Red Sox Daily Minor League Report: Jake Bennett Dominates, Ties WooSox Record For Strikeouts In A Game

Boston Red Sox Affiliate Recap (May 20)

Triple-A Worcester Red Sox

Season Record: 23-22

Great pitching performances went to waste as Worcester gave up five runs in the 11th inning to lose 7-2 to the Rochester Red Wings (Washington Nationals).

Jake Bennett was dominant, striking out 11 batters, tying the WooSox franchise record for the most strikeouts in a game. Bennett tossed five innings of one-run ball, generated 15 whiffs, and a 49% chase rate. The curveball was filthy, creating 10 whiffs, and the velocity on all his pitches was up by +2 mph.

35-year-old Tayron Guerrero lit up the radar gun in his two shutout innings, his fastball maxed out at 102.6 mph while having a 63% whiff rate on the heater, generating five whiffs on eight swings. 

The bullpen held it down after Bennett for the rest of the game, up until the 11th inning came along. In the meantime, Guerrero, Eduardo Rivera, and Tommy Kahnle combined for four scoreless innings after Bennett. Kyle Keller allowed a run from a sacrifice fly in the sixth to give Rochester a 2-1 lead, but Worcester clawed back afterwards. Wyatt Olds came in for the 11th, and the floodgates opened. The Red Wings had themselves a five-run inning to blow the game open, giving Worcester no chance to come back with the way their bats had looked prior. 

Offensively, Worcester couldn't get much going, managing seven hits and just two runs across 11 innings. Matt Lloyd's solo homer in the fifth tied it at 1-1, and Nate Eaton drove in Tsung-Che Cheng with a clutch groundout in the bottom of the 9th to force extras at 2-2. Beyond that, the lineup was quiet, no extra-base hits besides Lloyd's blast as the lineup altogether went 0-for-8 with RISP. 

Key Performances:

• Jake Bennett: 5 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 11 K
• Tayron Guerrero: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K

Double-A Portland Sea Dogs

Season Record: 19-21

On Roman Anthony’s bobble head day, the Sea Dogs jumped on the Fightin Phils (Philadelphia Phillies) early and never looked back, defeating them 9-4.

Johanfran “The Username” Garcia was the star on offense for Portland. The catcher collected two hits with a walk, scored three runs, and had two RBIs, including a solo homer in the fifth to push the lead to 8-2.

Hayden Mullins was impressive in his outing. The 26-year-old lefty only let up one hit while allowing two runs, striking out seven in his five innings of work. Mullins now holds a 3.58 ERA as opponents are batting just .140 off him. 

Portland got off to an early 3-0 lead in the first inning. Will Turner walked, and Nate Baez hit a double to left field to put two runners on. Garcia followed up with an RBI single to bring in Turner. Marvin Alcantara came up to the plate and brought in Baez with a sacrifice fly, then Nelly Taylor roped an RBI double to give the Sea Dogs the early lead.

After Reading made it a one-run game in the second, the Sea Dogs exploded with a four-run inning in the bottom half. Raudelis Martinez smacked a lead-off single, and Ahbram Liendo reached base on a throwing error by the pitcher, advancing both runners an extra 90 feet. That set up Franklin Arias to bring in Martinez with a sacrifice fly, making it 4-2. Turner made a productive groundout count to push the lead 5-2. With two outs, Baez hit an infield single, and Garcia worked a walk, then Alcantara capped off the four-run inning with a base-clearing RBI double, giving the Sea Dogs a big 7-2 lead entering the third. 

Johanfran Garcia launched a solo bomb in the fifth, giving them an 8-2 lead. The Fightin Phils tried to claw back by scoring two runs in the sixth, but it was not enough. Liendo made it a 9-4 game in the eighth with a sacrifice fly, giving Portland a comfortable lead to finish the last inning.

Cade Feeney pitched well in the last two innings, tossing two shutout innings, giving up one hit and no runs while striking out three.

Key Performances:

• Hayden Mullins: 5 IP, 1 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 K
• Johanfran Garcia: 2-for-3, HR, 3 R, 2 RBI, BB
• Nelly Taylor: 2-for-4, 2 2B, RBI, SB
• Nate Baez: 2-for-5, 2B, 2 R

High-A Greenville Drive

Season Record: 16-25

The Greenville Drive’s bats were not quite on point, despite a late comeback attempt in the ninth, losing 6-4 to the Frederick Keys (Baltimore Orioles).

Justin Gonzales kept his hitting streak alive, now reaching eight games. The 19-year-old phenom still awaits his promotion to Portland, slashing .315/.420/.534 for Greenville this season.

The Drive offense was largely silenced through the first six innings by Frederick’s starter. Greenville managed baserunners in the second inning, a hit-by-pitch, a single, and a walk loaded the bases; unfortunately, they could not push anything across the plate.

Adonys Guzman broke the shutout in the seventh with a solo homer to right field, his third home run of the year, cutting it 2-1. But the Keys answered emphatically in the bottom half of the seventh, reliever Osvaldo Berrios and Joey Gartrell got roughed up as Frederick scored three runs on an RBI single and a two-run single to blow it open 5-1.

Down 5-1, the Drive showed some fight in the eighth, drawing three straight walks to load the bases with no outs, but the Keys got two outs very quickly with no damage, a run was forced in when Yophery Rodriguez walked with the bases loaded to make it 5-2, but Greenville left the bases juiced when a strikeout ended the threat.

In the ninth, Yoeilin Cespedes crushed a two-run homer, his eighth of the year, scoring Henry Godbout to pull the game closer 6-4. Sadly, a lineout with a runner on ended the game.

Single-A Salem RidgeYaks

Season Record: 18-23

Other than a couple of errors, Salem took control of both sides of the ball in the 8-3 victory over the Hill City Howlers (Cleveland Guardians).

Enddy Azocar tallied a double, his 15th of the year, to extend his hitting streak to six games, while D’Angelo Ortiz and Luke Heyman each had themselves a multi-hit game.

The Howlers scored early in the first inning with a sacrifice fly, but Salem tied it up 1-1 in the second inning when Anderson Fermin roped a one-out triple, then Stanley Tucker put the ball in play and caused an error, scoring Fermin to tie it. A bad-timed error in the bottom half from the RidgeYaks gave up a run, losing the lead 2-1.

Salem exploded in the fourth inning, scoring four runs on five extra-base hits. Andrews Opata kicked things off by launching a solo homer to center, his third of the year, to tie it 2-2. From there, the RidgeYaks just kept hammering doubles: Ilan Fernandez lined one to center to score Ortiz, Azocar doubled to right to bring in Fernandez, and Starlyn Nunez roped an RBI double to left field to make it 5-2.

In the fifth, Opata reached on a fielder's choice, then stole his 20th base of the season. Fermin drew a walk, and Tucker delivered the knockout blow with a two-run single to right. Ortiz followed with a sacrifice fly to push the lead to 8-2. The Howlers managed one more unearned run in the bottom half, but the game was effectively over with how efficient Salem’s pitching staff had looked.

Barrett Morgan started on the mound and went 4 ⅓ innings, allowing one earned run, on one hit with one strikeout and three walks. Wuilliams Rodriguez and Harry Blum combined to shut the door over the final innings, keeping the Howlers to just three hits total on the night.

Key Performances:

• D’Angelo Ortiz: 2-for-3, 2 2B, R, RBI
• Andrews Opata: HR, 2 R, RBI, SB
• Stanley Tucker: 1-for-4, R, 3 RBI, SB 

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