Here are Tuesday's best prospect performers
Here are the best performances by players on team Top 30 Prospects lists from across the Minor Leagues on Tuesday:
Carlos Hernandez, RHP, Royals No. 13
Class A Lexington is one game away from a South Atlantic League title after blanking Hickory, 7-0, on Tuesday in Game 2 of the best-of-five championship series.
Hernandez headlined the Legends’ shutout by tossing five innings of two-hit ball. The 22-year-old right-hander issued three walks, hit a batter and struck out six while throwing 54 of 89 pitches for strikes. He’s allowed two runs on five hits across 11 innings between a pair of postseason starts after posting a 3.50 ERA with 43 strikeouts and nine walks in 36 innings (seven starts) with Lexington during the regular season.
Shortstop Jeison Guzman hit an RBI single and reached base three times, going 2-for-4 with a walk, and Eric Cole hit a three-run homer in the ninth inning to cap a 3-for-5, four-RBI night at the plate. Royals prospect stats »
Connor Wong, C/2B, Dodgers No. 28
Wong fueled Double-A Tulsa’s late comeback with a game-tying three-run homer in the eighth inning, only to watch as the Drillers’ bullpen surrendered seven runs in the bottom of the frame to drop Game 1 of the best-of-five Texas League finals to Amarillo, 13-7. Wong’s dinger was the last of the four homers hit by Tulsa in the Game 1 loss. Dodgers prospect stats »
Bobby Bradley, 1B, Indians No. 7
The Triple-A Columbus Clippers hit three early home runs as they slugged their way to an 8-3 win over Durham in Game 1 of the best-of-five Governors’ Cup finals.
Bradley belted a massive three-run homer off the scoreboard in right-center field to put Columbus on the board in the first inning, and back-to-back homers from Ka’ai Tom (three-run) and Andrew Velazquez in the fourth widened the Clippers’ lead.
Bradley, after hitting a career-high 33 homers during the regular season, has now gone deep twice in the postseason after Tuesday’s tape-measure blast. He finished 1-for-3. Indians prospect stats »
Matthew Allan, RHP, Mets No. 4
The Brooklyn Cyclones received a dominant relief outing from Matthew Allan and picked up some timely hits along the way as they edged Class A Short-Season Lowell, 4-3, to secure their first New York-Penn League title since 2001.
After splitting the first two games of best-of-three championship series, the Cyclones jumped out to an early lead in Tuesday’s winner-take-all Game 3 with a two-spot in the second inning. First-round pick Brett Baty (Mets’ No. 2, MLB No. 82) drew a leadoff walk and advanced to third on Ranfy Adon’s double to left field. Two batters later, Jake Mangum (No. 24) plated Baty with a single to right, and Brooklyn tacked on another run via a groundout before the end of the frame. Mangum picked up his second hit of the game in the seventh, then came around to score on Antoine Duplantis’ game-tying RBI triple. Yoel Romero subsequently plated Duplantis with a single to put the Cyclones ahead for good.
Allan (No. 4), the club’s third-round pick from this year’s Draft, entered out of the bullpen in the fourth inning and retired the first nine batters he faced while running his plus fastball up to 97 mph. He notched a pair of strikeouts as well as five groundouts and threw 20 of 24 pitches for strikes. It was the second perfect outing in the postseason for the 18-year-old righty after he worked two frames en route to a win against Hudson Valley in the NYPL semifinals.
Andrew Edwards tossed a clean eighth inning, but allowed two of Lowell’s first three batters to reach base in the ninth. However, the 22-year-old left-hander quickly bounced back, recording back-to-back swinging strikeouts to seal both the win and a Cyclones title. Mets prospect stats »
Edward Olivares, OF; Buddy Reed, OF, Padres No. 17 and 25
Double-A Amarillo squandered an early lead before erupting to score seven runs in the eighth inning to take Game 1 of the Texas League Championship Series from Tulsa, 13-6.
After Tulsa pushed across three runs in the top of the eighth to tie the game, 6-6, the Sod Poodles responded by loading the bases with one out ahead of Padres No. 17 prospect Edward Olivares, who cleared the bases with a double to right field before scoring on a wild pitch. Brad Zunica added a two-run double to extend Amarillo’s lead, while Reed’s two-out single tacked on another insurance run.
Reed (No. 25) also hit a solo homer in the contest -- off No. 99 overall prospect Josiah Gray -- and scored a team-high three runs. Padres prospect stats »
Abiatal Avelino, SS, Giants No. 27
Avelino sent Triple-A Sacramento home with an 8-7 win in Game 1 of the best-of-five Pacific Coast League Championship series. Avelino, who finished 2-for-5, came up clutch with a two-out, walk-off double after Round Rock had tied the game in the top of the ninth.
The 24-year-old, whom the Giants acquired in a 2018 trade with the Yankees, hit .283 over 121 games with the River Cats this year and also appeared in four games with the Giants, batting 2-for-7.
Sacramento is set to host the first two games of the series before travelling to Round Rock for the final three games of the series. Giants prospect stats »
Yusniel Diaz, OF, Orioles No. 5
Double-A Bowie got off to a strong start on Tuesday, pushing across a pair of runs in the first inning, though it would account for all of the Baysox scoring as they fell to Trenton, 6-2, in Game 1 of the best-of-five Eastern League Championship Series.
Diaz drove in Bowie’s second run of the game with a first-inning double and finished the game 2-for-4. Catcher Carlos Perez also collected two hits, going 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles. Baysox starter Michael Baumann (No. 9) struggled with his control as he issued five walks (matching his season high) and uncorked a pair of wild pitches, while throwing 56 of 91 pitches for strikes over 3 2/3 frames. He allowed two runs on five hits and struck out six. Orioles prospect stats »
Seth Beer, 1B/OF, D-backs No. 4
The Jackson Generals rallied back from an early four-run deficit but ultimately came up short against Double-A Biloxi, dropping Game 1 of the best-of-five Southern League finals, 9-7.
D-backs No. 4 prospect Seth Beer (MLB No. 96), whom Arizona acquired from the Astros in the Zack Greinke Trade Deadline blockbuster, went 3-for-5 with an RBI double to pace the Generals’ offense. Ramon Hernandez, a 23-year-old infielder, also plated a run as part of a 3-for-5 performance. Former second-round pick (2017) Drew Ellis was the lone Generals player to score two runs. D-backs prospect stats »