Red Sox Minor Lines: Chih-Jung Liu shines for Greenville

Worcester PPD

Portland W 6-5 (F/10)

David Hamilton, 2B/SS: 0-4, 1 BB, 1 R, 2 K

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

Devlin Granberg, CF: 3-5, 1 2B, 1 3B, 2 R, 1 RBI

Tyler Dearden, LF: 0-2, 2 BB, 1 R, 1 RBI

Jay Groome (SP): 0.1 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 3 BB, 0 K (25 pitches)

Dylan Spacke: 3.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K (51 pitches)

Brendan Nail: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K (37 pitches)

Jacob Wallace: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K (21 pitches)

Frank German (W): 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K (13 pitches)

It was a thrilling win for fans in Portland, with Kole Cottam walking it off with a fielder’s choice, but it’s hard not to first look at that line for Groome. The Sea Dogs’ pitching has been incredible so far this season, but Groome simply did not have it in this game. The good news is it wasn’t injury that knocked him out so early, but the bad news is it was poor performance. There’s really not much you can say about this kind of game, but it’s always interesting to see how a pitcher responds their next time out. For Groome, it should be against the same team to make things even more interesting. On the positive side, it’s a nice showing for Granberg leading the way offensively, and Spacke keeping the game in hand after Groome’s outing.

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Greenville W 5-4

Tyler McDonough, LF: 1-4, 1 HR, 1 R, 1 RBI, 2 K

Ceddanne Rafaela, CF: 1-3, 1 BB, 1 K

Nick Yorke, 2B: 1-3, 1 BB, 1 R, 2 K

Alex Binelas, 1B: 1-3, 1 HR, 1 BB, 1 R, 2 RBI, 2 K

Matthew Lugo, SS: 0-4, 1 E

Gilberto Jimenez, RF: 0-3, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 CS

Nicholas Northcut, 3B: 1-3, 1 HR, 1 BB, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 K

Stephen Scott, C: 2-4, 1 2B, 1 HR, 1 R, 1 RBI

Chih-Jung Liu (SP): 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 9 K (75 pitches)

Ryan Zeferjahn (BS): 1 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 2 BB, 1 K (32 pitches)

Jordan DiValerio (W): 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K (26 pitches)

There was good stuff on both sides of the ball for Greenville in this game, with Liu really impressing in this start. His assignment to Greenville surprises me after only getting 12 decent starts at Salem last season, but he couldn’t have been much better in his second start of the season. The strikeout stuff is really intriguing here, and when he has the command like he apparently had in this game, he can surprise people. For me, I knew the talent was in there for these kinds of flashes, but this year is going to be about consistency. I think he could surprise people this season after a mostly quiet 2021. At the plate, the offense smashed four homers on the day, including Binelas hitting his fourth of the season. He still has a strikeout rate approaching 30 percent, which scares me, but the power is very real and very loud.

Salem L 2-11

Eddinson Paulino, 2B: 1-4, 1 3B, 1 RBI, 1 E

Marcelo Mayer, SS: 1-4, 2 K

Blaze Jordan, DH: 0-4

Niko Kavadas, 1B: 1-4, 2 K

Nathan Hickey, C: 1-4, 1 K

Kier Meredith, LF: 2-2, 1 R, 1 SB

Juan Daniel Encarnacion (SP; L): 4 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 BB, 7 K (71 pitches)

Not a whole lot to say about this game, as the offense was mostly lackluster while Encarnacion struggled a bit with command though did miss an impressive number of bats. It’s worth mentioning that Jordan is now hitting just .143/.268/.286 on this young season. He could really use a big game at some point this week to snap out of this funk.

Player of the Day: Chih-Jung Liu

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