Dbacks Minor League Round-Up 6/9: Spruill Tosses Shutout

Zeke Spruill tossed a complete game shutout at home against Colorado Springs yesterday, something you don't see every day in the PCL. After a rough patch in May after getting called up to Reno, Spruill has settled back down and held opponents to 13 hits and 4 walks in his last 17 innings. He still doesn't strike out many but he is certainly a groundball and sinkerball specialist. He induced 14 ground ball outs last night and added his own name to the list of candidates for a call-up if the Dbacks starting pitching continues to struggle. The list of candidates includes Randall Delgado, Spruill, Mike Bolsinger and Archie Bradley. Spruill has out-pitched Delgado so far, so if they don't look Bradley's way, Spruill might be first in line after last night's performance.

Snake Stars
3 Stars: Zeke Spruill, Reno 9 IP, 7 H, 1 BB, 2 K, 0 ER, W (2-3)
2 Stars: Chris Owings, Reno 3 for 5, 1 R, 1 HR (5), 1 RBI
1 Star: Matt Davidson, Reno 2 for 4, 1 R, 1 DBL, 1 HR (8), 1 RBI
0 Stars: Kyle Schepel, Visalia 3.2 IP, 10 H, 3 BB, 3 K, 12 R, 10 ER, L (2-5)

Triple A: Reno 4 Colorado Springs 0. Zeke Spruill was terrific with a complete game shutout on 123 pitches. The offense banged out 18 hits though just 4 runs. Chris Owings had 3 hits including his 5th home run. Matt Davidson had a double and a home run, his 8th. Davidson has his average up to .309 and is hitting .421 in his last 10 games with 6 doubles and 2 home runs. Juan Rivera went 4 for 4, Evan Frey went 3 for 3, and Tyler Kuhn hit a 2-run homer, his 1st.

Double A: Mobile 3 Tennessee 5. Andrew Chafin had another pretty good start going 6 innings allowing 3 runs on 5 hits and 3 walks with 4 strikeouts. Mobile tied it in the 8th on an RBI single by Mike Freeman. The game went to the 11th when Alexis Lara allowed 2 runs and the offense couldn't match it. Eric Smith and Blake Cooper each threw 2 shutout innings in relief. Nick Ahmed went 2 for 4 with 2 doubles and is 7 for his last 15 with 4 doubles.

High A: Visalia 5 Rancho Cucamonga 17. The Rawhide got killed as Kyle Schepel got shelled for the 4th consecutive game. He has allowed 33 runs in his last 4 starts. That might be the end of the line for him with the influx of drafted college pitchers about to be moving onto minor league rosters. Ryan Court, Tom Belza and Evan Marzilli each had 2 hits.

Low A: South Bend 0 @ Great Lakes 11. The Silver Hawks got shut out and the bad Jesse Darrah showed up allowing 7 runs in 4+ innings. The offense managed just 5 hits with Michael Lang getting 2.