The Rangers had a couple of interesting pitching prospects who have gotten off to great starts going in A ball tonight, with Tyler Phillips pitching for Down East and Yerry Rodriguez going for Hickory.
Phillips had thrown 19 scoreless innings to start the season coming into today, and after four innings tonight, I tweeted that he was at 23 straight scoreless innings to begin the year. So it was probably my fault he gave up a homer in the fifth, breaking the streak. Phillips then allowed a run in the sixth before being pulled with two on and two out, and the two runners ended up scoring, leaving him with 4 runs on his ledger. That means Phillips ERA on the year has ballooned all the way up to 1.46.
Meanwhile, in Hickory, Yerry had an easier time of it. Throwing 57 of 77 pitches for strikes over 6 innings, Yerry walked 1, allowed 1 run on 6 hits, and struck out 7. That raised his ERA in the season to 1.20. Mark Parker tweeted that he was throwing 94-95 on his fastball, and was getting swings and misses on his changeup and breaking ball.
Frisco saw the AA debut of Emmanuel Clase, the reliever promoted from Down East earlier today, though I would be remiss without first acknowledging the job Pedro Payano did. The righthander struck out 9 while walking 2 in 5 innings of no-hit ball. Clase pitched the 8th, and needed just 6 pitches to retire the side on a fly out, a K and a ground out.
As far as the bats on the farm went tonight, Tyreque Reed, Curtis Terry, and Sam Huff all homered, and there wasn’t much else to talk about.