Rockies Prospects: Carlos Gonzalez and Brett Anderson have encouraging rehab starts, Asheville offense goes nuclear ... again

Colorado Springs Sky Sox 6, Round Rock Express 4: Anderson, Cargo look to regain health

They tried to make them go to rehab and they said ... yes yes yes!

Carlos Gonzalez hit a double and a three-run home run in his first rehab start for the Colorado Springs Sky Sox. While these types of games are usually measured entirely by how healthy the player looks and we are oft told to avoid reading anything into results, it's still nice to hear about Carlos Gonzalez having multi-hit days and going yard.

Cargo has a lot to prove upon his return to those he think he may be done or that he is somehow the most exendable piece to this team. If it turns out his health was the primary contributing factor to his poor play, the Rockies could be adding one of the best players in all of baseball back to the team very soon.

Offensivley, Ben Paulsen also went 2-5 with a home run and Kyle Parker had one hit in four attempts.

In other incredibly encouraging news, Brett Anderson (who was also supposed to be a major contributor this year) pitched 5.2 innings of solid baseball without breaking!

Anderson gave up six hits, a run, a walk, and struck out four. He threw only 77 pitches, 49 for strikes and according to reports felt fine after the game. Please come back to us, you guys.

Even Christian Friedrich got in on the action in this one, relieving Anderson for the final 3.1 innings of the game and picking up the save even though he gave up three runs on eight hits. He did strike out four.

Asheville Tourists 11, Rome Braves 1: An offensive onslaught from a parade of PuRPs

Let's all move to Asheville to watch some fun baseball.

Everyone in the lineup for the tourists other than Max White grabbed a hit in this one for a total of fifteen, seven of which were doubles.

David Dahl and Michael Benjamin each went 3-5 with two doubles bringing their season batting averages to .301 and .329 respectively. Raimel Tapia only got one hit on the day but it was the biggest one in a double that cleared the bases for his team leading three RBI in the game. Ryan McMahon added two hits and (of course) a double of his own.

In case you thought doubles were the only thing on the menu, outfielder Jordan Patterson who has been absolutely on fire lately was a menace in the box, smacking a two-run home run.

Over his last month (26 games) Patterson is hitting .365/.429/.625 good for a 1.054 OPS and a 185 wRC+. During that time he has five home runs, ten doubles, and seven stolen bases.

Konner Wade has another strong outing on the mound, keeping the scoreboard clean through seven innings of work on five hits, three walks, and two strikeouts.

Tulsa Drillers 5, Corpus Christi Hooks 6: Humphries, Simon not enough

Two players had all the RBI for the Drillers in a tough loss. Brian Humphries was 2-4 with a double and four RBI, knocking in the table setters Christian Adames (once) Taylor Featherston (twice) and Ryan Casteel (once). Other than that, the only offensive production came from a Jared Simon solo home run.

Trevor Story was 0-2 but he did draw two walks.

Richard Castillo pitched 4.2 innings giving up five runs and Cole White would be saddled with the loss giving up the game winner in the ninth.

Modesto Nuts 9, Bakersfield Blaze 8:The Nuts won!

The Modesto Nuts won a baseball game where the other team scored eight runs (including seven in one inning!) on the strength of the middle of their lineup.

Michael Tauchman went 3-4 out of the three spot, with a double, an RBI, two runs scored and a walk. Jordan Ribera followed him up with a 3-5 performance, adding a two-run home run, and two runs scored.

Sean Dwyer also had himself a day out of the eighth spot in the lineup, going a perfect 2-2 with three RBI, including a two-run homer. All told, the Nuts tallied 14 hits and nine runs and would need all of them.

Ben Alsup got the start and it was an ugly one, giving up all eight runs (though like I mentioned seven of them came all at once) and get this ... only one of them was earned.

Fielding errors were charged to Juan Ciriaco, Derek Jones, and Pat Valaika. Valaika did go 1-5 with an RBI, but he also struck out three times.

The Nuts bullpen was very good and needed to be starting with Peter Tago. Tago pitched 2.1 scoreless, hitless innings, striking out three. Jon Keck gave up one hit, but that was it for the pen as he worked a clean inning otherwise, and Rayan Gonzalez wrapped up the save.