The Undercards: No Stopping Wil Myers As He Homers Yet Again

Sometimes we just have to learn to appreciate the things that happen every day that we just take for granted–waking up, having food to eat, and watching Wil Myers drill another home run.

Triple-A International League: Louisville (CIN) 8, Durham Bulls 5

If Bulls fans want to blame someone for this loss, it’s pretty clear who: their parent club, the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays brought Jake Odorizzi up before Durham could find a replacement, and Cory Wade ended up having to start. The result: 8 runs and a loss. Wade actually tossed 1.2 shutout innings working around 3 hits, but Adam Liberatore, Steve Geltz, and Juan Sandoval all struggled before Kirby Yates and Josh Lueke tossed scoreless ball to end the game. Lueke struck out 2 in his perfect frame to lower his ERA to 0.72 on the Triple-A season, and you have to think we’ll see him back in the majors soon. But as the pitchers struggled, Wil Myers proved that his glory is completely independent of what anyone is doing around him. He went just 1 for 4, but he made the 1 count, drilling a 2-run home run. Gotta love his .732 slugging percentage in his last 10 games. Leslie Anderson and Cole Figueroa also homered, while Brandon Guyer went 1 for 3 with a double, an RBI, and a run scored.

Double-A Southern League: Montgomery Biscuits 8, Huntsville Stars (MIL) 4

Enny Romero survived and up-and-down outing and the Biscuits offense gave him plenty of support as they made it 21 runs in their last 2 games in their 8-4 win. Romero went 6 innings allowing 4 runs, 2 earned, on 4 hits, striking out 4 while walking 2. He delivered his 6th straight quality start to lower his ERA to 3.07 on the season, and while this was not his best performance, he has managed a nice season. The Biscuits bullpen tossed 3 shutout frames to finish the game, with C.J. Riefenhauser lowering his ERA to 0.63 with a scoreless 9th. The stars of the game certainly were the Biscuits lineup. Kyeong Kang went 2 for 4 with a homer, a triple, 3 RBI, and 2 runs scored, Kevin Kiermaier went 2 for 4 with a walk, a stolen base, RBI, and a run scored, and Cameron Seitzer went 2 for 4 with a double, a walk, a stolen base (his first of the season), an RBI, and a run scored. Kang has been playing out of his mind lately, hitting in his last five games, going 10 for 17 (.588) with 3 homers, 2 doubles, 6 RBI, and a 5-4 strikeout to walk ratio. Kang is in his third go-around at Double-A, but is this the year he finally cracks the Durham Bulls’ roster?

High-A Florida State League: Tampa Yankees 6, Charlotte Stone Crabs 2

The Yankees scored 6 runs in the 1st, and while Charlotte outplayed them the rest of the game, that was enough for them to win. After Eliazer Suero got pummeled in the 1st, Jake Partridge and Kevin Brandt threw the rest of the game and were outstanding, both allowing no runs on 2 hits and a walk in 4 innings of work. Partridge struck out 4 with a 4-3 groundout to flyout ratio while Brandt struck out only 2 but had a 6-1 groundout to flyout mark. The lefty Brandt jumped all the way from Advanced Rookie to High-A from last year to this year, but he has held his own, managing a 4.15 ERA and a 2.33 GO/AO. On the offensive side, Ryan Brett stayed red-hot, going 2 for 3 with a solo home run and Jeff Malm went 2 for 4. Malm has hit for very little power this season, but he has hit in 8 of his last 10 games with a .314 average overall as he’s starting to get on track.

Low-A Midwest League: Bowling Green Hot Rods 14, Dayton Dragons (CIN) 5

The Hot Rods lost Jeff Ames in this one because of a long rain delay, but their offense made sure that wouldn’t be a problem. Ames had to be lifted after striking out 2 in a perfect 1st, but Matthew Spann earned the win replacing him, allowing no earned runs in 4 innings of work, forcing 9 outs on the ground. The issue was that he allowed 5 unearned runs–Spann’s ERA may still be a shiny 0.00, but he has to a better job staying composed after errors are made behind him. A Tyler Goeddel error in the 2nd scored one run and led to 3 more as Spann could not get out of the inning, actually putting Bowling Green down 4-2. But Spann allowed just 1 run in his last 3 innings and the Hot Rods offense started looking as good as ever. Ryan Dunn went 2 for 5 with a homer and 3 RBI, Justin O’Conner had another great game, going 2 for 5 with a 2-run homer, a walk, and 2 runs scored, and Goeddel made up for his error by going 4 for 5 with a walk, 3 RBI, and 2 runs scored. O’Conner is finally starting to play up to his talent level, building up a 5-game hitting streak with a .529 average (9 for 17), 3 homers, a double, 8 RBI, and a 5-4 strikeout to walk ratio. Every Hot Rod had at least one hit and 8 of 9 had multiple hits as the Hot Rods pounded out 14 runs on 20 hits.