Plus, Portland flounders without one of the Big Three in the lineup.
As the Red Sox rallied past old friend Nate Eovaldi and the Rangers in a Sunday afternoon slugfest, even with Alex Cora’s curious early pulling of Nick Pivetta, his words rang through the organization — that guys like Pivetta would rely on some bullpen performance to remain fresh, hopefully in October. One recently acquired pitching piece who may well be a candidate to eat some innings after he gets retooled a bit in Triple-A had a notable performance Sunday, and not in a good way. Triston Casas nears the end of his rehab stint and at least records a hit, and Blaze Jordan is back in the lineup. Plus, some lower prospects continue to rake as they have been for some time. Let’s get into it!
Worcester: L, 1-10 (F/8) (BOX SCORE)
Well, this is a game that is sure not to ease everyone’s concerns about trading Nick Yorke to the Pirates. Quinn Priester fumbled massively in his organizational debut, giving up four runs to the Bisons (Blue Jays AAA) in the first inning after loading the bases without recording an out, and then wasn’t able to get out of the third inning unscathed. At the time of Priester’s exit, the WooSox were down 8-1… and then fellow trade deadline acquisition Yohan Ramirez gave up a home run to Joey Votto in the sixth to put the cherry on top. The eventual rain acted like a mercy rule, as Casas, Vaughn Grissom and former Blue Jay Tyler Heineman were the only three WooSox to record hits on the day. Some days you don’t have it; for Worcester, and Priester, Sunday was one of those days.
Portland: L, 5-3 (BOX SCORE)
As Marcelo Mayer reaches the halfway point of his 7-day IL stint with hip irritation, Kyle Teel and Kristian Campbell could not carry the Sea Dogs to a win against the SeaWolves (Tigers AA) Worth a note: one prospect called up recently in the flurry of deadline moves was Abraham Liendo, who pinch hit for Portland and at least wasn’t the 12 Sea Dogs sat down on strikes on the day, including Roman Anthony’s three Ks in the leadoff spot. At least Blaze Jordan is also back in action and notched his 44th RBI of the season.
Greenville: W, 14-9 (BOX SCORE)
The Drive were flying around the basepaths Sunday against the Blue Rocks (Nationals High-A) with 14 hits and 6 more walks. Most notably, Mikey Romero continues to absolutely mash, as he opened up the contest with his tenth home run since his call-up and third in just a few days. So, too, did Ronald Rosario, with two of his own. Twenty-nine total bases on the day is pretty good, right? Also, special shout-out to a bullpen that strengthened up once Hayden Mullins got knocked out after three innings to strand a dozen Blue Rocks and make it so that 14 runs scored was enough to win this offensive battle.
Salem, Game 1: W, 5-2 (BOX SCORE)
The Nelly Taylor game? Perhaps, as three singles proved instrumental in this early win, as Freli Encarnacion knocked him in twice. The rest of Salem’s runs were circumstances of Kannapolis (White Sox A) not having as cool as a defense as their logo, as the Cannonballers committed three errors in the seven frames.
Salem, Game 1: W, 4-3 (BOX SCORE)
Game two was a bit more of a nail-biter, as no offense was accounted for by either side until the bottom of the fourth. Salem was actually scoreless until the sixth, as that man Nelly Taylor was part of a big rally with the first hit (though third baserunner…) of a series of six consecutive plays where runners advanced, and even stole a base to later score to keep that active streak alive. As Kannapolis threatened with two runs in the final inning, it again proved extremely helpful. Salem finishes out the week 4-2 despite having serious defensive flaws of their own which will hopefully be mitigated as these guys get more time on the diamond.
Have a happy Monday, everyone!