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Road To Arlington: Rangers Farm Report (7/18)

One of the quirks I’ve developed through grinding out minor league recaps all of these years is that I really don’t care if the teams win or lose. But when I start the process of pulling up box scores every morning, I find myself hoping that a club that features mostly hitting prospects scored a lot of runs or that a club loaded with pitching prospects had a low scoring game.

Honestly, I don’t care if Hickory wins 9-1 or loses 1-0. And I generally don’t care if Oklahoma City wins 9-1 or loses 10-9. I just want to see OKC (Davis, Borbon, Smoak, MaxRam, etc.) put up the 9 and Hickory (Perez, Font, Neil Ramirez, Carlos Pimentel, Wieland, Boscan, Brigham, Castillo, Nam, etc. — good lord) keep the opposition to a run.

This morning, I got both. The OKC lineup exploded and Hickory’s young arms dominated. And for a little lagniappe, both clubs won. UPDATE: My friend Jason Cole from lonestardugout.com was in Round Rock last night and reports that Neftali was sitting 98-99 mph.

Good times. Anybody have any ideas about how I can trick my baseball-apathetic wife to take a family vacation to Hickory next month?

And not that it matters, but we’re tweaking the title of the Road (dropping “Minor League Report” for “Farm Report” to keep the title to one line.

Triple-A: Oklahoma City 9 @ Round Rock 7 (10 Innings)

A great game. Everybody who matters came through.

2B Jose Vallejo (.246 / .314 / .337) led of the 10th with a single, advanced to second on a sac bunt by CF Julio Borbon (.302 / .370 / .392), proceeded to third on a single by SS Joaquin Arias (.265 / .291 / .309) and came around to score what proved to be the winning run as 3B Stevie German narrowly beat out a double play ball.

DH Chris Davis (.395 / .455 / .684) added insurance by capping a 3-for-5 outing with his third double of the game to plate German. Davis also drew a walk. Borbon went 2-for-4 with a walk in addition to his critical sac bunt in the tenth and 1B Justin Smoak (.171 / .286 / .317) doubled twice in five trips, giving him three multi-hit performances in the last four games.

If the Rangers continue to allow Davis, Borbon and Smoak to play together in the same lineup, you can expect plenty of eight, nine and ten run outbursts by the RedHawks lineup.

And if they continue to run RHP Kris Benson (9.00 ERA) out there, OKC is going need every one of those runs. Benson did his best to deprive the RedHawks of victory by surrendering seven runs on seven hits — including a pair of gopher balls — in six innings.

LHP Pirate Murray (1-0; 2.20) worked around a hit and a walk to record a scoreless ninth and earn his first W of the year. RHP Neftali Feliz (3.41) — pitching on back-to-back days for the first time this year (and probably ever) — fanned two in a perfect eighth and RHP Warner Madrigal (2.14 ERA) fanned two in a one-hit, scoreless tenth to rack up his 10th save of the year.

Double-A: @ Corpus Christi 6, Frisco 5

The Johnny Whittleman freak fest continued as the resurgent 2005 second rounder hit his seventh homer of the month in a 1-for-2 outing that also included a pair of walks and Adam Fox (.240 / .294 / .398) added a dinger and two RBIs in a 2-foor-4 outing, but it wasn’t enough to propel the Riders to victory.

LHP Mike Ballard (5.05 ERA) gave up four runs, three earned, on nine hits and a pair of walks through 5.1 frames and RHP Brennan Garr (2-3; 4.10) was stuck with the loss after giving up two runs on three hits and a walk through the next 1.2 frames.

Whittleman (.236 / .368 / .388) came into July having driven in 18 runs without going deep once. In a dozen games during the month of July, he’s gone deep seven times and driven in 19 runs.

Advanced-A: Visalia 6 @ Bakersfield 2

High flying RHP Ryan Tatusko (3-4; 3.57), who has flourished since joining the Blaze rotation, fell a little closer to earth in surrendering four runs on five hits, three walks and a plunk in five innings as the Bakersfield lineup flailed away at Rawhide pitching, fanning a dozen times.

CF Engel Beltre was not in the lineup for the second night in a row.

Class-A: Hickory 6 @ Savannah 1

Hickory improved to 14-7 as ultra-talented but often erratic RHP Neil Ramirez (2-2; 5.34) is starting to find the groove that led Baseball America to rank him as the Northwest League’s fourth best prospect last summer. After holding the Sand Gnats to a run on two hits and a walk fanning four in six innings last night, Ramirez has a 3.00 ERA through four July starts, during which he’s held the Sally League to a .162 batting average.

RHP Carlos Pimentel (3.58 ERA) followed Ramirez with three shutout frames, allowing just one hit while fanning five.

The Crawdads lineup did all of their damage in a six-run second frame that was highlighted by a three-run bomb from 1B Erik Morrison (.317 / .397 / .602). It was the former Kansas Jayhawk’s 14th long ball of the year.

18 year old SS Leury Garcia (.267 / .315 / .313) went 2-for-4 with a walk and 21 year old 2B Andres James (.355 / .375 / .452) — making his ninth appearance of the year, all with Hickory — went 3-for-5 with a double and a theft.

Short Season-A: @ Spokane 12, Tri-City 8

The Indians banged out a dozen runs on 13 hits to bail out struggling RHP Matt Thompson (5.54 ERA), who gave up five runs on nine hits through 4.1 frames.

LF Jared Prince (.284 / .377 / .448) led the Spokane attack with a 2-for-4 outing that included a three-run bomb in the second inning. DH Vin DiFazio (.286 / .402 / .571) doubled and walked in five trips to drive in a pair and C Zach Zaneski (.273 / .314 / .364) doubled in a 2-for-4 outing, driving in two.

Rookie: Athletics 7 @ Rangers 3

RHP Richard Alvarez (4.85 ERA) — who, at 16, would still be two years away from becoming draft eligible had he been born in the United States — got through five, surrendering three runs on five hits and a walk, punching out three in five innings of work.

And I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but C Tomas “El Toro” Telis can hit. After going 3-for-4 yesterday, the 18 year old Venezuelan is at .347 / .346 / .440 for the season.