Yesterday I was wishing for an Archie Bradley outing not unlike Andrew Barbosa's. Well, that's exactly what we got, only better. Six innings, 4 hits, 1 walk, 6 Ks and 1 earned run? Works for me. That's two good starts in a row for Bradley with the most important element being low walk totals. In his last 11 innings covering those two starts he has 3 walks and 14 strikeouts. That's the kind of progress you want to see from one of your top prospects. I'd like to see him run through the rest of the second half with a bunch of starts like that one. I don't see any real need to move him up either even if he does continue like that. A nice solid first full season of baseball is all he needs right now, then look at putting him in Visalia next year and go from there. Both Mobile and Visalia were rained out yesterday and have doubleheaders scheduled for today. There will be a lot of games to write about tomorrow so guys better bring their A games if they want to earn some Snake Stars.
Snake Stars
3 Stars: Archie Bradley, South Bend 6 IP, 4 H, 1 BB, 6 Ks, 1 ER
2 Stars: Stryker Trahan, AZL 2 for 3, 2 BB, 1 R, 1 TPL, 1 HR (3) 5 RBI
1 Star: Roidany Aguila, South Bend 3 for 5, 3 R, 2 DBL, 1 HR (3), 4 RBI
0 Stars: Ben Eckels, AZL 3.1 IP, 5 H, 6 BB, 2 K, 6 ER
Game summaries after the jump.
Triple A: PCL All Stars 3 IL ALL Stars 0. Thought I'd pass along a few details from our four AAA All Star performers from Wednesday night. Our three Aces hitters started and led off batting 1, 2, 3 in the All Star lineup just like they do for Reno. Adam Eaton and Jake Elmore led off the game with back-to-back singles which brought Ryan Wheeler to the plate. Unfortunately he struck out. But Eaton scored on a sacrifice fly and Elmore scored on a single by Wil Meyers. Jonathan Albaladejo closed out the game for the save getting the last two batters on a ground out and a strikeout. Eaton went 1 for 3, Elmore went 1 for 2 and Wheeler went 1 for 3. Pretty good showing from our guys.
Low A: South Bend 9 @ Kane County 1. Bradley was very sharp, especially with his control, and the Silver Hawks cruised to a 9-1 win. C Roidany Aguila was the hitting star with 2 doubles, his 3rd homer and 4 RBI. Tom Belza also had 3 hits with a double and an RBI.
High Rookie: Yakima 8 @ Salem-Keizer 5. Not much pitching to talk about as starter Kyle Owings wasn't quite as sharp in his second professional start. He allowed 5 hits and 3 walks for 3 ER in 3.1 innings, though he did strike out 5. The Yakima offense mounted two big innings with 5 in the 5th and 3 in the 7th to overcome the shaky pitching. Mark Ginther had 3 hits with a double and an RBI and Kevin Medrano had a single, a double and 2 RBI. Jimmy Comerota hit a 3-run homer in the big 5th inning, his 1st of the year.
Low Rookie: Missoula 3 Grand Junction 4. Yoimer Camacho pitched the Osprey into position to win with 5 sparkling innings of 1-run baseball in which he allowed 4 hits and walked none while striking out 7. But the bullpen couldn't hold it as Patrick Smith surrendered a 2-run game-tying homer in the 8th and Chase Stevens gave up a game-winning solo shot in the 9th. Michael Perez had a pair of hits with a double and an RBI. Pedro Ruiz and Jake Lamb each added a pair of singles.
AZL Rookie: Dbacks 17 @ Indians 15. Absolutely no pitching in this one worth discussing. But the bats were alive led by 1st-round pick Stryker Trahan who clubbed a triple and a home run for 5 RBI. Free agent signee Brian Billigen had 4 hits with a double, a triple and 3 RBI. 2nd-rounder Jose Munoz had 3 hits as did Ryan Fuller. Four other D-backs had 2 hits in the 21-hit attack.