Saturday Pebble Report: Winkler's stock still climbing, Friedrich's stock still falling

With a double header Friday in Tulsa, there's a bonus game in today's Pebble Report.

Triple-A: Nashville 9, Colorado Springs 7

It was another rough outing for Christian Friedrich. He gave up four runs in on six hits and four walks in just 4.1 innings of work. Friedrich has now surrendered 16 earned runs in his last three starts and is drifting further down the Rockies' starting pitching depth board.

With some early offense on the board however, it was Chad Bettis who took the loss. After three strong outings out of the bullpen since being sent down near the end of April, Bettis slipped up last night and allowed two run in two innings of work on two walks and a hit. This looks like another disappointing outing for another guy trying to work his way back to the majors. However, it wasn't quite as bad as it looks on paper. Bettis fist entered the game in the fifth with traffic and successfully cleaned up a mess made by Friedrich. He then worked a scoreless sixth before allowing a couple of base runners when he was pulled in the seventh. Greg Burke, who replaced Bettis, then served up a three run homer that gave Nashville the lead for good.

Offensively, three Sky Sox had big days. Kyle Parker continued his hot May with three more hits including a pair of doubles to push his OPS for the month to 1.188. Jason Pridie (not a prospect) had two hits and four RBI - And Jackson Williams had two hits and a walk.

Double-A: Tulsa 4, Arkansas 0 / Arkansas 3, Tulsa 0

After Thursday's rain out, Tulsa played a pair of games on Friday with one game being considerably more interesting than the other for Rockies' prospect hounds.

In that first contest, Dan Winkler did it again. This time it was five scoreless innings with five strikeouts, two walks and just one hit. He was pulled after just 73 pitches, but the low pitch count hook has become somewhat common with Winkler which should be a sign that the Rockies are thinking about using him with the major league club later in the season and don't want to pile too many innings on his arm.

For the season, Winkler has only allowed only five earned runs in seven starts which is good for a 1.07 ERA. He's struck out 29.3% of the batters he's faced while walking 7.6% of them. What's also impressive is the fact that Winkler was facing the same lineup in Arkansas for the second game in a row and the third time in his last four starts. Our own Tyler Maun of Purple Dino Podcast discusses this and has several other interesting quotes from Winkler in this piece for MiLB.com.

In the second game, Carlos Hernandez struck out seven without walking anyone in just 3.2 innings, but he also allowed three earned runs in a game his team was shut out.

For the day, nobody in the Drillers lineup was able to put together two great games at the plate. Not a single player recorded a hit in both games, although Taylor Featherston picked up two walks in the first game and a hit in the second. Jayson Langfels had two base knocks in the first game, and Joey Wong and Brian Humphries had the only extra base hits of the day, both doubles in separate games.

High-A: Stockton 5, Modesto 2

This has been an extremely rough season for the Modesto Nuts who have now lost four in a row and seven of eight.

Ben Alsup, who has yet to win on the season and has a 6.20 ERA actually saw that number go on Friday as only one of the four runs he allowed was earned. However, he still walked five batters and gave up five hits to put his team in trouble. Particularly in Stockton's four run fourth inning.

Offensively, Trevor Story didn't play and only a couple of other Nuts fared well at the plate. Francisco hit a pair of doubles and Chris O'Dowd reached based twice with a pair of walks.

Low-A: Asheville 7, Lexington 4

As usual, the Tourist lineup came swinging their big sticks. David Dahl, who now has a .916 OPS in May continued to heat up with two hits and a walk, Patrick Valaika had a triple and an RBI, Ryan McMahon had another hit and a walk, and Correlle Prime had a pair of hits which included a double and an RBI. The attack was continuous throughout the game as Asheville scored in five of the nine innings.

On the mound, Johendi Jiminian quietly continued his very solid start to the season. He allowed two runs on two walks and five hits in five innings, but he also struck out a season high seven batters. Jiminian has now made seven starts this season and has not allowed more than two runs in any of them. For the season, the 21-year-old now has 29 strikeouts and 11 walks (although five of those came in one start) in 38.1 innings of work.