Minor Lines 8/22: Portland Wins as Rest of Farm Wallows in Big Innings and Errors

Woo Sox vs. Rochester Red Wings (Nationals)

L, 8-7

Hoo boy this isn’t how you want to see things go down.

Leading 7-1 in the bottom of the ninth, Worcester somehow gave away the game. It was the 15^th time this season that Worcester was on the wrong side of a walk-off at-bat.

Worcester had a big second inning, scoring five runs. Niko Kavadas and Bobby Dalbec bookended the inning with RBI singles, while David Hamilton exploded for a three-run home run. Cedanne Rafaela was 2-4 on the night with a stolen base.

Brandon Walter started and had a typically strong outing since being sent down from the majors. His line: 5 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 6 SO, 1 BB. In his five starts with Worcester, his ERA is 1.47. Justin Hagenman and Joe Jacques were both frugal, allowing no runs.

It was Justin Garza and Cam Booser who combined to give away the game in the ninth. Garza allowed five runs in, including a three-run home run. Booser gave up the walk-off two-run home run that sealed the deal, taking the blown save as well as the loss.

Portland Sea Dogs vs. Richmond Flying Squirrels (Giants)

W, 4-2

Everyone looked good tonight in Double A. The Sea Dogs combined for 13 hits, with Nick Yorke (2-3, 2 RBI, 13-game on-base streak), Corey Rosier (3-3, 1 BB), Tyler McDonough (3-4) and Matthew Lugo (2-4) having multi-hit nights. Chase Meidroth was one of only two Sea Dogs without a hit, though he did draw a walk.

Hunter Dobbins pitched seven innings, striking out six and walking three. Relievers Wyatt Olds and Luis Guerrero chipped in a scoreless two innings, with Guerrero picking up his league-leading 18th save.

Greenville Drive vs. Hickory Crawdads (Rangers)

L, 13-5

“It got ugly, early.”

That’s what I wrote exactly one week ago about the Drive (when they allowed five runs in the first inning).

It was true then, but it might be truer now: the Drive allowed 13 runs through four innings and drove their losing streak all the way to seven games. Once again, it was Juan Daniel Encarnacion on the mound for the shellacking and his final line of the evening was: 3.2 IP, 12 ER, 10 H, 4 K. Brutal.

But he doesn’t bear full responsibility; only seven of the 12 runs that scored on Encarnacion’s watch were earned. Because of all the errors!

There were four errors on the night: a throwing error by Kyle Teel, a pickoff attempt gone wrong by Encarnacion, and fielding errors by Roman Anthony and Eddinson Paulino (that’s number 14 on the season for Paulino).

Allan Castro hit a home run and was 3-for-5 on the night. Teel was 1-4 with a sac fly to score a run.

Salem Red Sox vs. Fredericksburg Nationals (Nationals)

L, 6-2

Well, if you thought the errors by the Drive were egregious in quantity, buckle up.

The Salem Red Sox embarrassed themselves with six against the Nationals, especially Enderso Lira at catcher, who put up three all on his own (two throwing errors and one catcher interference). Because there’s plenty of blame to go around, the other errors belonged to Jose Ramirez (pickoff gone wrong), Luis Ravelo (fielding), and Jhostynxon Garcia (throwing).

The minors are a time for learning, but let’s hope players are learning to cut down on errors before arriving at the big-league level. I can’t take much more of the MLB Sox’s porous defense.

Ravelo hit 2-3. Jhostynxon Garcia was 1-5 with a strikeout.