| Red Sox Minor League Roundup: Sox avoid a scare with Blake Swihart; Drake Britton is dealing; Lars Anderson is on fire | 06.16.12 at 10:39 am ET |
A quick look at Friday’s action in the Red Sox minor league system:
TRIPLE-A PAWTUCKET RED SOX: 8-3 WIN AT BUFFALO (METS)
(BOX)
– Lars Anderson is amidst one of his most impressive stretches as a professional, a run that continued on Friday when he went 2-for-5 with a homer (his ninth of the year). In 17 games dating to May 27, he is hitting .362 (fourth in the International League during that stretch) with a .479 OBP (1st), .759 slugging mark (1st), 1.237 OPS (1st) and six homers (tied for second).
– Ryan Kalish went 1-for-5 while slamming his fourth homer in eight games in Pawtucket and fifth overall in 14 minor league games this year.
– Pedro Ciriaco went 4-for-5 with a homer and double, his second four-hit game of the year. He currently has an 11-game hitting streak. For the year, he’s hitting .302 but with just a .322 OBP, the byproduct of the fact that he’s walked five times (against 36 strikeouts) in 208 plate appearances.
– Justin Germano tossed 5 2/3 innings while allowing one run on four hits and one walk, striking out six to improve to 8-3 with a 2.49 ERA. Opponents are hitting .215 against him. He’s been the most effective starter in Pawtucket this year, and so he could be part of the discussion for the Red Sox rotation depending on the length of Josh Beckett‘s absence.
DOUBLE-A PORTLAND SEA DOGS: 4-2 WIN AT RICHMOND (GIANTS)
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– Left-hander Drake Britton continued to excel in his promotion to Double-A Portland, firing six innings while allowing two runs on eight hits, striking out four and, perhaps most significantly, walking none. In three starts since moving up from High-A Salem, Britton is 1-0 with a 1.10 ERA, 11 strikeouts and eight walks in 16 1/3 innings. Opponents are hitting .177 against him. Friday marked the third time this year that he did not walk a batter in a start of at least five innings, something that he did just once in 2011 in Salem.
– Outfielder Juan Carlos Linares went 3-for-3 with a double and walk. He ranks second in the Eastern League with a .337 average, second with a .409 OBP, third with a .534 slugging mark and third with a .943 OPS.
HIGH-A SALEM RED SOX: 10-4 WIN VS. CAROLINA (INDIANS)
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– Outfielder Brandon Jacobs went 2-for-3 with a homer (his fourth of the year), an infield single and a pair of walks. For the year, he has a .284/.338/.423/.761 line that is, across the board, better than league average (.255/.327/.382/.709), with particularly big numbers against left-handers. His homer yesterday came against a southpaw, and the 21-year-old is now hitting .391/.472/.630/1.102 against lefties.
– Shortstop Xander Bogaerts went 1-for-3 with a walk and homer, his ninth of the year, tied for the eighth most in the Carolina League. He’s amidst a “three true outcomes” (homers, strikeouts, walks) sort of stretch, as he’s 2-for-16 with a homer, four walks and nine strikeouts in his last five games. Still, overall this year, he’s commanded at-bats well, as he is walking in 9.1 percent of his plate appearances, a mark that is better than the league average of 8.4 percent. Given that he is one of the youngest players in the league at 19, and that his walks are not coming at the expense of aggressive approach that lends itself to extra-base pop (he has 26 extra-base hits on the year), Bogaerts’ across-the-board numbers suggest an extremely advanced approach for a prospect his age. Despite his recent skid, in June, he is hitting .322 with a .414 OBP, .644 slugging mark, 1.058 OPS and five homers.
– Brandon Workman continued his steady, effective season at Salem, logging six innings in which he allowed one run on three hits while striking out two and walking none. In his last four starts, he has a 1.17 ERA. For the year, he is 4-3 with a 3.12 ERA, 55 strikeouts and 13 walks in 57 2/3 innings.
SINGLE-A GREENVILLE DRIVE: 2-1 LOSS AT AUGUSTA (GIANTS)
(BOX)
– Catcher Blake Swihart had a foul ball hit his right hand in the fourth inning on Friday and immediately left the game to undergo tests. While the injury initially looked bad, creating fears of a possible fracture, worst-case scenarios were avoided when Swihart was diagnosed with a contusion.
The switch-hitting 20-year-old, who is playing for Single-A Greenville after being taken by the Sox in the first round of the 2011 draft, has been putting up a solid performance in his first professional season. On the year, he’s hitting .250 with a .302 OBP, .375 slugging mark and .677 OPS, though those relatively modest totals reflect a sluggish start to his year. Since May 16, he’s hitting .338/.391/.519/.910 with two homers and nine extra-base hits in 22 games.
– Right-hander Noe Ramirez, coming off a pro debut in which he tossed five perfect innings, allowed one unearned run in four innings while scattering six hits (all singles, four of the groundball variety), walking two and striking out four. He also elicited a pair of double play grounders.
– Garin Cecchini went 0-for-4, and he is now 2-for-26 (.077) with no walks and 10 strikeouts in his last six games.
DOMINICAN SUMMER LEAGUE RED SOX: 3-2 WIN VS. DSL METS
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– Center fielder Manuel Margot went 2-for-3 with a walk and his ninth steal of the young season. (He was also caught stealing for the first time this year.) The 17-year-old is second in the DSL in steals.
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http://www.facebook.com/derek.lee.82 Derek Lee









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