Rays prospects and minor leagues: Charleston clinches playoffs with big offensive series

August was the last full month of the season for most of the Rays’ affiliates. Triple A doesn’t have playoffs, so they’ll play an extra pair of five-game series. The other full-season affiliates do have playoffs, and their regular seasons end on Sept. 19. Charleston clinched over the weekend, and Bowling Green will almost certainly clinch this week.

Who were the organization’s top prospects in August? Jonathan Aranda continued his breakout season with another great month. He batted .338 with a .432 on-base percentage and .550 slugging percentage with 11 walks and just 15 strikeouts. Beau Brundage was maybe the top hitter, batting .342/.454/.658. Dalton Kelly hit nine home runs, and Vidal Brujan stole a pretty ridiculous 16 bases.

Brent Honeywell led the organization in innings, and he performed well too. He had 23 strikeouts and five walks in 31 innings with a 2.90 ERA. There were a couple absurd K:BB ratios. Jayden Murray had another strong month with 30 strikeouts and one walk, and Easton McGee had 31 strikeouts with one walk.

Once again, pitching stats on Baseball Reference seem funky. It’s extremely likely that Bowling Green used more than three pitchers in its most recent series, but that’s what the site says. I’m not sure what the problem is.

Triple-A Durham Bulls (68-39, 1st out of 7)

Honeywell, bats open Jumbo Shrimp series with rout
Myers pitches Bulls to win
Durham’s 5 1st-inning runs not enough
Bulls fall in 12 innings
Durham wins behind Romero’s 5 hitless innings
Bulls drop finale, split series

Vidal Brujan: 3-for-23, 2 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 11 K
Josh Lowe: 10-for-22, 5 R, 3 2B, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 5 BB, 7 K, 3-for-3 SB
Taylor Walls: 2-for-5, 2 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 K, 1-for-1 SB
Miles Mastrobuoni: 2-for-12, 1 R, 1 BB, 2 K

Nick Anderson: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K
Brent Honeywell Jr.: 6 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K
Tobias Myers: 6 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K
Louis Head: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K

Double-A Montgomery Biscuits (56-51, T-2nd out of 4)

Proctor powers Biscuits to win in opener
Early homers not enough for Montgomery
Biscuits top Blue Wahoos
Bats quiet in loss to Pensacola
Biscuits shut out by Blue Wahoos
Offensive slump continues in finale loss

Xavier Edwards: 7-for-21, 2 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 3 K, 2-for-3 SB
Greg Jones: 1-for-5, 2 R, 1 BB, 1 K, 2-for-2 SB
Blake Hunt: 1-for-13, 2 BB, 6 K
Jonathan Aranda: 5-for-11, 4 R, 1 2B, 1 HR, 6 RBI, 3 BB, 3 K, 1-for-1 SB
Ruben Cardenas: 5-for-23, 3 R, 1 2B, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 9 K

High-A Bowling Green Hot Rods (75-33, 1st out of 7)

Hot Rods win on Edwards’ walk-off homer
Bowling Green edges Hickory
Hot Rods sweep doubleheader
Williams, Seymour lead Bowling Green over Hickory
Ostberg grand slam key in win
McGowan homer helps Hot Rods sweep Crawdads

Curtis Mead: 3-for-18, 3 R, 1 2B, 2 RBI, 3 BB, 3 K, 0-for-1 SB
Alika Williams: 8-for-21, 4 R, 1 2B, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 5 K, 0-for-1 SB
Grant Witherspoon: 4-for-17, 5 R, 1 2B, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 3 BB, 5 K, 1-for-1 SB

Low-A Charleston RiverDogs (77-31, 1st out of 4)

Brecht, bullpen shut down Fireflies in opener
RiverDogs score 9 in the 1st in slugfest win
Infante, Charleston hammer Columbia
Johnson, RiverDogs dominate Fireflies again
Charleston rallies for another win
RiverDogs sweep Fireflies with 7 more runs

Osleivis Basabe: 10-for-23, 7 R, 4 2B, 1 3B, 6 RBI, 5 BB, 2 K, 1-for-1 SB
Beau Brundage: 9-for-22, 7 R, 1 2B, 1 3B, 2 HR, 9 RBI, 2 BB, 8 K
Tanner Murray: 14-for-29, 7 R, 6 2B, 11 RBI, 2 BB, 2 K
Alexander Ovalles: 8-for-18, 5 R, 1 2B, 1 3B, 6 RBI, 3 BB, 1 K

Florida Complex League Rays (32-13, 1st out of 8)

Wisler wins 1st rehab appearance
Goss makes anticipated 2021 debut
Phillips homers to help GCL Rays to win
FCL Rays sweep doubleheader

Ji-Man Choi: 0-for-5, 1 RBI, 2 BB, 3 K
Brett Phillips: 1-for-4, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 2 K
Carson Williams: 3-for-8, 3 R, 2 2B, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 3 K (1.393)
Cooper Kinney: 2-for-7, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K (.833)
Ryan Spikes: 1-for-7, 1 BB, 3 K (.533)

Matt Wisler: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K
JJ Goss: 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K
Mason Montgomery: 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K (0.00)

Stats are from Baseball Reference.

This week’s games

Durham

Tuesday, Sept. 7 vs. Norfolk 6:35 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV)
Wednesday, Sept. 8 vs. Norfolk 6:35 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV)
Thursday, Sept. 9 vs. Norfolk 6:35 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV)
Friday, Sept. 10 vs. Norfolk 6:35 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV)
Saturday, Sept. 11 vs. Norfolk 1:05 p.m. 6:35 p.m. ET DOUBLEHEADER (MiLB.TV)
Sunday, Sept. 12 vs. Norfolk 5:05 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV)

Montgomery

Tuesday, Sept. 7 @ Mississippi 7:35 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV)
Wednesday, Sept. 8 @ Mississippi 7:35 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV)
Thursday, Sept. 9 @ Mississippi 7:35 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV)
Friday, Sept. 10 @ Mississippi 7:35 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV)
Saturday, Sept. 11 @ Mississippi 7:05 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV)
Sunday, Sept. 12 @ Mississippi 3:05 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV)

Bowling Green

Tuesday, Sept. 7 @ Winston-Salem 7 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV)
Wednesday, Sept. 8 @ Winston-Salem 7 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV)
Thursday, Sept. 9 @ Winston-Salem 7 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV)
Friday, Sept. 10 @ Winston-Salem 7 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV)
Saturday, Sept. 11 @ Winston-Salem 6 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV)
Sunday, Sept. 12 @ Winston-Salem 2 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV)

Charleston

Tuesday, Sept. 7 vs. Myrtle Beach 7:05 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV)
Wednesday, Sept. 8 vs. Myrtle Beach 7:05 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV)
Thursday, Sept. 9 vs. Myrtle Beach 7:05 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV)
Friday, Sept. 10 vs. Myrtle Beach 7:05 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV)
Saturday, Sept. 11 vs. Myrtle Beach 6:05 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV)
Sunday, Sept. 12 vs. Myrtle Beach 5:05 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV)

Florida Complex League Rays

Tuesday, Sept. 7 vs. FCL Red Sox 7 p.m. ET
Thursday, Sept. 9 vs. FCL Orioles Black 12 p.m. ET
Friday, Sept. 10 vs. FCL Braves 10 a.m. ET DOUBLEHEADER
Saturday, Sept. 11 @ FCL Braves 10 a.m. ET
Monday, Sept. 13 @ FCL Orioles Black 12 p.m. ET

Scouting the opposition

Norfolk Tides (Baltimore)
43-64 (6th out of 7)
Offense: 440 R (T-19th out of 20) .696 OPS (19th out of 20)
Pitching: 4.75 ERA (13th out of 20) 1.41 WHIP (13th out of 20)
Top-30 prospects: C Adley Rutschman (1), RHP Kyle Bradish (8), RHP Michael Baumann (9), LHP Kevin Smith (13), OF Yusniel Diaz (19)

Mississippi Braves
61-40 (1st out of 4)
Offense: 451 R (5th out of 8) .703 OPS (6th out of 8)
Pitching: ERA 3.61 ERA (2nd out of 8) 1.27 WHIP (3rd out of 8)
Top-30 prospects: C Shea Langleliers (4), RHP Spencer Strider (6), SS Braden Shewmake (7), RHP Freddy Tarnok (16), RHP Indigo Diaz (18), RHP Daysbel Hernandez (20), RHP Victor Vodnik (21), OF Dustin Dean (26), OF Trey Harris (27), SS Luke Waddell (28)

Winston-Salem Dash (White Sox)
39-68 (7th out of 7)
Offense: 478 R (9th out of 12) .701 OPS (8th out of 12)
Pitching: 5.54 ERA (11th out of 12) 1.48 WHIP (11th out of 12)
Top-30 prospects: SS Jose Rodriguez (10), RHP McKinley Moore (24)

Myrtle Beach Pelicans (Cubs)
54-54 (2nd out of 4)
Offense: 478 R (10th out of 12) .653 OPS (11th out of 12)
Pitching: 4.34 ERA (6th out of 12) 1.38 WHIP (6th out of 12)
Top-30 prospects: OF Pete Crow-Armstrong (3), SS Ed Howard (9), SS Kevin Made (13), OF Owen Caissie (23)