A Rockies affiliate was involved in the big minor league news last night, the second MiLB no-hitter in two days. Unfortunately, the AA Tulsa Drillers were on the receiving end of Angels prospect Ryan Brasier's no-no. It wasn't a great night for offense in the Rockies' organization, as the four affiliates combined for just four runs and one win.
Also, Jack Etkin reports that AAA starter Samuel Deduno has joined Christian Friedrich on the DL with elbow soreness that leaves the Sky Sox without three of their regular starters thanks to Jhoulys Chacin and Esmil Rogers being called up to the big club.
On the bright side, Fangraphs' minor league writer, Bryan Smith, had nice things to say about Colorado's 2008 4th round pick, RHP Ethan Hollingsworth. The picture that Smith paints of Hollingsworth is more optimistic than I have seen and only serves to make me more excited about his progress this year at Modesto.
On to last night's action...
Las Vegas 3, Colorado Springs 1
The Sky Sox (11-9, division leaders) got a decent performance out of 2005 supplemental first round pick RHP Chaz Roe, who went 7 IP and gave up three runs on seven hits, striking out three. Roe took the loss (1-3, 4.94) in large part because the Sky Sox were unable to get anything going on offense beyond a first inning RBI single by OF Matt Miller (2004 13th round). Mike Paulk (2005 13th round) had three of Colorado Springs' six hits, while recently demoted catcher Chris Iannetta went 0-4.
While there were obviously no offensive highlights for the Drillers (6-14, 6 GB) last night, they did receive a solid start out of lefty Keith Weiser (2006 3rd round), who went 6 IP and gave up two runs on seven hits but took the loss (1-2, 3.47) as Brasier tossed nine innings of bagels against the helpless Tulsa offense.
The Nuts (12-7, 0.5 GB) were unable to muster any offense against Giants affiliate San Jose beyond a Thomas Field (2008 24th round) 5th inning RBI double. Dan Houston (2008 7th round), who went 4.1 IP giving up three runs (one earned) on eight hits, took the loss (2-1, 4.12) while 2009 1st round lefty Rex Brothers threw a scoreless frame.
Bringing in the organization's only win of the day, the Tourists (9-12, 4.5 GB) scratched out two runs on five hits against Delmarva, which was just enough to win on a night in which Alan Deratt (2008 17th round), Sheng-An Kuo (2007 Taiwanese FA), and Charles Ruiz (2009 10th round) combined for a nice pitching performance, with Kuo (2-0, 2.81) taking the win with 4.2 IP of one-run relief.