Hub City salvages a rough day for rangers' Affiliates
The Rangers' Affiliates combined to go 1-2 on Sunday, July 6. The Round Rock Express game got rained out, so that was the reason for only three games being played.
Hickory Crawdads
The Hickory Crawdads suffered a big loss as they fall to the Kannapolis Ballers (White Sox) 9-2. It was a rough start for David Hagaman, he allowed four runs on two hits in 1.2 innings while allowing two walks and struck out two.
All of the damage came in the second inning when he walked a pair while allowing both hits. That led to him being pulled from the game. Hickory went with a bullpen game as a number of pitchers came in. Kai Wynyard, Luke Savage, and Michael Trausch were all scoreless in their appearances.
Brock Porter, a name that Rangers fans know, made an appearance and he wasn't great. He allowed a pair of runs in 1.2 innings on just one hit with three walks and two strikeouts. He had big struggles with walks last year and had to go to the developmental league to work on. He has worked out of the bullpen this year as the team tries to build his confidence up.
He did struggle with command again as he threw 50 pitches with only 23 being strikes. I know that is not encouraging, but Porter was able to make the most of the outing and worked around the command issues. He has improved from last year as he has 49 strikeouts compared to 21 walks.
On the hitting side, the Crawdads had more hits than their run total would suggest. They were able to collect nine hits and made three players collected a pair of hits. Right fielder Marco Torres led the way with a pair of hits along with a RBI single. Designated hitter Hector Osorio and left fielder Erick Alvarez also had two hits each.
Hub City Spartanburgers
The Spartanburgers collected the only win on the farm with a 4-1 win over the Winston-Salem Dash (White Sox).
Jose Gonzalez pitched a gem as he allowed one run in seven innings allowing five hits while striking out seven hitters and not walking anyone. This effort brought his ERA down to 2.94 and he picked up his second win of the year.
Eric Loomis locked down his third save of the year. He pitched a pair of hitless innings and walked none while striking out four.
Right fielder Yeison Morrobel got the scoring started for the Spartanburgers as he launched a solo home run in the fifth inning to even up the game. It was his fourth home run of the year. He went 2 for 3 with the home run, two RBIs and a walk.
The Spartanburgers would take in the lead in the sixth inning when center fielder Dylan Dreiling walked on five pitches with the bases loaded. Dreiling is the Rangers' eighth best prospect according to MLB.com. Morrobel would also walk with the bases loaded and extend the lead to two.
Second baseman Casey Cook would cap off the scoring with a RBI triple to score shortstop Luis Marquez in the seventh inning. Cook would match Morrobel as he notched two hits as well.
Frisco Roughriders
The Roughriders fell to the Arkansas Travelers (Seattle Mariners) by a score of 5-1. This was not an ideal start for Trey Supak with him being tagged for five runs in six innings. He allowed nine hits, but on the bright side he struck out six hitters while walking none.
Gavin Collyer and Avery Weems each threw a scoreless inning to cap off the pitching night for the Roughriders. So it is good to see the bullpen perform well.
The Roughriders' only run came from left fielder Keith Jones ll when he singled home second baseman Jax Biggers in the seventh inning. The team totaled six hits with no one having a multi hit game.
The story of the game for them was the struggle with runners in scoring position as they only went 1 for 10. That is exactly how you lose a game and the Roughriders will need to improve on it in their next game. However, they were missing their best player in Sebastian Walcott as he got the day off.
All of the teams are off on Monday July 7, but they will resume action on Tuesday.
