Dbacks Minor League Round-Up 4/30: Barbosa Keeps Dealing

Visalia starter Andrew Barbosa continues to try and keep up with Archie Bradley's dominance of the California League as he posted another 6 innings of shutout baseball last night. All he allowed were 3 hits and 2 walks while striking out 7 in another Visalia win. The walks are still on the high side with 17 in 27 innings, which is keeping his K/BB rate from being upper crust. His 36 strikeouts ranks second in the league behind only Bradley. As we've mentioned before Barbosa is already 25 after missing two years in college to injury, but he's making up for lost time and his ceiling is not yet set. So we'll continue to monitor his progress going forward. Nothing but good vibes right now.

Around the horn, Reno got blasted yet again as Mets top pitching prospect Zach Wheeler held the Aces to just one run while a collection of Reno relievers got bounced around in a 10-2 loss. Mobile had the night off. Strong pitching from Barbosa and the relief corps led Visalia to a 3-1 win, their 11th straight home victory. South Bend improved their record to 16-6 as Jesse Darrah regained his earlier form and the offense cranked out another 17 hits, including 5 more by Brandon Drury.

Snake Stars
3 Stars: Brandon Drury, South Bend 5 for 6, 3 R, 1 DBL, 1 HR (1), 3 RBI
2 Stars: Andrew Barbosa, Visalia 6 IP, 3 H, 2 BB, 7 K, 0 ER, W (3-1)
1 Star: Jesse Darrah, South Bend 6 IP, 3 H, 4 BB, 8 K, 0 ER, W (2-1)
0 Stars: Evan Marshall, Reno 2/3 IP, 3 H, 1 BB, 1 K, 3 ER

Triple A: Reno 2 Las Vegas10. The Aces' woes continued in another ugly loss to drop their record to 8-18. Reliever Garrett Mock started and went 4 innings allowing 3 runs. A gaggle of relievers followed and allowed the game to become a rout with Joe Paterson and Evan Marshall the primary culprits. The offense could do little with Mets prospect Zach Wheeler who has had his own struggles in AAA but not last night. Ed Easley and Tyler Bortnick were the only bright spots with a pair of hits each.

Double A: Mobile - off day.

High A: Visalia 3 Modesto 1. Pitching was the order of the day as Andrew Barbosa had another outstanding start with 6 shutout innings. He has yet to have a poor start all season and is sporting a miniscule 1.33 ERA with 36 strikeouts in 27 innings. Reliever Seth Simmons pitched a scoreless 7th with 2 more strikeouts as he continues his fine season with a 0.68 ERA and a 6.0 K/BB. Jake Barrett struck out the side in the 9th for his 7th save and has yet to allow a run this season with 14 strikeouts and 2 walks in 9 innings of work. Tom Belza had a 3-hit night including his 3rd homer and Jake Lamb is getting reacclimated as he collected a pair of doubles.

Low A: South Bend 12 @ Wisconsin 3. Jesse Darrah bounced back quickly from a bad start last week with 6 shutout innings and 8 strikeouts in another South Bend blowout. The Silver Hawks offense continued to tear the cover off the ball with 17 more hits led by the unstoppable Brandon Drury who had 5 more hits last night. Drury has 24 hits in his last 10 games and has had 3 hits or more in 5 of those 10 games. Fidel Pena has had his bat in gear of late and picked up 2 more hits with 3 RBI and his 6th stolen base. Socrates Brito had 3 hits with a double and Michael Lang did the same.