Minor League Schedule and Results

SATURDAY'S GAMES

DSL Astros at DSL Mariners at 9:30 a.m. CST

Rome at Lexington at 6:05 CST
Probable Pitchers: RHP Greg Ross (0-3, 5.93) and LHP Evan Grills (1-0, 3.75)*
Available on MiLB.tv

*MiLB is still showing Evan Grills to start, but I asked him about it yesterday and he said it was doubtful since he had pitched in the 14-inning affair on Thursday. He only pitched to one batter, though, so who knows.

Corpus Christi at Springfield at 6:08 CST
Probable Pitchers: RHP Jake Buchanan (2-4, 5.22) and RHP Trevor Rosenthal (4-4, 2.72)

Iowa at Oklahoma City at 7:05 CST
Probable Pitchers: TBD and RHP Aneury Rodriguez (2-5, 6.15)
Available on MiLB.tv

Rancho Cucamonga at Lancaster at 9:00 CST
Probable Pitchers: RHP Brandon Martinez (1-1, 3.43) and RHP Tyson Perez (3-1, 3.90)

FRIDAY'S RESULTS

Lexington over Rome 4-1
Nick Tropeano (W, 4-3) pitched 5.1 innings, giving up one run on five hits and two walks with nine strikeouts before giving way to Dayan Diaz who pitched 2.1 innings. Diaz was cruising along through two outs in the eighth when he apparently forgot how to pitch and walked three consecutive batters. Exit Diaz. Enter Jason Chowning. Bases loaded? Meh. Not a problem as Chowning gets a quick ground out, retires the side in the ninth and records his tenth save. All in a day's work, ma'am. John Hinson got the start at 2B as Delino DeShields took the night off and made the most of it, going three-for-four with two RBIs, a stolen base and a run scored. Justin Gominsky was two-for-four with an RBI and Roberto Pena had two hits on the night as well.

Corpus Christi over Arkansas 3-1
Brett Oberholtzer (W, 3-3) allowed one unearned run on seven hits and two walks with four strikeouts over six innings as Corpus Christi swept the series against Arkansas. Oberholtzer has shown what he can do with several good starts. Now he needs to start showing some consistency. But I digress. Henry Villar and Josh Zeid (S, 1) took it the rest of the way with scoreless relief. Jon Singleton hit his 11th home run of the season; he has hit six home runs in his last eight games. Austin Wates was three-for-three with an RBI and a walk.

Oklahoma City over Nashville 5-3
Oklahoma City took the lead in the bottom of the first and never looked back as they too swept the opposing team. Paul Clemens (W, 6-4) has now won four of his last five games. In seven innings, he gave up one run (a solo home run) on five hits and a walk with five strikeouts. Juan Abreu was perfect in relief before giving way to Adalberto Flores who gave up two runs on three hits in the ninth. Except for a solo home run by Brian Bixler, most of the scoring came via small ball, smart baserunning and taking advantage of mistakes. Brad Snyder went two-for-three with a walk, RBI, two runs scored and a stolen base.

GAME OF THE DAY
Lancaster over Visalia 15-4

What went right: Great starting pitching and some insane offensive performances.

I am definitely sensing a theme here as Lancaster swept Visalia and got back to a tie for second place in their division. Bobby Doran (W, 5-3) had another fine start and lowered his ERA to 3.31 with the effort. Brad Dydalewicz gave up three runs in relief followed by a scoreless 1.1 innings from Brian Streilein. But the pitching staff had a lot of leeway as Lancaster scored 11 runs in the fifth inning as 14 batters came to the plate. Erik Castro and Kike Hernandez both had monster nights with ten RBIs between them. Castro hit his 9th home run of the season, a three run shot and Hernandez hit an RBI single, an RBI double and an RBI triple.

Bobby Doran - 6IP 5H 1R 2BB 3SO
Brad Dydalewicz - 1.2IP 6H 3R 1BB 2SO
Brian Streilein - 1.1IP 1H 0R 0BB 1SO

George Springer - 1x5 BB SO 3R
Erik Castro - 3x5 HR 6RBI BB SO 3R
Kike Hernandez - 3x5 2B 3B 4RBI 2R
Alex Todd - 2x5 RBI SO R
Rene Garcia - 2x5 2RBI R
Grant Hogue - 3x5 RBI SO 2R

What went wrong: Telvin Nash had an 0-fer, but he still managed to get two walks.

PITCHERS OF THE DAY
I'm going to do something different today. In a rare confluence of events, all four of the Astros minor league starting pitchers got wins last night on strong performances. So my pitchers of the day are Nick Tropeano, Brett Oberholtzer, Paul Clemens and Bobby Doran. I'm sure they won't mind sharing.

PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Erik Castro and Kike Hernandez can share this one as well. Between them, they were six-for-ten with three walks, a double, a triple, a home run, ten RBIs and five runs scored.