Astros Prospect Report: Games of June 9, 2016

On a day that saw the Astros add two more young players to the minor league mix in Forrest Whitley and Ronnie Dawson, the Houston minor league system played to a split of its four games with the opposition.

AAA Fresno Grizzlies: LOST 12-10 to the Salt Lake City Bees (LAA)

This was a wild game.  Tommy Shirley got bombed out of the game, lasting just two and a third innings and putting his team in a big hole - by the bottom of the fourth inning, the Grizzlies were down 9-1, and all the runs were Shirley's - before the Grizzlies could really begin to close the gap.  They'd get down 10-2 going into the bottom of the fifth inning.

In fairness to Shirley, the Bees had a couple hitters with Major League experience in the lineup in this game.  Andrellton Simmons, Kaleb Cowart, and Todd Cunningham all started for the Bees and have considerable MLB experience, and a familiar face entered the game at catcher after starter Juan Graterol was hit by a pitch and left the game: recent-Astro Erik Kratz.  Kratz would go on to a 2-4 night with a pair of singles, two runs scored, and two RBIs for the Bees.

Still, though, Shirley was definitely not at his best in this one.  His Game Score of 0 is one of the lowest by a Grizzlies starter this season (believe it or not, there have been negative scores), and ten of the Bees' sixteen hits came off the recently-struggling left-hander.

After jumping into a 10-2 hole with both feet, the Grizzlies started chipping away.  Following Danny Worth and Preston Tucker singles, A.J. Reed laced a line drive double to right field to score both runs and cut the score to 10-4 Bees in the bottom of the fifth.

In the bottom of the sixth, Andrew Aplin doubled in Jon Kemmer (who had reached on an error, one of four on the night by the Bees) to run the score to 10-5.  After walks to Nolan Fontana and Worth loaded the bases, Preston Tucker grounded into a force out - narrowly avoiding grounding into a double play by busting it down the line quickly out of the box - to score Aplin from third.  Colin Moran followed with a single to score Fontana, and just like that, the Grizzlies had drawn to within three runs.

They'd get those runs back the next inning, after a pair of walks to Jon Singleton and Jon Kemmer opened the inning.  Andrew Aplin followed with a single to score Big Jon, Danny Worth singled to score Kemmer, and Preston Tucker ripped a laser beam ground ball right at the third baseman, who misplayed it and let it roll into left field for another of the four errors on the night - it denied Tucker the RBI on the box score, but if you ask him, I imagine Preston would be satisfied that his plate appearance led to the game being tied at ten.

This recap is getting long quickly, so we're going to abbreviate some of the pitching coverage.

Shirley started and got bombed, as was mentioned.  Chris Cotton relieved him and allowed a run on three hits with a strikeout over two and two-thirds innings pitched.  Reymin Guduan threw just twenty pitches in two innings of work and allowed a pair of hits and struck out two, putting zeroes up on the scoreboard for the Bees otherwise in each inning.  Jordan Jankowski was effectively wild in his single hitless, scoreless inning pitched, and then came James Hoyt.

Hoyt has been flat-out dominant this year, but not perfect.  This was one of the weird appearances for him.  In some ways he was overpowering - he struck out all five hitters out of the outs he recorded, including the first four outs he recorded in a row, but walked four.  One was technically classified as an intentional walk, but he got to three balls naturally before they elected to just walk the hitter rather than pump a fastball to him with a runner in scoring position.  He only allowed one hit, but it was a single that drove in two of the runners he'd walked.

Box Score:

AA Corpus Christi: WON 7-0 over the Midland RockHounds (OAK)

Francis Martes turned in his second good start in a row Thursday evening.  He was a bit wild - at one point, he threw a 97 mile per hour fastball far enough over a hitter's head that the hitter didn't even flinch - but only walked a single hitter in almost seven innings of work (six and two-thirds innings) while allowing five hits - all singles - and striking out nine.  He was basically the nasty pitcher we expected, even if a bit more wild than we'd like.  He's trimmed his ERA to a respectable (and hopefully still falling) 4.26 on the season.

Eric Peterson pitched two and a third innings scoreless relief and only allowed two singles while recording two strikeouts to lower his ERA to 2.35 in five Double-A appearances thus far.

On the offensive side of the ball, Alex Bregman recorded a double, a triple, a walk, two RBI, and scored a run in yet another strong offensive day.  Teoscar Hernandez logged a pair of singles, and the Hooks received home runs from Chase McDonald, Conrad Gregor, and Alejandro Garcia in the game to cruise to an easy 7-0 victory over the RockHounds.

Box Score:

High A Lancaster: LOST 5-1 to the Visalia Rawhide (ARI)

Trent Thornton had a rough night, allowing five earned runs in four and a third innings on seven hits with two walks allowed and two strikeouts.

However, the JetHawks offense had an even worse night, notching just three hits, with the only run of the game coming after a Ramon Laureano walk, stolen base, and a Jason Martin triple.  Martin's triple was the only extra base hit of the night for the 'Hawks.

Joshua James and Yeyfry Del Rosario combined for three and two-thirds scoreless innings pitched in relief to provide basically the only encouraging moments of the night for the 'Hawks outside of Martin's triple.

Box Score:

Low A Quad Cities: WON 5-2 over the Beloit Snappers (OAK)

Kyle Tucker left the game in the top of the seventh inning for reasons unknown to this writer, despite efforts to find out after the game ended what exactly was the reason was.  He was 1-3 in the game with a single and was caught stealing second base in the fifth, but it's not clear from the box score and game summary - or the recap on the team's web site - whether there was an injury.  Possible they just elected to rest him and get Keach Ballard some playing time.  We will let everyone know if there's any news to the contrary.

Ballard had an RBI double after entering the game as Tucker's replacement in the lineup, and Osvaldo Duarte had a triple as part of a two-hit, two RBI day.  Myles Straw also had a good day at the top of the lineup, hitting three singles and scoring two runs while driving in a run of his own.

Elieser Hernandez and Jose Hernandez combined for a true tandem start of Hernandezness, with Elieser pitching five innings and earning the win with three hits allowed, one run (earned), no walks, and five strikeouts.  Jose got the save with four innings pitched in relief, allowing five hits and an earned run of his own with four strikeouts.  Neither pitcher walked a hitter in the game.

Box Score: