Neftali Soto hit his 30th home run of the season for Carolina last night, marking the first time any Reds farmhand has reached that number since Adam Dunn hit 32 in 2001. Dunner was 21 when he did it, and Soto is only 22. What's even more scary is that Soto spent a fair bit of time on the DL and only has 400ish plate appearances on the season.
Soto's isn't the only statistical milestone being reached. Ryan LaMarre, the Forgotten Prospect, stole his 50th and 51st bases last night. He's no Billy Hamilton, but that's still impressive. LaMarre's power has been very disappointing, but his OBP on the season is .351, and he plays an excellent CF. Might be another future leadoff candidate.
Speaking of Billy Hamilton, he stole base number 95 last night, inching him ever closer to the quixotic goal of 100.
- Louisville got crushed 11-2. Daryl Thompson failed to make it out of the first inning, giving up 8 runs. Chris Heisey homered on rehab.
- Carolina won 8-3. Pedro Villareal threw 6 strong innings, giving up 2 runs (1 earned) while striking out 6. Soto had 2 singles to go with the home run, and his OPS on the year is now .907. Yasmani Grandal was 2-4 with a double and a walk.
- Bakersfield lost 7-6. Ryan LaMarre had 2 hits and the 2 SB. A bunch of other guys had 1 or 2 hits, but Mark Fleury's triple was the only extra base hit.
- Dayton lost 5-1. Billy Hamilton was 1-4 with the SB and Ronald Torreyes was 2-4 with his 11th SB. His line on the year is now .354/.400/.461.
- Billings was off.
- AZL Reds lost 5-4. Once again, not much good to say here.