Road To Arlington: Rangers Minor League Report (4/26)

Justin Smoak rounds the bases in Surprise

Developmentally, it’s highly unlikely that Justin Smoak is going to need four more months in the minor leagues.

Triple-A: Oklahoma City @ Omaha

Wet again.

Double-A: Frisco 9 @ Corpus Christi 5

1B Justin Smoak (.323 / .427 / .516) gave starter RHP Omar Poveda (3-1; 4.00 ERA) a 2-0 lead before taking the hill in the bottom of the first with his third homer of the year, going on to finish 3-for-4 with a double and a walk.

Poveda continued to improve since a shaky first start of the year, holding the Hooks to a run on six hits and three walks over six innings.

LF Chad Tracy’s two-run homer highlighted Frisco’s decisive seven-run sixth. Tracy’s 2-for-5 outing was his fourth multi-hit performance in his last seven games.

DH Jose Vallejo (.328 / .348 / .406) extended a six-game hitting streak with a 2-for-4 outing and stole his sixth base of the year.

Advanced-A: Stockton 6 @ Bakersfield 3

In a matchup of former Metroplex prep stars, Oakland prospect and Flower Mound native Craig Italiano got the better of RHP Blake Beavan (0-3; 5.48 ERA), who allowed six runs, four of which were earned, on six hits over 5.1 innings.

Beavan flew through five, allowing just one batter to reach and fanning two, but an error, a wild pitch and five hits descended upon him before he could record the second out in the sixth.

CF Engel Beltre (.184 / .215 / .289), who turned 19 in November and is the second youngest player in the California League, hit his first homer of the year and added a double in five trips. Beltre now has now hit safely in seven of his last ten games. He has walked just twice in 80 plate appearances, and fanned 18 times (22.5%).

LHP Zach Phillips (1.93 ERA), converted to the bullpen this year after spending the bulk of his pro career as a starter, continued to excel in relief, punching out the side in one inning of work. The Sacramento City College alum now has 11 strikeouts and one walk while allowing two runs on five hits in 9.1 inninngs of work.

Class-A: Kannapolis 4 @ Hickory 2

RHP Wilmer Font (0.84 ERA) got his first start of the year, holding Kannapolis to a run on four hits and just one walk while punching out four in 3.2 innings but the Crawdads bullpen allowed three runs over the final three and the lineup managed just two runs on seven singles.

Font, the big 19 year old Venezuelan who brings a high-90′s fastball, has fanned 11 in 10.2 innings of work this year, but has also walked nine. The run he surrendered yesterday was his first of the year.