No baseball team can win every game, right? To pick up your spirits, we have a night of solid performances on the farm from several of the team's top prospects, particularly the top young pitchers in the system. Yes, it was that day of the minor-league rotations when the top two prospects in the system both take the mound at Double-A Mobile and Hi-A Visalia, respectively. The #2 arm had a heck of a night, but due to both awesome performance and excitement over a potential turning-point in his recovery from Tommy John Surgery, I have to give today's SotD to...
Snakelet of the Day:
Jarrod Parker (Double-A): 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 6 K, 5:2 GO:AO, Balk
Triple-A: Reno 11, Tacoma 10. (31-22) Just another high-scoring day in the PCL. Kevin Mulvey had another bad outing, giving up six earned runs in six innings of work, with a 4:2 K:BB ratio and one homer allowed. Additionally, none of three relievers the Aces subsequently used managed to record scoreless appearances. However, the bats were alive tonight, led by an awesome display from Collin Cowgill, whose performance was worthy of SotD on any day that the top prospect in the system didn't have his best outing of the year. Cowgill went 4-5 with a double (his 11th of the year) and a home run (his ninth of the year), driving in three runs and scoring three times.
Double-A: Mobile 2, Mississippi 1. (28-24) The story of the night is Parker, who had his first scoreless outing of the year, as well as his first walk-less outing of the year, continuing to show signs of improved command and control in his return from surgery. Parker threw just 73 pitches on the night, and an impressive 51 of those pitches went for strikes. This is exactly the type of outing we've all been waiting for, and goodness is it encouraging to see. Still undeniably the team's best prospect, if this is truly a sign of things to come, there's little doubt that we'll see Parker hit the Show sometime late in the year, probably as a reliever to keep his innings down. No extra-base hits for the BayBears, but they did draw four walks and a hit-by-pitch from top Braves pitching prospect Randall Delgado to tack on a pair of runs. Your Daily Goldschmidt: Paul had a decent outing tonight, collecting no hits and striking out once in two at-bats, but drawing a walk and getting hit by a pitch.
Hi-A: Visalia 3, Bakersfield 4. (23-29) Another great night of peripherals from top prospect Tyler Skaggs, though the results weren't quite there to match. A 7:1 K:BB ratio and one solo homer allowed in seven innings of work typically does not add up to four earned runs allowed, but it seems that the Cal League is an unforgiving beast. Certainly nothing to be worried about. Visalia was on the receiving end of a complete game performance, though it was a much closer game than that phrase would lead one to believe. Visalia didn't collect an extra-base hit, but four bats - David Nick, Chris Owings, Matt Davidson, and Raoul Torrez - each reached base twice.
Low-A: South Bend 8, Cedar Rapids 0. (27-25) Another good outing from Patrick Schuster, though his six shutout innings masks a mediocre 4:3 K:BB ratio and a 3:5 GO:AO. Still, he was effective, and was followed by three scoreless innings of relief - two from Eury De La Rosa and one from Michael Bolsinger - to preserve the shutout. The top three hitters in the lineup - Ender Inciarte, Mike Freeman, and Zach Walters - had identical nights, each going 2-5 with a double, and Ramon Castillo hit his third home run of the season, a two-run shot, to lead the offensive explosion.
DSL: D-backs 2, Orioles 9. (1-2) 18-year-old Colombian starter Karl Triana had a solid outing for the DSL-backs, giving up two runs, both earned, in five innings while striking out three and walking just one. The loss went to 20-year-old power lefty reliever Jose Jose, though he actually had a decent outing, striking out two with no walks in two innings of work, and all three runs he surrendered were unearned. 19-year-old infielder Jesse Liriano had the only extra-base hit of the night, a triple.