The Texas Rangers’ minor league arms had a great day as they were headlined by Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker.
Down East Wood Ducks
Things started incredible for the Wood Ducks as they jumped out to a 7-0 lead against the Lynchburg Hillcats. The Wood Ducks started their onslaught with a pair of singles from Esteban Mejia and Wady Mendez made the score 3-0.
They added on with solo home runs from Ben Hartl and Chandler Pollard as well as an rbi double from 17th ranked prospect Echedry Vargas according to MLB Pipeline.
Then everything else went downhill, as the Wood Ducks ended up losing 9-10. Starting pitcher Kyle Larsen put together a good start as he went 4 innings, with 2 hits and 2 strikeouts. He lowered his ERA to 7.34.
The Wood Ducks’ hopes fell apart when Justin Sanchez took the mound and allowed 5 runs on 2 hits and 3 walks, which brought his ERA up to 6.08.
Adonis Villavicenio blew the game as he allowed 2 runs in 2 innings.
It was a tough game for the Wood Ducks to stomach, but they can point to the good things that happened and call what happened an outlier to the bullpen.
Hickory Crawdads
The Hickory Crawdads ended taking the loss 2-0 against the Hudson Valley Renegades . But they got promising results from a pair of pitchers.
Izach Tiger got the start and he was solid. He went 3 innings allowing 4 hits with 1 run, 3 walks and 5 strikeouts. Tiger is rated as the Rangers’ 13th prospect according to MLB pipeline.
Tiger has been a name that Rangers’ fans have been paying attention to and they will continue to as they look for him to improve.
Tiger wasn’t even the most impressive pitcher for Hickory that day. Ryan Lobus showed out with a 4 inning appearance allowing a hit, a walk, and racking up 11 strikeouts.
He completely fooled the Renegades. The Crawdads couldn’t win the game, but they must be happy with the performances of their two pitchers.
Rangers’ top prospect Sebastian Walcott went 0 -4 with 2 strikeouts and 2nd round pick Dylan Dreiling went 0 – 4 as well.
Frisco Roughriders
Kumar Rocker showed up again going 4 innings with 1 hit, 1 run, 1 walk and 5 strikeouts.
Rocker’s scoreless streak in Double A ended as his ERA went up to .60.
He has been extremely impressive since his return from the Injured List.
The Roughriders ended up falling 10-8, but they got some impressive results from their players.
Max Acosta led the way with 3 hits and an rbi, Aaron Zavala and Abimelec Ortiz both had 2 hits of their own and an rbi each. Zavala hit a homer his 4th of the year.
Round Rock Express
Jack Leiter had his best day as a pro. Leiter ended up going 3.2 innings with 1 hit, 1 run, 1 walk and a whopping 11 strikeouts. This moved his ERA to 3.66.
Every out that he recorded in the game was a strikeout. Leiter ended up throwing 62 pitches with 41 strikes. He ended hitting 100’s on a few of his fastballs. Leiter seemed to be on a pitch count as his last game was on July 27th as they worked to keep his arm healthy.
The Express ended up falling 4-3 to the Albuquerque Isotopes. Sandro Fabian led the way for the Express with 2 hits and 2 rbis including a solo home run.
Blake Crim added the final run with a solo home run.
Aidan Anderson got tagged with the loss as he allowed 2 runs in 2 innings with 5 hits and another unearned run.
Things are looking up for the Vandy Boys as they look to continue to put in solid starts.
