Royals June 19th Minors Recap

Tuesday was All-Star Game night for two of the KC Royals affiliates, as the California-Carolina League ASG was going on at exactly the same time as the Midwest League ASG.

Let’s start with the CL-CL game. The Wilmington Blue Rocks were represented by two starting pitchers, Yordano Ventura and Sugar Ray Marimon. Despite the fact that neither started the game in Winston-Salem, Marimon did pick up the victory. He pitched the 4th inning, struck out two, and only threw 13 pitches. The Carolina League took the lead in the bottom of the 4th inning and held on for the 9-1 win. Ventura followed him up with a scoreless 5th inning (though he walked a batter).

Kane County was the host for the Midwest League ASG and it was over after the first two innings (though they played all nine). The East led 13-0 after two innings and won 18-2 while pounding out 20 hits. Unfortunately, the Cougars representatives played for the West squad. Outfielders Jorge Bonifacio and Lane Adams started and batted 3-4 in the order. They went a combined 0-for-5. The bright spot was reliever Matt Ridings. He got into the game in the 5th inning with two outs and struck out the only batter he faced (on three pitches).

Now onto the other regular season games.

Omaha won again, as they beat Memphis, 3-2. Jeremy Jeffress made it interesting in the 9th inning, as he allowed a run and the Redbirds had the tying run on second base. However Jeffress got Pete Kozma to line out to end the game.

It was all about pitching, as veteran Doug Davis made the start and allowed just one run over six innings of work. Francisley Bueno followed with two scoreless innings of relief.

NW Arkansas seems to still have fight left in them at the end of the first half. They have won the first two games of their series against first-place Tulsa, as they won again Tuesday night in walk-off fashion. The Naturals won 5-4 in 11 innings.

With two outs and two men on base in the bottom of the 11th inning, Yem Prades delivered the game winning single.

For the Naturals, there was good starting pitching and a good finish. Michael Mariot allowed just one run on six hits and a walk over seven innings. Tim Sexton picked up the win after throwing three scoreless innings of relief.