Red Sox Minor Lines: Five-hit games, dominant starts, and hit streak records

Worcester L 3-7

Yairo Muñoz, RF: 2-4, 1 RBI, 1 CS, 1 E

Jeter Downs, SS: 0-4, 3 K

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

Connor Seabold (SP): 6 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 10 K (85 pitches)

Durbin Feltman (H): 0.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 K (26 pitches)

Brandon Brennan (L; BS): 0.2 IP, 3 H, 5 R, 1 BB, 0 K (24 pitches)

Jose Adames: 0.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K (11 pitches)

This one was all about the starting pitcher for Worcester. Seabold’s outing was blown by the bullpen, and he didn’t get the kind of run support you would like to see, all of which prevented him from getting the win. We don’t really care about that here, though. What we care about is Seabold’s performance, and he was utterly dominant. In what was one of the best starts by any Red Sox minor-league pitcher all season, the righty showed that he has found his footing after missing significant time. This was just his second start in Triple-A, but for a Red Sox team that has plenty of issues in the rotation, don’t sleep on Seabold being a potential help there if the struggles continue. I wouldn’t expect that in the next turn through or anything, but at some point in a few weeks, if he builds on this start and keeps handling Triple-A lineups, it’s certainly a possibility. We should also give a shoutout to Muñoz, who picked up a hit in his 26th straight game, the longest streak in the Worcester (slash Pawtucket) franchise history.

Portland G1 W 5-2

Devlin Granberg, RF: 2-4, 1 2B, 1 R, 1 K

Pedro Casteallanos, LF: 1-3, 1 2B, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 K, 1 CS

Tyreque Reed, 1B: 0-2, 1 BB, 1 R, 2 K

Hudson Potts, 3B: 2-3, 1 RBI

Ronaldo Hernández, DH: 1-3

Jeisson Rosario, CF: 1-3, 1 RBI

Chris Murphy (SP; W): 6 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 8 K (94 pitches)

Joan Martinez (SV): 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K (15 pitches)

Portland G2 L 2-8

Devlin Granberg, RF: 1-3, 1 HR, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 K

Pedro Castellanos, DH: 0-3

Tyreque Reed, 1B: 1-3

Hudson Potts, 3B: 0-3, 2 K

Ronaldo Hernández, C: 0-3, 1 K

Jeisson Rosario, CF: 1-2, 1 BB, 1 K

Frank German (SP): 4.2 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K (84 pitches)

These were two extremely different games for the Sea Dogs, with Murphy making his debut and doing so in style. The lefty had some issues with the long ball earlier in the year, but he’d been striking batters out like crazy the last two months and the Red Sox wanted to give him an extended taste of Double-A before the season closed out. The first start made that look wise. He’ll be a bit overshadowed by Seabold for Wednesday’s stats, but Murphy deserves some shine as well and is turning into an intriguing arm, even with some command issues that still need to be worked out. Over in the second start, it was nice to see a big swing from Granberg, but it was mostly a disappointing day. With Murphy up in Portland, I’d really start considering moving German to a relief role at this point, because this doesn’t seem to be working.

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Greenville W 5-4

Christian Koss, SS: 1-4, 1 2B, 2 RBI, 2 K, 1 E

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

Tyler Dearden, LF: 0-3, 1 BB, 2 K

Brandon Howlett, 3B: 0-4, 2 K, 1 E

Joe Davis, 1B: 2-4, 1 2B, 1 HR, 2 R, 1 RBI, 2 K

Jaxx Groshans, DH: 2-4

Elih Marrero, C: 2-4, 1 R, 2 K, 1 SB

Brian Van Belle (SP): 4 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 4 K (78 pitches)

Yorvin Pantoja (W): 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K (31 pitches)

This was, if we’re being honest, a bit of a gift win for the Drive as they scored one run in each of their final two trips to the plate, with each coming home on a wild pitch. But there were some good things, starting with Davis. The big first baseman has been a revelation this year, absolutely dominating Low-A pitching before a promotion to Greenville. The former 19th round pick hasn’t really slowed down since then, blasting his fourth home run in his 15th game up while bumping his High-A OPS to 1.024. On the entire season, he is hitting .339/.380/.595. Van Belle was also solid, as he continues to be really solid all year. He hasn’t had a lot of standout performances start-by-start, but he generally has gotten the job done and is sitting with a 3.88 ERA on the year.

Salem L 6-9

Nick Yorke, 2B: 1-4, 1 R, 1 E

Gilberto Jimenez, CF: 5-5, 2 2B, 2 R

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

Ceddanne Rafaela, RF/SS: 0-4, 1 BB, 1 R, 1 K, 2 SB

Nicholas Northcut, 1B: 0-4, 1 BB, 1 R, 1 E

Jeremy Wu-Yelland (SP): 5 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 3 K (68 pitches)

You don’t see five-hit games everyday, and even as I write this I’m still struggling between picking Jimenez and Seabold for the Player of the Day. But focusing on the former, Jimenez came into the season as perhaps the most highly-anticipated prospect in the lower minors, and he was only fine to start the season. It certainly wasn’t to the point where you were wondering if he was still worth getting excited about, but especially in June he was just sort of middling. Well, he hit .295/.352/.400 in July, and he’s now got at least three hits in two of his three games in August. It looked like he’d spend his whole year in Salem, which isn’t too alarming for someone in his age-20 season, but now he’s swinging a hot enough bat that a cup of coffee in Greenville for September is not out of the question.

Player of the Day: Gilberto Jimenez

Player of the Day Chart