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Triple-A: Albuquerque Isotopes (26-35)
Tacoma 4, Albuquerque 3 (10 innings)
W: Olmos (1-0, 10.38); L: Miller, J (0-2, 3.68)
John Gray started off this one a little rough. Through three innings he had given up two runs on four hits with two walks and a wild pitch; but over the next five innings, Gray gave up just one more walk and didn't allow a hit. That gave him a final line of eight innings pitched, two earned runs, four hits, three walks, and four strikeouts.After an insane 10.70 ERA in April, Gray has followed up with a 2.78 ERA in May, and a 2.45 ERA so far in June. Gray is definitely showing signs of mastering the PCL and hasn't allowed more than three runs in an outing since April.
In other turning the corner news, Drew Stubbs is hitting .355/.500/.548 in June with twice as many walks as strikeouts. Hopefully, whatever put him in a funk to start the year has passed and we see him back in Denver soon.
The Topes ended up losing in extra innings when Jesus Montero hit a walkoff two run home-run off of Justin Miller.
Double-A: New Britain Rock Cats (35-24)
W: Simmons (3-3, 3.55); L: Ortega (0-1, 2.57)
The Rock Cats are seriously missing David Dahl. They have gone just 5-7 in his absence, and in this game they were also missing Trevor Story and his 166 wRC+, as the offense was able to manage just two runs on two hits.
The Rock Cats wasted a strong start from Ryan Carpenter, who worked seven innings while allowing two earned runs on five hits. He struck out five and walked none. The game was put out of reach when Jose Ortega allowed four runs in one inning of work—that was the same number of runs he allowed in his 26 innings of work coming into the game.
High-A: Modesto (29-31)
W: Jiminian (3-6, 5.51); L: Unsworth (0-2, 3.58); SV: Neiman (2)
Johendi Jiminian has had some uneven performances. After allowing 17 earned runs on 20 hits over 15.2 innings in his last three starts, the twenty two year old right-hander had a brilliant seven inning, four hit, five strikeout, no walk performance in this game.
The offense pushed three runs across in support of Jiminian, including a nice night from Raimel Tapia, who has been in cold stretch. Even with this 2-3 night with a walk, he is hitting just .244 for the month. The left-handed Tapia is still hitting same handed pitching to the tune of .352 /.367/.611 and is hitting .288/.311/.419 against righties for the season, so the recent cold streak is more likely noise than any harbinger of struggles ahead. The Nuts were also helped by Ryan McMahon, who smashed his sixth home run of the season. The talented third baseman is hitting .310/.401/.521 on the season.
Single-A: Asheville Tourists (27-33)
W: Rodriguez, H (5-3, 3.44); L: Povse (3-2, 2.17); SV: Michalec (10)
Helmis Rodriguez continues preventing runs in one of the most extreme offensive environments in baseball. Rodriguez allowed four hits in six innings, striking out seven and allowing just one earned run. The bullpen allowed another run, and an anemic offense from Asheville only managed one run in response.
As far as bright spots go, Omar Carrizales continues breaking out, as his two hit performance brought his season line to a gaudy .357/.409/.500. Center-fielder Wes Rogers extended his hitting streak to ten games and is now hitting .438/.471/.656 in June. Max White went hitless, but his two walks brought his June line to .424/.558/.818.
Rookie: DSL Rockies (6-5)
W: Rodriguez, Re (2-0, 0.00); L: Garcia, H (0-1, 0.93)
The usual suspects had big games on offense in this one for the DSL Rockies. Outfielder Luis Brito, for instance, now has as many extra base hits in ten games as Rosell Herrera had in sixty plus in his last trip to the DSL. Bonus Babies and potential PuRPs contributed to the win. Carlos Herrera, who has nine stolen bases in ten games, added two more in this one. And Pedro Gonzalez is now hitting .293/.348/.537. To put that in context, the DSL Rockies hit .238/.294/.313 as a team last year.
Today's probables
Triple-A Albuquerque: John Lannan
Double-A New Britain: Shane Carle
High-A Modesto: Harrison Musgrave
Single-A Asheville: Ryan Castellani
DSL Rockies: TBD