Cup of Coffee: Lovullo rips clutch home run for Salem

7/23 Cup of Coffee: It was a very quiet night for the bats as Salem was the only affiliate to pick up a win. Nick Lovullo blasted a clutch two-run homer in the ninth inning to put it away for Salem. Shaun Anderson (pictured) pitched very well, Jay Groome struggled, and Tanner Houck made his second start of the year. Bryce Brentz belted another home run for Pawtucket.

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Norfolk Tides (BAL) 6, Pawtucket Red Sox 4

The PawSox took a 4-2 lead into the ninth, but Austin Maddox blew the save and allowed four runs. Shawn Haviland started and pitched well, allowing just one run in 6 2/3 innings with four strikeouts and one walk. Bryce Brentz went 2 for 4 with his 21st long ball of the season. Aneury Tavarez and Dan Butler also went 2 for 4. Rafael Devers was 1 for 4 with a single and two strikeouts.

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Cup of Coffee: Dalbec, Ockimey homer in wins

7/22 Cup of Coffee: Darwinzon Hernandez and Mike Shawaryn each pitched very well again in wins for Greenville and Salem. Jeremy Rivera (pictured) had a monster day at the plate with four hits, including a home run. Bobby Dalbec and Josh Ockimey also belted homers. 

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Norfolk Tides (BAL) 9, Pawtucket Red Sox 5

Despite another solid night overall for Rafael Devers, he couldn't come through in the end as he struck out with the bases loaded to end the game. He still collected a pair of opposite field singles. Steve Selsky was 2 for 4 with three RBI and Tzu Wei-Lin reached three times with a pair of singles and a walk. Marcus Walden was roughed up for six runs on 10 hits in just 5 1/3 innings. Robby Scott pitched a scoreless inning with two strikeouts in his second game back with the PawSox, and Noe Ramirez struck out the side in the ninth. 

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Cup of Coffee: Lin collects three hits; Madera keys comeback

7/21 Cup of Coffee: It was a full slate of games in the system on Thursday. Portland powered up with a five-homer victory. Salem came from behind to maintain its one-game lead in the Northern Division. Jalen Beeks carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning before running out of gas, and Tzu-Wei Lin (pictured) had a three-hit night after starting his Triple-A assignment with a 1-for-9 stretch.

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Norfolk Tides (BAL) 7, Pawtucket Red Sox 3

After cruising through five hitless innings, starter Jalen Beeks was touched for three runs apiece in the sixth and the seventh. Beeks gave up three home runs after having surrendered only five in 93 innings all season. Top prospect Rafael Devers was 0 for 3 with a walk, as his average dipped below .400 for the first time since his promotion from Double-A. Tzu-Wei Lin had three hits, while Josh Rutledge began his rehab assignment by going 1 for 4 with a double.

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Minor Notes: Houck makes professional debut

Here are Thursday's minor league notes:

• First-round selection Tanner Houck (pictured) made his minor league debut for the Lowell Spinners on Monday night. The right-hander from Missouri threw one inning, allowing three runs (two earned) with two strikeouts and a walk. SoxProspects.com Director of Scouting Ian Cundall attended the game and had some positive notes despite Houck's shaky performance. 

• After Tuesday's scheduled starting pitcher, Doug Fister, threw 2 2/3 innings of relief in Saturday's 16-inning loss, the Red Sox were forced to shuffle their roster this week. The Red Sox optioned left-hander Robby Scott, who had pitched to a 3.75 ERA in 24 innings with Boston, to Pawtucket and recalled Brian Johnson to make the start. In a move to add some additional bullpen depth (which was ultimately necessary due to a 15-inning marathon on Tuesday), Boston also recalled Hector Velazquez and optioned first baseman Sam Travis to Pawtucket. Travis, who lands third in the SoxProspects.com rankings, has hit .279/.380/.395 in 50 major league plate appearances. 

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Cup of Coffee: Devers goes deep, Travis returns to PawSox

7/20 Cup of Coffee: Another home run from Rafael Devers was not enough for the PawSox, while Trey Ball was hit hard again in Portland. Greenville's offense came out firing in support of Kyle Hart (pictured), Lowell's recent slide continued, and Alexander Martinez drove in another run for the DSL Red Sox. 

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Toledo Mud Hens (DET) 7, Pawtucket Red Sox 3

It was a strange day in Pawtucket, as the PawSox used a position player to pitch in a one-run game in the eighth. Kyle Kendrick helped out the short-handed pitching staff by going the first six innings, allowing three runs on seven hits. Austin Maddox pitched the seventh, allowing one run with three walks. He needed 35 pitches to get through the inning, and with no other pitchers available due to injury or rest, infielder Mike Miller came on for his third appearance of the season. He allowed three runs on five hits over two innings as the Mud Hens pulled away. 

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Scouting Scratch: Trey Ball

PORTLAND, Me.-- Since he was drafted seventh-overall in the 2013 draft, left-hander Trey Ball has shown flashes of promise, but for the most part been wildly inconsistent. One need only look at his last two starts for evidence: the one I attended on July 7, one of the best of his career, and his follow-up effort on July 14, in which he gave up eight runs, seven earned, and failed to record an out in the second before being pulled. Here’s the Scouting Scratch from the first of those outings.

Age: 23

Height: 6-5

Weight: 215

Throws: Left

How Acquired: Draft, 1st Rd., 2013 (New Castle (Ind.) HS)

Line: 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K; 83 pitches, 55 strikes (66%); 15/24 first-pitch strikes (63%); 12 swinging strikes.

Trey Ball has a tall, lanky, pitcher’s frame. He has added size since he signed and looks his listed height and weight (taken from the Portland game notes, rather than his outdated 185-pound listing on the milb.com roster). He is an above-average athlete for a pitcher. Already 23 with a well-proportioned body, Ball doesn’t have much projection remaining. 

Ball threw from a three-quarters arm slot with a short arm action and average arm speed. He started his delivery with his glove high and in front of his face. He doesn’t use a wind-up, stepping back and going into his high leg lift before coming forward to the plate. Ball has some deception in his delivery, keeping the ball hidden behind his body until late. He mostly repeated his delivery throughout the outing, and when he did lose his mechanics, he was able to correct them quickly, working back twice to get hitters out after falling behind 3-0.

During the outing, Ball used all four of his pitches: fastball, slider, curveball, and changeup. Interestingly, Ball pitched backwards after the second inning, relying on his slider as his primary pitch. 

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2017 Annual Donation Drive - Help Keep SoxProspects Up & Running!

Dear readers,

We're asking for your help to raise $10,000 to keep SoxProspects.com up and running for another year. We have kept the site 100% free for almost 14 years now, and we hope to do so for the foreseeable future. As we scout dozens of games first-hand each year, travel costs pile up. Our other costs to run the site often go up on an annual basis as well, and our ad revenue only covers a portion of those costs. So we're reaching out to the community for donations to help us keep the site going. Donations help cover site costs in two primary areas: (1) first-hand coverage travel costs for scouting and player columns; and (2) general IT costs (hardware, software, internet costs, hosting fees, etc.).

Your donations help us travel to Fort Myers in March to cover spring training and in the fall to cover the Instructional League each year, which are vital to get “one-stop shopping” for prospects across the system at levels we can’t see regularly. They also help cover the costs of travelling to affiliate games for regular first-hand coverage. We anticipate that our total costs could approach $20,000 in 2017. While we may cover roughly half that from online advertising revenue, your donations help us ensure we can cover those costs in order to keep the site going.

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Cup of Coffee: Raudes stretches shutout streak for Salem

7/19 Cup of Coffee: Roniel Raudes (pictured) stayed hot for Salem, leading the High-A squad to a win in a pitcher's duel. Bryce Brentz connected for his 20th home run of the season in a Pawtucket win. Jeremy Barfield and the Sea Dogs nearly mounted a wild comeback, but came up just short. Despite Shooter McGavin being in attendance, the Lowell Spinners were thrashed for a loss.

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Pawtucket Red Sox 6, Toledo Mud Hens (DET) 0

The PawSox jumped on Toledo early with Matt Dominguez and Bryce Brentz providing all the offense Pawtucket would need. Dominguez kicked off the scoring in the first with a bases-clearing double. He was credited for two RBI, as the third run scored on an error. Brentz clubbed his 20th home run in the third inning and added a third RBI with a double in the eighth. Rafael Devers went 2 for 4 with a strikeout. Fresh off of his promotion back to Pawtucket, Ty Buttrey picked up the win with three innings of shutout relief. He allowed only one hit, struck out four and walked none.

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Cup of Coffee: First-round pick Tanner Houck makes pro debut

7/18 Cup of Coffee: One of the major milestones of the season took pace Monday evening, as the Red Sox top draftee made his first professional appearances. Tanner Houck (pictured) drew the start in game two of Lowell's doubleheader, showing some early jitters but also a glimpse of why he was so highly touted. Elsewhere, the PawSox staged an improbable comeback from an 8-0 deficit, while Jhonathan Diaz pitched Greenville to victory.  

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Pawtucket Red Sox 9, Toledo Mud Hens (DET) 8

After Toledo raced out in front, with eight runs in the first, the PawSox inched back, scoring runs in five different innings for the comeback win. Making his McCoy Stadium debut, Rafael Devers went 1 for 3 with a walk and a pair of runs scored. Two days after Devers made his PawSox debut, Tzu-Wei Lin suited up for his first Triple-A game--despite now having 50 major league plate appearances under his belt. Lin started at shortstop and was 0 for 5. Dan Butler had a monster day at the plate, blasting a two-run homer in the fourth inning and following up with a three-run shot in the fifth. Aneury Tavarez had his sixth straight two-hit game, a stretch that has boosted his OPS nearly .300 points. 

After Edgar Olmos struggled in his start, the bullpen combined for 8 1/3 shutout innings of masterful relief. Shawn Haviland carried the bulk of the load, scattering four hits across 6 1/3 frames. Ben Taylor and Noe Ramirez followed with a scoreless inning apiece. 

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Podcast Ep. 126: It's What We Do When Skype Is Working, At Least

Chris and Ian battle technical difficulties on a big news weekend. Rafael Devers got upped. They say so long to Pablo Sandoval and Jhonny Peralta. They also discuss the recently shuffled rankings now that the draft and the J2 signing period are in the books. But, the trade deadline looms. Is Todd Frazier on the way? And if so, how much, how much is it going to cost the Red Sox? And will the players who will need to vie for a spot on the 40-man roster ahead of this winter's rule 5 draft be among the guys dealt? Ian spent some time watching Portland before Devers was promoted and drops some gems on the guys he saw. And we get to your emails.

Listen In!

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