Minor Lines 8/6/23: Sale a Strikeout Machine in Worcester

For those looking for a silver lining to this weekend’s thrashing by Toronto, perhaps the low point of the season in a must-win series, look no further, as the affiliates looked a bit better than the Major League team on Sunday. Emphasis on a little bit, which still absolutely counts. Let’s get into it, shall we?

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Worcester: L, 8-9 (BOX SCORE)

Worcester had a four-game winning streak against the Syracuse Mets snapped but still won the series, 4-2. The obvious line of note by just looking at the box score was Chris Sale going 4 ¹⁄₃ scoreless innings and giving up just three hits. He actually got to this point in the game on a 50-pitch limit; he threw 53, 38 of which were strikes. That’s a very good sign for a team direly needing a solution to how overworked their bullpen has been lately, but it would be good to see Sale go a bit longer into games.

It all came unraveled with Brian Van Belle in the game; he gave up five runs and two longballs in his 1 ²⁄₃ innings. Luckily, another longball by Trevor Story in the first inning and Dalbec’s 27th of the season in AAA kept this game competitive (side note: Dalbec played right field), as did Oddanier Mosqueda’s perfect two innings pitched. In the end, it was a walkoff line drive by Syracuse’s catcher Thomas Nido off Brendan Nail that ended this game.

No home run by Ceddanne Rafaela, snapping a five game streak, but he did contribute three hits and two RBI’s, so he was still a positive factor in this one.

Portland: W, 11-2 (BOX SCORE)

Conversely, Portland snapped a three-game losing streak against the Bowie BaySox (Orioles AA) by tallying 11 runs on 13 hits. Corey Rosier blew it open on a two-run shot to make it 5-1, and the Sea Dogs never looked back. The seventh was a big Tyler inning, as both Dearden and McDonough hit their seventh home runs of the season to aid a six-run inning by Portland. Add in another effective start by Isaac Coffey, who was able to go 100 pitches despite giving two home runs up and struck out seven, and recognize Wyatt Olds and Jacob Webb for not giving up any runs, and you have a good, effective, feel-good team win.

Greenville: W, 8-7 (BOX SCORE)

It wasn’t perfect, but the Drive also held onto a lead thanks to a fantastic sixth inning. This was despite a rough start that saw them go down 5-0 to the Rome Braves after 3 frames due to another poor outing by Angel Bastardo and a home run surrendered in a rehab appearance by Dan Altavilla. Luckily, in that sixth inning, the Rome pitching game completely imploded thanks to Allan Castro stealing home (!), culminating in a three-run shot by Eddinson Paulino. The Drive scored 7 of their 8 runs in this inning, and the bullpen was able to finish the job. The Drive continued striking out in droves, with 11 total K’s, but, hey, a win is a win.

Salem: L, 5-8 (BOX SCORE)

The Fredricksburg Nationals got to Noah Dean yet again in the first inning, taxing him for a home run, and three walks later, Dean was out ²⁄₃ of an inning into this one. This led Salem to have to use six pitchers. Despite the rough start, Salem fought valiantly all game, but ultimately kept losing the tie, including in the fifth, when they suffered two longballs given up by Royman Blanco, and fell to a walk-off three-run home run by Maxwell Romero, Jr. off of Salem closer Jonathan Brand. Given what happened at Fenway, though, I’ll take writing about two wins and two losses on the farm.

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Have a great Monday, everyone!