Minor Lines 8/2/23: Ceddanne Rafaela Reaches Base Five Times

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The farm struck out an average of 12 times per game, but three of four teams still won, and Rafaela and Anthony continue to see the ball well.

Apparently MiLB has new color schemes for their box scores? I even double checked to make sure I didn’t inadvertently hit some dark mode button. Hope this doesn’t bother anyone as much as it annoys me... if it does, let me know and I’ll work on an alternative somehow!

Justin Hagenman’s first save in the Red Sox organization! Despite Chase Shugart trying his hardest to lose this game by giving up a grand slam with one recorded out in the sixth inning, the remainder of the WooSox pitching was adept enough at getting out of innings unharmed to ward off the Syracuse Mets and their 13 hits. Worcester were beneficiaries of two fielding errors on Syracuse’s behalf, including a botched pickoff attempt.

The WooSox struck out 13 times, including 3 more by Trevor Story, the most painstaking being a 2-outs bases loaded swing. Still, Story’s lone hit in 5 at bats today came in the form of an RBI double to score a struggling Niko Kavadas.

Speaking of callups, Ceddanne Rafaela is continuing to see the ball well in Triple-A, as he hit his 8th home run since arriving a couple months ago and drew four walks. Stephen Scott hit his 6th in his short campaign. I’m really liking what I’m seeing from those two guys in particular; they’re becoming more patient and dynamic than they were in Portland and it would be interesting to see what the gameplan is with both of them. If I had to guess, we’ll be seeing Ceddanne in September unless the Wild Card race is truly too contentious, and Stephen may be in the wings for next season in a backup role. But, I also thought Chaim Bloom was going to move some assets around at the deadline, so I could be wrong!

Sterling Sharp needed a shutout appearance, and he got it in five innings that mercifully saw him get out of a bases-loaded situation in the fifth with shutout still intact and a 1-0 lead; good on him to secure the decision following a Tyler Dearden line drive double to score a run and a subsequent Tyler Esplin line drive to score Blaze Jordan, who drew the only walk of the day against the Bowie BaySox (Orioles AA) pitching staff. The score was 3-0, and it stayed that way. Portland may have been allergic to walks last night, and they may have also caught the strikeout bug, getting punched out a dozen times and leaving 8 men stranded, but they scored when it mattered. We’ll save Marcelo Mayer going 0-for-5 and remaining under .200 for another day when the SeaDogs lose.

On White Claw Wednesday (I’m not making this up, guys) this game needed extras to be decided, but Roman Anthony scored the final run in the bottom of the 10th on a Bryan Gonzalez ground ball to stave the Rome Braves off. For what it’s worth, Roman Anthony led the inning off with a triple, scoring Manfred runner Stephen Paolini, and from there, it was easy. If you’re on Anthony watch like the rest of us, know that he went 3-for-4 and drew a walk, as his OPS remains comfortably over 1. On the mound, Dan Altavilla’s rehab appearance wasn’t the only exciting thing happening yesterday, as Luis Perales struck out ten in just five innings. But, strikeouts were rampant in Greenville as well; they recorded 13 K’s.

The farm’s lone loser for Wednesday’s games. Before we begin on the Bradley Blalock Irish wake, I want to say that any hypothetical Blalock Irish wake would be easily justified by simply looking at the pitching box score for this game. I want to give Jose Ramirez the benefit of the doubt by saying he may have left 2⁄3 of an inning into yesterday’s game due to injury, but I could not find anything pertaining to this injury. Either way, he did not have it, giving up four runs, a lead that the Fredricksburg Nationals only added onto. Salem did have the contest’s only home run via nine hitter Albert Feliz, but they only mustered three hits, and, shocking nobody, they also struck out ten times, lifting the day’s total to 48. That’s almost half of all recorded outs, and it’s shameful that it occurred organization wide, including the Major League team getting punched out ten times. But, most of the farm won, so while we have our pitchforks raised at this lazy management for hoarding farm talent, let’s keep in mind this farm system is performing well.

Have a great Thursday without Red Sox baseball, everyone!