Every Monday is a good time to look back at what went on in the Phillies minor league system during the previous week. The highlight for this week is a Lehigh Valley IronPigs team that has gone Homer Happy.
Lehigh Valley IronPigs
Lehigh Valley set a franchise record by winning their first four games of the season, including a sweep last weekend against the Toledo Mud Hens (Detroit) and then taking the first of six games in Durham (Tampa Bay). After losing game two of the series, the Pigs came back to take the last four games and find themselves at 7-2 and on top of the International League East Division with a 1/2 game lead over Worcester (Boston) and a full game over Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (NY Yankees).
Lehigh Valley has now hit nine home runs in nine games, but eight of them came in the series at Durham. If you are at all familiar with Durham Athletic Park, the home of the Durham Bulls – even if it’s just from the Bull Durham movie – Felix Reyes came close to hitting the bull. The giant bull is a stadium landmark and any hitter who hits it gets a free steak. Unfortunately, Reyes’ shot was too high.
Bryan De La Cruz was ready to hit something, that’s for sure. He started the season 0-16 and then made a quick turnaround when he homered in back-to-back innings in the Friday’s game in Durham, driving in five runs. He launched another on Saturday and now has the team lead with three home runs and also leads the team in runs (9), and RBI (7).
In addition to his “near-bull” shot, Reyes homered in last Wednesday’s game as well and has two on the season. Garrett Stubbs, who joined the team in Durham after clearing waivers and accepting the assignment to Lehigh Valley, hit two in his two games played. By the way, Stubbs was behind the plate on Thursday and then played third base in Saturday’s game. Of course, he didn’t get much of a workout with just two balls being hit to him at third, but that’s two more than he had coming into the season. The Phillies are working to make him a more versatile player by using him at third and eventually in left field.
Rob Moore, who homered in the series against Toledo, currently leads the team in hitting with a .308 (4-13) average.
On the mound, Alan Rangel has put together strong back-to-back starts and is 1-0 with a 0.84 ERA in his two starts. Jean Cabrera had a solid Triple-A debut going 4.2 innings and allowing a hit and a walk with five strikeouts against the Bulls to set his ERA at 1.93. After coming out of the bullpen against Toledo, Tucker Davidson got the call for Sunday’s game and delivered 4.2 shutout innings, the only real blemish was that he walked three. Overall. he has walked six and struck out three in seven innings, but he has yet to give up a run.
The Phillies signed Connor Gillispie late in camp, but he has done a nice job out of the bullpen with seven shutout innings during which he allowed two hits, two walks, hit a batter, and has struck out nine. Opponents have managed just a .091 average against him this season.
Seth Johnson and Chase Shugart have shared the closer’s role with Johnson saving two games and Shugart saving one, neither pitcher has blown a save.
Rehabs: Zack Wheeler had a strong rehab start at home and then ran into some issues against Durham. He is set to start again Wednesday with Lehigh Valley at home. Activating Orion Kerkering seems almost imminent. He has made four appearances, including pitching in back-to-back games and has allowed just one run for a 2.25 ERA. Kerkering has given up three hits, has not walked a batter, and has struck out five.
Reading Fightins
The Double-A season didn’t get underway until last Thursday and they had a rough Easter weekend in Akron (Cleveland) losing all three games.
In those games, the offense managed just four runs, none of them on home runs, and hit just .219 (21-96). They walked 13 times, but struck out 33 times against the Rubber Ducks. On the bright side though, when they got on, they were successful on seven of eight stolen base attempts, so that’s something good. Bryan Rincon and Carson DeMartini both swiped two bases without being caught.
Of the 21 hits, five came from Austin Murr, who went 5-11 for a .455 average in the three games. Leadoff man Aroon Escobar hit .273 with a .429 OBP in three games and Rincon hit .333 (2-6) in two games. Dylan Campbell is off to an 0-11 start.
The pitching didn’t have a good series either. As a staff, the ERA is 6.00 but they did walk just six hitters and struck out 27 batters in the three games. Akron was able to put the bats on the ball though and hit .287 against the Reading pitching staff.
Chuck King threw four shutout innings, allowing five hits and a walk in his start, recording two strikeouts. Even though he kept the Ducks scoreless, they did hit .313 against him. Adam Seminaris struck out seven hitters in his start and allowed just four hits and two walks in the outing, but got saddled with the loss in a 3-1 game.
In the bullpen, take away the 0.1 innings by Jack Dallas where he allowed four earned runs and the relievers had a combined 4.50 ERA. Take away the three earned runs in one inning that Tristan Garnett gave up and suddenly, the rest of the staff that had success shows through with a 2.00 ERA by the other members of the bullpen. Andrew Baker, Daniel Harper, Alex McFarlane, Colin Peluse, Levi Stoudt, Lenny Torres Jr., and Cristhian Tortosa all threw an inning without allowing an earned run.
Jersey Shore BlueClaws
The BlueClaws and the Wilmington Blue Rocks (Washington) split the first two games of their three-game series and were rained out on Sunday.
As a team, the ‘Claws hit .289/.393/.395/.788 in the two games with the only home run coming off of the bat of Raider Tello, who also drove in five runs. All of Tello’s damage came in the first game of the series. He opened the season with a three-run home run as part of a seven-run second inning for Jersey Shore as they took a 19-5 win against the Rocks. The 25-year-old added a two-run single in the third and also reached on an error in the eighth, scoring three runs in the game.
Trent Farquhar dented home plate five times in the two games and hit .429 (3-7) with two doubles. All of the action came in the opening win when he had both doubles, a single, walked, and reached on an error and came in to score each time. He then went 0-2 in Saturday’s 5-1 loss. Nick Biddison had three hits in eight at-bats in the series for a .375 start to his season. Brady Day went 3-9 (.333) and Devin Salbiban went 3-11 (.273) for Jersey Shore.
Ryan Dromboski was the recipient of the big offensive attack in the opener, but couldn’t back it up on the mound and allowed three earned runs in just 3.1 innings and walked six hitters. Giussepe Velasquez came on and gave the BlueClaws three strong relief innings allowing just one hit while walking two and whiffing five Wilmington hitters. Luke Gabrysh lasted just three innings in Saturday’s game, giving up five hits and a walk while he was on the mound.
The bullpen combined for a strong 3.53 ERA in the two games against the Blue Rocks.
Clearwater Threshers
It certainly wasn’t hittin’ season in Ft. Myers on Saturday. After a rainout on Friday Clearwater and Ft. Myers (Minnesota) played a doubleheader on Saturday with Clearwater winning the opener 2-0 and dropping the nightcap 2-0. The bats woke up for Sunday’s game with the Threshers beating the Mighty Mussels 7-5.
The offensive stats for both teams are pitiful. Clearwater hit just .198 (17-86) and the Mussels were anything but mighty as they hit .086 (6-70). Ft. Myers had just one hit in each game on Saturday. In the opener, the only hit was a two-out single in the third, but Sunday’s one hit was an RBI triple by Quentin Young to drive in Jayson Bass, who had worked a walk. Young then scored on a sac fly from Ryan Sprock to account for the Mussels two runs that they rode to a victory.
Clearwater had just four hits in Sunday’s game, all of them singles. Manolfi Jimenez had two of the four hits in the game. Alirio Ferrebus hit .400 (4-10) during the weekend and Matthew Ferrera hit .300 (3-10). Of Clearwater’s seven RBI, Tyler Pettorini drove in three and Ferrebus drove in two. Meanwhile, Jonathan Hogart wants a do-over for the weekend as he went just 1-11 (.091). His one hit was a single in the first game of the series, but he made the most of it. Hogart stole second and one out later scored on Ferrera’s RBI single.
Starter Gage Wood was the big story of the weekend. He threw four shutout innings, giving up just one hit and one walk while striking out seven. Wood, the Phillies first round pick from last year’s draft, held opposing hitters to just a .083 average. Sean Youngerman followed Wood to the mound and finished up with three perfect innings, including two strikeouts. Youngerman needed just 38 pitches to get through the three innings.
