SF Giants prospects rundown 5/28: Carson Ragsdale strikes out a dozen

SF Giants Prospects Rundown 5/28: Double-A

The Richmond Flying Squirrels game against the Reading Fightin Phils in Reading was postponed due to rain. The game is scheduled to be made up in a doubleheader on Saturday.

SF Giants Prospects Rundown 5/28: High-A

Spokane 7 at Eugene Emeralds 1
Performance of the Game: Chris Wright (2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K)

Spokane convincingly beat the Emeralds in Eugene on Friday. The Emeralds bats were shut down by Rockies top pitching prospect Chris McMahon aside from a third-inning solo shot by Franklin Labour. Without much other offense though, the pitching staff needed to put together a nearly perfect performance to pull out a victory. That’s not what they got.

Emeralds starter Nick Avila gave up four runs in 4.2 innings and while righty John Russell ended a jam unscathed in the fifth inning in relief of Avila, he gave up a three-run home run in the sixth inning enabling Spokane to take a commanding lead that would never be challenged.

With two outs in the sixth inning, lefty Chris Wright made his Emeralds debut to fan out the flames. He did so by pitching a stellar 2.1 innings of relief with all of his outs via strikeouts and only allowing one baserunner via a walk. He was executing his pitches very well, filling the upper third and the arm-side third of the strike zone with his fastball that touched 95 mph and paired it with his curveball that he located in the dirt. He even threw a couple of show-me changeups.

There are only a few standout lefty relievers in the farm system and based on his performance this season, he is definitely one of them. For that reason, he received my vote for the performance of the game. Wright may have begun the year at Low-A, but relievers can always move quite rapidly through the minor-league ranks. Thus far, he’s definitely building that kind of momentum.