Games Played on 5/30/2013
Minor League Player of the Day: There were solid starting pitcher performances in the Reds organization yesterday, but the best came from Robert Stephenson. Stephenson retired the first 17 batters that he faced and left the game after 6.2 shutout innings, where he allowed 1 hit and 2 walks while striking out 9. Stephenson’s May stat line is 36.2 innings, 21 hits, 8 earned runs, 8 walks, and 46 strikeouts.
Minor League Prospect Movement: Reds 2012 1st round draft pick, Nick Travieso announced via twitter that he will be joining Robert Stephenson on the Dayton Dragons squad today.
Greg Reynolds (5-0, 2.92 ERA) pitched 8.1 innings, allowing just 9 hits and 1 run. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out 4. Curtis Partch came in to close out the game, striking out the only two batters he faced, hitting 99mph on the radar gun once. In his last 5 appearances, Partch has thrown 9 innings, allowed just 1 run, 5 hits, 2 walks, and struck out 12.
Denis Phipps was 2-4 with two runs scored. Emmanuel Burriss also had two hits in four trips to the plate. Corky Miller was 1-for-2 with a walk and 3 RBI. Billy Hamilton reached base once and stole his 30th base. That’s his 4th straight game with a successful stolen base.
AA
Jacksonville 11 – Pensacola 2
Daniel Renken (6ip, 4h, 1r, 2bb, 7K) tossed his 3rd straight quality start, but the bullpen imploded in the lopsided loss.
Redleg Nation Spotlight Player, Tucker Barnhart was hitting in the 3-hole again and extended his hitting streak to six games with a single. Barnhart has reached base at least once in 14 consecutive games.
Theo Bowe and Bryson Smith each collected a pair of hits in the loss.
High A
Rancho Cucamonga 5 – Bakersfield 2
Making his third professional start after converting over from the bullpen, Mike Dennhardt (5ip, 7h, 3r, 2er, 1bb, 5K) allowed his first earned runs as a starter.
Yovan Gonzalez (2-for-4, RBI) was the only Blaze hitter with more than one hit.
Low A
Dayton 9 – South Bend 0
Robert Stephenson (5-3, 3.32 ERA) retired the first 17 batters that he faced before giving up an infield single with two outs in the 6th inning. He left after hitting his pitch count in the 7th inning with a final line of 6.2 shutout innings, 1 hit, 2 walks (both in the 7th) and 9 strikeouts. That’s 5 consecutive quality starts for Stephenson in which he’s struck out 42 and walked just 4 batters in 31.2 innings. There’s a great game story, covering Stephenson’s night on the Dayton Dragon’s website. Among the notable notes:
— South Bend has the best hitting offense in the Midwest League.
— Stephenson threw a mix of pitches – 60% fastballs, 25% curveballs, 15% changeups.
The offense did OK in this game, too. Five different players collected two or more hits, and two player reached base four times. Beau Amaral was 3-for-4 with a walk, 2 runs and 2 RBI. Jesse Winker was 2-for-3 with 2 walks, an RBI and a run scored.