Colorado Rockies prospect Jon Gray shows what he can do

Triple-A: Albuquerque Isotopes (17-24)

Albuquerque 5, Round Rock 1

W: Gray (2-4, 6.47); L: Ranaudo (3-1, 2.72)

Jon Gray had his most effective start of the year, allowing just one run on six hits over 6⅔ innings. Gray struck out three and walked one while throwing 69 of his 99 pitches for strikes. Plenty of of Rockies fans would like to see Gray striking more batters out, but it seems that this stop at altitude in the extreme run environment is an important one for the big right hander, as it is teaching him how to succeed in a place that more closely mirrors where he will be pitching in the majors.

Brooks Brown was great in relief striking out three in his 1⅓ innings on the mound, and Justin Miller closed out the game with a clean inning. Miller had Tommy John surgery in 2012 and has improved the farther he has gotten from it. Miller now has a 1.84 ERA and a 19.3 strikeout to walk ration over 14⅔ innings pitch in his last 10 appearances between New Britain and Albuquerque.

On offense, Ryan Casteel extended his hitting streak to 10 games. His May batting line of .514/.528/.800 will come down, but let's enjoy those figures while they last. Cristhian Adames got another hit and has now reached base in 27 of his 30 games this year. The shortstop now has a .335/.390/.456 career line over 68 Triple-A games.

Double-A: New Britain Rock Cats (27-12)

Akron 4, New Britain 2

W: Merritt (3-3, 4.06); L: Carpenter (3-4, 4.41); SV: Johnson, J (4)

The Rock Cats continued their streaky ways. After falling in this game they are 1-5 in the six games after their 13 game winning streak was snapped. If I told you that your 3-4-5 hole hitters were hitting .343 (Story), .305 (Murphy), and .351 (Cuevas) coming into the game, you would likely feel pretty good. But if I also told you that they then went 0-10 with two walks and four strikeouts in this particular game, you would understand why New Britain was only able to plate two runs.

David Dahl continued his resurgence with another two hit game to raise his batting average in his last 10 games to .370. Pat Valaika added two more hits, including a triple. His May line of .323/.386/.452 is more in line with what we were hoping to see when he got the rare mid-season promotion to Modesto last year.

Class A Advanced: Modesto Nuts (20-21)

San Jose 3, Modesto 2

W: Black, R (1-0, 0.00); L: Pierpont (1-1, 4.58)

Sequencing is such a funny thing. If I told you that the Nuts were going to get nine hits in this one, including three for extra bases, you might think they would score more than the two runs they managed in their 10 innings. But it was not to be. Jordan Patterson had a rare bad game, going 0-4 with two strikeouts; the first of those strikeouts lead to Ryan McMahon getting caught stealing to shut down an inning. TOOTBLANs are an organizational issue, it seems. It also didn't help that Nuts batters struck out eight times without taking a walk.

Class A: Asheville Tourists (18-22)

Augusta 6, Asheville 0

W: Coonrod (1-1, 3.75); L: Rodriguez, H (3-1, 2.27)

Helmis Rodriguez has had a great start to his full season career. Rodriguez worked seven innings, striking out eight, walking one, and taking the loss thanks to clankmitt defense combined with an absent offense. Rodriguez now has a 2.27 ERA and a 3.36 strikeout-to-walk ratio over eight starts for Asheville.

Four of the five Asheville hits came from the speedy outfielders Omar Carrizales and Wes Rogers. Both are on pace to steal more than 100 bases over a full MLB season worth of games, and both have shown good patience as well. Overall, the Tourists have been disappointing in the first half, but given that they have had some strong pitching performances, and the relative youth of their offense, a second half run hardly seems out of the question.

Probable Starters

Triple-A Albuquerque: Lannan (1-1, 4.70)

Double-A New Britain: Carle (5-1, 3.95)

High-A Modesto: Senzatela (2-2 2.22)

Single-A Asheville: Castellani (0-3, 3.97)