Yorman Rodriguez has been on a tear in August, particularly over the last 11 games, all of which he has a hit in, but Monday night was the best of them all. The outfielder went 4-4 with a steal, three runs scored, two doubles and a home run. During his hit streak, Rodriguez has hit .450/.538/.900 with 10 walks and eight strikeouts. If there’s a hotter hitter in the minor leagues right now I’d like to see who it is. Last night I uploaded a few clips from my time in Pensacola earlier this month. Give them a watch.
Before last night though, Kyle Waldrop may have been that player. Waldrop has a hitting streak of his own going, up to eight games after a 1-4 with a double effort on Monday for Pensacola. In fact, Waldrop may still be hotter as he has hit .500/.514/.853 during his hitting streak with just four strikeouts.
In a very important game with playoff implications last night between Dayton and Great Lakes, Nick Travieso fired a gem. The right hander tossed six shutout innings with five strikeouts and no walks as he lowered his season ERA to 3.10 and picked up a Midwest League best 13th win of the season. After allowing six earned runs on July 13th, Travieso has posted 1.18 ERA spanning 45.2 innings and eight starts.
On the offensive side of the Dayton win last night the Reds system saw Phillip Ervin go 2-3 with a run, a run batted in and a steal. The steal was the 30th of the season for Ervin in 33 attempts, which is good for a 91% success rate. Ervin joins Juan Silva as the only other minor leaguer in the system with 30 steals this year.
Ty Boyles started the first game of the Arizona League Reds double header on Monday night and while he took the loss, he pitched quite well. The big left hander allowed just one earned run in 4.0 innings with a walk and six strikeouts as he lowered his ERA to 3.35 on the season. The 18-year-old lefty has just 16 walks and 52 strikeouts in 45.2 innings this season to go along with a 1.01 WHIP.