Saturday Pebble Report: Tulsa wins in a walk off

The affiliates went 4-3 on the night. Let's dive into some of the details.

Triple-A: Iowa 16, Colorado Springs 3

Each of the first three pitchers in this game for the Sky Sox got torched. Pedro Hernandez started off the night by allowing eight hits and five runs in just 3.1 innings, then Manny Corpas came in and allowed an additional seven hits and six runs in 2.2 innings of work, and finally Greg Burke came in for two innings in which five more runs crossed the plate. The only clean outing of the night came from Chris Martin who worked a three up, three down ninth, including a strikeout of Cubs' top prospect Kris Bryant who hit three hits (two doubles) earlier in the game.

Offensively, the Sky Sox racked up nine hits but nobody had a real huge offensive night. Ben Paulsen might be the only exception there with a 2-4 showing including a double which continued his excellent season.

Double-A: Tulsa 1, San Antonio 0 (14 innings)

In the bottom of the 14th inning, one of the most overlooked Rockies' prospects hit a walk off home run to break a scoreless deadlock. Taylor Featherston, who now has a .767 OPS as a middle infielder in the Texas League, lined a ball over the left field wall for his ninth jack of the season to send the Drillers home victorious. Not only were the Drillers shut out up to this point, but they only had two at bats all night with runners in scoring position. Also, in his first game after the call up, Trevor Story went 0-5 with three strikeouts.

On the mound, it was nearly a staff wide effort of strong pitching. Carlos Hernandez started the game and worked six scoreless, and then Nelson Gonzalez and Kraig Sitton each worked two clean innings. Ken Roberts then worked the 11th though 13th to hold the game scoreless and then Nate Striz got the win for throwing up a zero in the 14th. It's pretty funny to see all this good pitching for the Drillers in a game that doesn't involve Eddie Butler, Jon Gray, Dan Winkler, or Tyler Anderson who have headlined this team all season long.

High-A: Modesto 14, High Desert 7

This game was the complete opposite of the one the Drillers played. At the end of five innings, the score was actually 14-1 in favor of the Nuts. It would be easier to tell you which starters didn't have a multi-hit game. Chris O'Dowd hit his fourth home run of the season and raised his June OPS to .856, Rosell Herrera had four hits including three doubles, and Will Swanner, Dean Espy, Michael Tauchman, and Derek Jones all had a pair of knocks.

Matt Flemer got the win spinning six innings of three run baseball which included seven strikeouts and just one walk. Over his last eight starts, Flemer has a 3.61 ERA and hasn't walked more than two in any of those outings.

Low-A: Asheville 8, Greensboro 1

Another night, another offensive explosion for the Tourists. The top of the lineup was particularly involved in the attack. David Dahl had two hits and a walk, Michael Benjamin hit his seventh home run of the season, Raimel Tapia went 3-4 to raise his season OPS to .826, and Ryan McMahon had another two hit game.

Konner Wade had his second consecutive strong start, working 7.1 innings while allowing just one run.

Northwest League: Tri-City 7, Vancouver 6

This game went from a 1-0 pitching duel though five and exploded offensively late. Ryan Warner made his third start for the Dust Devils and the 20-year-old made it though six innings while only allowing one run. The problem however is that he walked five and only struck out one.

Drew Weeks had a perfect day at the plate going 4-4 with two doubles and a walk.

DSL: Mets 4, Rockies 1

The DSL Rockies were held to just six hits but two guys recorded five of them. Ramon Marcelino, who at 17 is rapidly turning into someone on my radar, went 3-4 which included a double and a triple. Jose Gomez went 2-4 and had the only other extra base hit of the game for the Rockies.

On the mound, Juan Pena allowed two runs for his second consecutive outing and Yohander Quintana, who has a 1.04 ERA allowed a run for the first time all season.

Rookie: Idaho 9, Grand Junction 0

Talk about getting spanked! Grand Junction made twice as many errors (four) as they recorded hits (two). Nothing about this game is worth remembering. No Rockies pitcher went more than three innings, and Alec Kenilvort, who has a 13.50 ERA on the season, was the only one to have a scoreless outing.

Saturday Probables

The most important probable today won't be on the mound. Nolan Arenado is schedule to begin a rehab assignment with the Sky Sox against the Cubs in Colorado Springs.

Sky Sox: Brett Tomko (4-3, 4.17)

Drillers: Ryan Kulik (0-0, 5.14)

Nuts: Ryan Carpenter (2-3, 3.35)

Asheville: Johendi Jiminian (8-4, 4.26)

Dust Devils: Helmis Rodriguez (2-0, 1.04)

Grand Junction: TBD