Red Sox Daily Minor League Report: Franklin Arias Crushes Another Homer, Now Leads the Red Sox Organization

Boston Red Sox Affiliate Recap (May 27)

Triple-A Worcester Red Sox 

Season Record: 25-25

Five different WooSox batters collected multi-hit games, defeating the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders 8-1.

Anthony Seigler set the tone early, leading off the scoring with a solo homer to right-center in the top of the first. The RailRiders tied it up fast 1-1 in the bottom half, hitting a homer, but that was the last time Scranton would score. 

The third inning blew the game open; Worcester hung a four-spot on the RailRiders' starting pitcher. Braiden Ward legged out a double on a soft hit ball to left field and scored when Nate Eaton hit a double of his own. Seigler followed with an RBI single, making it back-to-back multi-hit games, pushing the lead to 3–1. Kristian Campbell was hit by a pitch to put two runners on with two outs, then Vinny Capra ripped a two-run ground-rule double to left that continued their third inning onslaught, 5–1. 

They kept the pressure on in the fourth, Eaton smacked his second RBI double of the night on a soft fly that dropped in right field, bringing in Nathan Hickey after he drew a walk. Seigler came through again with another RBI single up the middle, his third RBI of the game, and just like that, it was 7–1. Scranton starter’s day at the mound was done after seven earned runs.

Worcester tacked on one more in the seventh on a Matt Thaiss force-out with the bases loaded that scored Capra, making it 8–1.

The star hitters of the game for the Sox were Allan Castro, Eaton, Ward, and Capra, who all had two-hit games, while Seigler put up a three-hit game. 

Jake Bennett was excellent on the mound, pitching five innings, scattering four hits, and allowing just a solo homer for the one earned run. He punched out seven and only one walk to earn his third win of the year. Eduardo Rivera, Devin Sweet, and Angel Bastardo combined to throw four scoreless no-hit innings of relief, striking out five in that stretch.

Standout Performances:

• Jake Bennett: 5 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K
• Anthony Seigler: 3-for-5, HR, 2 R, 3 RBI
• Vinny Capra: 2-for-4, 2B, R, 2 RBI, BB
• Nate Eaton: 2-for-4, 2 R, 2 RBI, BB

Double-A Portland Sea Dogs

Season Record: 24-22

The Sea Dogs fell behind in the first inning and never trailed the rest of the game in a 6-2 victory over the Binghamton Rumble Ponies. Although they went 1-for-15 with RISP, the long ball is what prevailed for the Sea Dogs.

A shaky start turned around quickly when the Rumble Ponies grabbed a 1–0 lead in the bottom of the first with a little help from a throwing error by Ahbram Liendo, which allowed Jorge Polanco to score. But Portland's response was swift: Will Turner crushed a solo homer to right field in the top of the second to tie it 1–1. 

The home runs kept coming. Franklin Arias launched a solo shot to center in the third, his 12th of the year, making it a Red Sox organizational lead in home runs, giving Portland a lead, 2–1. Binghamton tied it back up in the fourth 2-2 on an RBI groundout, but Johanfran Garcia answered right back in the fifth inning with a solo blast to left center field (his 7th) to put the Sea Dogs ahead for good, 3–2.

Portland broke it open in the sixth. Will Turner led off the inning with a walk, Miguel Bleis reached base on an infield hit, and then Nelly Taylor was hit by a pitch to load the bases with no outs. Raudelis Martinez ripped a two-run single up the middle (deflected off the shortstop's glove) that scored Turner and Bleis, pushing it to 5–2. Taylor then scored on a double play hit by Liendo to make it 6–2. Binghamton never recovered.

Like he has been all month, Blake Wehunt was outstanding once again on the mound, tossing a season-high six innings, giving up just three hits and two runs (only one earned run due to an error), earning his second win of the season. He has dominated in his last three starts, giving up only one earned run in 14.1 innings, while striking out 26 batters with a 0.63 ERA.

Max Carlson was particularly impressive in relief, tossing two scoreless innings with five strikeouts to shut the door. Erik Rivera bridged the gap between them with a clean inning of his own. The pitching staff combined for 14 strikeouts and held Binghamton to five hits.

Standout Performances:

• Blake Wehunt: 6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K
• Max Carlson: 2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 5 K
• Franklin Arias: 2-for-5, HR, R, RBI
• Johanfran Garcia: 2-for-5, HR, R, RBI
• Raudelis Martinez: 2-for-4, 2B, 2 RBI
• Will Turner: 1-for-2, HR, 2 R, RBI, 3 BB, SB

High-A Greenville Drive

Season Record: 18-27

The Drive scored 10+ runs in back-to-back games against the Asheville Tourists, defeating them 11-5. 

The second inning got the party started. Jack Winnay drew a walk, and Mason White singled to set the table. Then, Yophery Rodriguez came through with an RBI double, a ball that should have been caught to end the inning was hit sky high, and some bad communication by the Asheville infield forced the ball to drop just behind the second baseman. Ronny Hernandez followed with a two-run double to left, giving Greenville a 3–0 cushion.

Asheville punched back hard in the third, they hit back-to-back doubles that brought in three runs, then hit a sacrifice fly that gave the Tourists a 4–3 lead. Suddenly, Greenville was trailing for the first time.

In the bottom of the fourth, with White and Rodriguez aboard, Hernandez launched a three-run homer to center that flipped the game right back in Greenville's favor, 6–4. 

Greenville kept piling on. Yoeilin Cespedes’ sacrifice fly in the sixth made it 7–4. Asheville scratched one back in the seventh on yet another RBI double, pulling it to 7–5. The Drive's response in the bottom of the inning was devastating: with bases loaded, Enddy Azocar came up to the plate and unloaded a monster grand slam, his first homer in High-A, blowing the game wide open, 11–5.

Greenville’s pitching staff was forced into a bullpen game after Marcus Phillips struggled. Phillips threw 2 ⅔ innings and got roughed up for four runs in the third inning. P.J. Labriola took over from there with 1 ⅓  scoreless frames to earn his fourth win of the season. Osvaldo Berrios gave Greenville 2 ⅓  solid innings (one hit, one earned run, three strikeouts), and Matt McShane locked it down with 2 ⅔  one-hit innings of relief to pick up his third save, striking out four.

Standout Performances:

• Ronny Hernandez: 3-for-4, HR, 2B, 2 R, 5 RBI, BB
• Enddy Azocar: 2-for-4, HR, R, 4 RBI, BB
• Yophery Rodriguez: 2-for-4, 2B, 3 R, RBI, BB
• Mason White: 3-for-4, 2 R, BB

Single-A Salem RidgeYaks

Season Record: 21-26

Salem had a rough time getting runners aboard in their low-scoring 4-2 defeat to the Crawdads.

Salem struck fast in the bottom of the first, Andrews Opata drew a walk then stole his 24th base of the season (the Red Sox organization leader in stolen bases), and came around to score on a Skylar King single through the left side, giving them a 1-0 lead.

Unfortunately, the offense went cold after that. Salem managed just three hits total on the night, Kleyver Salazar accounted for two of them (including a double), and King had the RBI single. Only one walk was drawn as a team. Hickory's pitching staff kept Salem's bats bottled up all night.

Salem's pitching kept it close for a long time. The staff held Hickory scoreless from the fourth through the sixth, keeping it tied, 1–1. When the Crawdads got the lead after taking reliever Jay Allmer deep with a solo homer in the top of the seventh to make it 2–1, Salem answered right back. Salazar doubled, moved to third, and scored on an Adonys Guzman sacrifice fly to tie it 2–2. 

The eighth inning was where it fell apart. Allmer couldn't get out of trouble; he walked two batters and gave up a single to load the bases with no outs, then a Crawdads runner scored on a wild pitch to make it 3–2. A second run also came in on a double-play ball, pushing it to 4–2. Two runs allowed with just one hit, but there could have been more damage if it wasn’t for the double-play.

Luis Cohen was excellent in long relief, four innings, two hits, zero runs, and four strikeouts. He kept Salem in the game, giving the offense a chance to score runs.

Standout Performances:

• Luis Cohen: 4 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
• Kleyver Salazar: 2-for-4, 2B, R

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