Saturday Pebble Report: Senzatela continues to take steps forward

Triple-A: Nashville 2, Colorado Springs 1 & Colorado Springs 1, Nashville 0

The Sky Sox played a pair of stunningly low scoring games in the friendliest hitting ballpark on Earth. Jair Jurrjens started the first contest and was actually in line for a 1-0 win after his five scoreless innings of work. He wouldn't get it however as Brooks Brown allowed two earned runs in the sixth inning. The offense managed just four hits all evening, two of which were doubles off the bat of Tim Smalling.

Leuris Gomez and Juan Nicasio combined for seven shutout innings in the second game of the double header, but neither ended with impressive peripherals as they combined to strikeout six and walk four. Once again, the offense was held mostly quiet with the exception of Rafael Ynoa who had a pair of hits and continued his mini hot streak.

Double-A: Northwest Arkansas 4, Tulsa 3

After struggling significantly with his call up to Tulsa, Trevor Story is finally starting to show signs of why he's a top five PuRP. For the fourth time in his last five games, Story recorded a pair of hits. This time it included a home run in the fourth which gave the Drillers a 3-0 lead at the time and pulled Story's OPS with Tulsa over .700. Another hot bat continues to be Ryan Casteel. He relieved Will Swanner behind the dish in the middle of the game but still recorded a hit and a walk. Since the start of June, Casteel has a .932 OPS and is looking more and more like a guy who can help the the big club by the second half of next season.

On the mound, Richard Castillo was unable to hold the lead and ended with a line of three earned runs in 5.2 innings. Kraig Sitton later got the loss after allowing a run in the eighth inning.

High-A: Visalia 2, Modesto 0

The Nuts were completely shut down in this one, managing just two hits all night. David Dahl continued his rough stretch of games since being called up to High-A with an 0-4 effort, and Patrick Valaika had his hot streak halted with a hitless night.

Overall, the Nuts pitched well but most of that came from their bullpen. Tyler Gagnon started the game and got through three innings of two run baseball, but Alving Mejias and Shane Broyles combined for five shut out innings which included six strikeouts and no walks.

Low-A: Asheville 11, Greensboro 10 (13 innings) & Asheville 6, Greensboro 1

The first of the two games was a resumption of Thursday's suspended game and it was absolutely wild. Five different Tourists went yard: Wilfredo Rodriguez, Ryan McMahon, Correlle Prime, Jordan Patterson, and Dillon Thomas. In total, the Tourists recorded 16 hits, but none of them came from Raimel Tapia who went 0-6 on the night. Ryan McMahon had the two biggest hits as his home run in the ninth tied the game and his single in the 13th plated the winning run.

In the second game, Antonio Senzatela continued his recent run of dominance with five innings of one run baseball on his way to his way to improving his record to 13-1. Over his last six starts, the 19-year-old has a 1.06 ERA with 30 strikeouts against just one walk. He's slowly but surely developing into one of the best stories on the farm this season.

Meanwhile, the offense continued hammering away at Greensboro pitching. They piled up 15 more hits in the second game with every single starter reaching base at least once. Zach Osborne, Correlle Prime, Ashley Graeter, Dillon Thomas, and Alec Mehrten all had two base knocks while Jordan Patterson had three including a home run and a double. After posting just a .653 OPS in April and May, Patterson has a .940 OPS since the start of June.

With two wins in one day, the Tourists pushed their overall record to an amazing 72-39; a full 33 games north of .500 - And as if this team needed any more help, the Rockies just called up the incredibly polished Kyle Freeland who will make his next start in Low-A. Things are grand right now in Asheville.

Northwest League: Tri-City 4, Salem Keizer 3

After allowing three runs in the first inning, the Dust Devil pitching staff buckled down and strung nothing but zeros together for the rest of the night. Dylan Thompson (1.1 innings), Evan DeLuca (0.2 innings), Logan Sawyer (4.1 innings), and Josh Michalec (1.0 innings) combined to throw 7.1 scoreless in route to a win.

Offensively, Michael Dilone triple and later scored to tie the game in the eighth and Sean Dwyer walked to spark a rally in the tenth to win the game. Every starting member of the Dust Devils had a hit, but Shane Hoelscher was the only man with two,

DSL: Giants 9, Rockies 1

Erick Julio was decent for the Rockies as he allowed two runs in five innings of work, but the real blow came in the sixth as Salvador Justo allowed four runs without recording an out.

Offensively, Jonathan Piron and Daniel Suero each collected two hits with Piron picking up the only extra base hit of the game for the Rockies.

Rookie: Grand Junction 7, Idaho Falls 4

Sam Howard had his best outing yet as he went four scoreless innings while striking out five without walking anyone.

On the other side of the ball, there were also some encouraging signs from this year's draft. Forrest Wall had just one hit, but he was on base four times with three walks, pushing his free pass total on the season higher than his strike out total. Speaking of that trick, Kevin Padlo, who has 17 walks and just 11 strike outs this season had two more walks in this one as well as a home run to push his OPS on the year to 1.079. This guy could turn out to be one of the biggest steals in the entire draft. Randy Reyes, Hamlet Marte, and Luis Jean had three hits a piece with one of Jean's being a triple.

Defensively this game was a mess with each team making four errors.