Minor Lines 9/20/23: Farm Imitates Life

With Portland’s season over, Greenville winning the High-A championship, and Boston kicking around a .500 dream before stalling the engine, there’s not much to look to in the minor league system. You want to know about a bunch of guys who have MLB service time this season struggle to get outs against Philadelphia’s farm team? Well, it’s the last week of the season, so why not?

Worcester: L, 1-12 (BOX SCORE)

As stated, this game did not go well for Brian Van Belle, who’s been struggling since being called up to Triple-A. It took him 88 pitches to get to the point where he had two outs in the fourth; walks muddled him all night. Oddanier Mosqueda looked even worse in his inning and a third, having almost an identical line as Brian Van Belle in 33% of the time. Zack Kelly finished out the fifth allowing some runs of his own, and it was 8-0 at the end of that frame. The WooSox got some hits, sure, but they were unable to do much with opportunities with men on base (sound familiar?) as they left 12 stranded across eight hits for just one run, a Niko Kavadadas double. Nick Sogard went 0-for-5 and had a throwing error which resulted in a run. Bradley Zimmer struck out three times. It was just an ugly performance against the Iron Pigs in Allentown, and it symbolized the end of the season that’s pretty sorely needed across the organization (but not in Greenville.)

There’s just one Minor Lines assignment I have left, the last game of the 2023 campaign, so I wanted to take this opportunity to say I appreciate everyone who’s kept up with my lines this season. Have a happy Thursday!