2 K (62 pitches)
There’s not really a whole lot to say about this one. On the positive side of things, Scott and Northcut are both swinging hot bats and each smacked a pair of doubles on Friday. Northcut is someone we haven’t talked about a lot, but while he’s still struggling to string together singles he’s up to a .772 OPS, hitting .300/.391/.550 in July. More negatively, there was yet another error from Lugo, who’s up to 23 on the season, while Decker’s still struggling to find his footing after missing most of this season.
FCL
It seems they’re having some technical issues on the FCL website, and there is no box score to click on right now. The Red Sox won 6-3, and we’ll update this space if the issue is fixed.
DSL Red W 7-6
Allan Castro, CF: 3-5, 1 3B, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 SB
Enderson Lira, DH: 0-3, 2 BB, 1 K
Kelvin Diaz, RF: 2-5, 1 2B, 1 R, 2 K, 1 SB
Luis Ravelo, SS: 2-4, 1 BB, 1 R, 1 K, 1 CS
Kevin Garcia, 1B: 1-3, 1 HR, 1 BB, 2 R, 1 RBI
Starlin Santos (SP): 3 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 4 K
DSL Blue W 5-2
Juan Chacon, CF: 0-4
Ronald Rosario, C: 3-4, 1 R
Lyonell James, DH: 2-4, 1 2B, 1 RBI
Johnfrank Salazar, SS: 1-3, 1 2B, 1 BB, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 K
Alixandri Alvarez, 3B: 1-1, 2 BB, 1 RBI, 1 E
Jean Carlos Reyes (SP): 2.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 3 K
We’re still waiting to see the first of Miguel Bleis, the top signing from the most recent international signing period, down in the DSL. Not sure what’s going on there. As for the guys who did play, Rosario now has two four-hit games over his first four games as a pro. That’ll play. Garcia had the lone homer of the afternoon, and he got a small bonus from this most recent signing period. That was his first homer of the year. But the best performance went to Castro, who got a $100,000 bonus a couple of years ago but is just starting his career after last season was wiped out.
Player of the Day: Allan Castro