Dbacks MiLB Round-Up 4/30: Lamb Heating Up

Mobile third baseman Jake Lamb is starting to get on a bit of a roll lately as he went 2 for 4 with his 4th home run last night in Mobile's 8-3 win. With Owings about to lose his prospect status Lamb is now probably the organization's top position prospect. He got off to an extremely cold start with his first taste of AA pitching and some were starting to think that Visalia's Brandon Drury might be on the brink of passing Lamb by as the team's third baseman of the future. But Lamb should be given a little slack on the cold start getting adjusted to the huge jump in pitching talent from High A to AA. In Lamb's last 10 games he has a triple slash of .313/.410/.625 and more importantly he's cut way down on his strikeouts with only 5 in his last 35 at bats. It's kind of important for Lamb to have a good season so he can possibly be moved up to AAA and perhaps even the majors by year's end and Drury can get promoted to AA. The Dbacks don't have a lot of high level hitting prospects threatening to hit the majors so it would mean a lot if the few that are getting close can actually arrive at some point.

Snake Stars
3 Stars: A.J. Schugel, Mobile 6 IP, 3 H, 2 BB, 5 K, 1 R, 0 ER, W (2-0)
2 Stars: Jamie Westbrook, South Bend 2 for 4, 1 R, 1 DBL, 1 HR (1), 2 RBI
1 Star: Jake Lamb, Mobile 2 for 4, 1 R, 1 HR (4), 1 RBI
0 Stars: Eury De La Rosa, Reno 0 IP, 2 H, 2 BB, 1 HBP, 5 R, 3 ER, L (0-1)

Triple A: Reno 1 @ Las Vegas 6. Reno was engaged in a pitching duel (of sorts) through 6 innings until Eury De La Rosa came on and got tattooed in the 6th for 5 runs. New acquisition Lucas Harrell got the start and went 4 innings allowing just 1 run though he did allow 4 hits and walked 6 while striking out 7. The offense only came up with 6 hits, 2 from Alfredo Marte and 2 from Mike Jacobs.

Double A: Mobile 8 @ Birmingham 3. A.J. Schugel was very sharp and the offense came up with 5 runs in the 2nd and 3 in the 3rd to make this one a blowout. Schugel went 6 innings allowing an unearned run on 3 hits and 2 walks while striking out 5. Sean Jamieson delivered the biggest blow, a 3-run homer in the 2nd. Jake Lamb went 2 for 4 with his 4th homer and David Peralta went 2 for 4 with a double and 2 RBI.

High A: Visalia 3 @ Lake Elsinore 4. The Rawhide lost another one-run game, this time in walk-off style in 10 innings. They trailed 3-0 before tallying single runs in the 7th, 8th and 9th innings to tie it. Andrew Barbosa was activated off the disabled list and got the start though he was probably on a strict pitch count as he was removed in the 3rd inning after throwing 46 pitches. He struck out 4 and allowed an unearned run on 2 hits and a walk. Brandon Drury had a pair of doubles and Alex Glenn went 2 for 4 with a double and 2 runs scored to lead the offense.

A: Game 1. South Bend 0 @ Bowling Green 4. Braden Shipley started and got roughed up pretty good allowing 4 runs on 9 hits and 3 walks over 5 innings while striking out 5. The offense managed just 1 hit, a single by Zach Esquerra.

A: Game 2. South Bend 7 @ Bowling Green 13. The offense cranked it up a little in Game 2 of the doubleheader but the pitching was pretty awful. Blayne Weller and Jose Jose combined to surrender 11 earned runs in a little over 3 innings on 14 hits and 3 walks that included 4 home runs. Zach Esquerra hit a 2-run homer in the 4th, his second in as many days, and Jamie Westbrook blasted his 1st homer of the year, a 2-run shot in the 6th that made the game mildly interesting. J.R. Bradley added another shutout inning of relief, keeping him perfect on the season.