Carter Remains Red-Hot For Frisco RoughRiders

The Texas Rangers' No. 1 prospect has been hitting well above .300 since his return from a minor injury in June.

Texas Rangers

Four of the Texas Rangers' five affiliates wrapped up their weeks on Sunday, with two affiliates winning their games.

Double-A Frisco beat San Antonio and High Class-A Hickory beat Rome. Triple-A Round Rock lost to Reno, Class-A Down East lost to Salem and the ACL Rangers were off.

Here is how each affiliate did on Sunday.

Texas Rangers Minor League Update

Here is an update on each Texas Rangers minor league affiliate for the games of Sunday, July 23.

Triple-A Round Rock

Round Rock (14-7, 58-37, 1st, +1.0 GB) lost, 3-1, to Reno. Round Rock’s offense mustered just 3 hits as the Aces grabbed a 1-0 lead in the 1st inning off RHP Robert Dugger (L, 6.0 IP, 8 H, 1 R-ER, 1 BB, 5 SO) who has now gone 6.0+ innings in 6 of his last 8 starts. DH Elier Hernandez (1-for-4) tallied his 100th hit this season, the 2nd PCL player to reach the century mark in ‘23 (ELP Tim Lopes – 101). Reno added a pair in the 8th inning, before the Express cut the deficit to two on LF Dustin Harris' (0-for-1, 3 BB, RBI) 3rd walk of the game. 3B Justin Foscue (1-for-4) and 1B Blaine Crim (1-for-4) both singled earlier that frame to load the bases. RHP Ian Kennedy (1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R-ER, 1 SO) retired all 4 BF and through 8 relief app. in July: 1.17 ERA (1 ER/7.2 IP), 3 H, 1 BB, 10 SO. 

Double-A Frisco

Frisco (11-10, 42-47, 3rd, 3.0 GB) defeated San Antonio, 4-2, to win its series. After falling behind by a run in the 2nd frame, the RoughRiders rallied for a pair in the 3rd with RBI knocks from CF Evan Carter (1-for-4, RBI) and SS Thomas Saggese (1-for-3, BB, 2B, RBI). Since Carter returned from the IL on 6/21, he is 31-for-90 (.344) with 5 HR and 18 RBI. Saggese is now tied for 2nd in the TL with 71 RBI this season. RHP Dane Acker (2.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R-ER, 1 BB) made his 4th start with Frisco, and is 1-0 with a 3.14 ERA (5 ER/14.1 IP) in those outings. 1B Liam Hicks (1- for-3, BB, RBI) and LF Kellen Strahm (1-for-4, RBI) drove in runs in the 6th and 8 th innings respectively. LHP Antoine Kelly (W, 1.2 IP, 0 R-ER, 1 SO) retired all 5 BF and hasn’t allowed a run across his last 13 app.: 14.0 IP, 9 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 17 SO. 

High Class-A Hickory

Hickory (17-6, 44-40, 1st, +4.5 GA) defeated Rome, 6-3, as C Tucker Mitchell (3-for-5, 2 RBI) swatted a go-ahead 2-R single in the 10th inning. Mitchell is 5-for-9 (.545) across his last two games with 3 RBI…the Crawdads jumped ahead early with a 2-R triple from CF Daniel Mateo (1-for-4, 3B, 2 RBI) followed by RF Jayce Easley’s (1-for-3, RBI) RBI single. RHP Nick Lockhart (2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R-ER, 1 SO) kept the Braves at bay through the first two innings and hasn’t allowed a run in July: 1-0, 8.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R-ER, 1 BB, 7 SO. LHP Juna Mejia (3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R-ER, 5 SO) spun a trio of perfect innings and struck out 5 of 9 BF (55%). LF Geisel Cepeda (2-for-5, RBI) capped off the 10th inning with an RBI single to put Hickory up, 6-3, and maintain a 4.5-game lead in the SAL South. 

Class-A Down East

Down East (11-13, 48-37, 5th, 2.5 GB) fell to Salem, 6-4. A pair of errors fueled a 6-run 3rd inning for Salem. The Woodies came out firing as they used back-to-back RBI hits from 3B Gleider Figuereo (1-for-3, BB, RBI) and LF Erick Alvarez (1-for-2, 2 BB, RBI) to leap ahead, 2-0. Since making the jump to Single-A on 7/14, Alvarez has hits in 5 of 7 G and is hitting .250 (5-for-20) SS Andres Mesa (2-for-4, 2B, 2 RBI) finished the inning with a 2-R double to put Down East in front 4-0. Making his 1st appearance with the Woodies, RHP Bryan Chi (4.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R-ER, 7 SO) punched out 7 batters across 4.0 innings of work. He previously led the ACL Rangers with 23 strikeouts in 18.0 IP. CF JoJo Blackmon (2-for-5) added a pair of hits and has reached base in his last 5 games. 

ACL Rangers

The ACL Rangers (14-19, 5th, 8.0 GB) have lost 3 of 4 and 6 of 8 to fall 5.0 GB in the West. Despite having his 15-G hit streak snapped, SS Sebastain Walcott leads the Rangers with 6 home runs. The 17-year-old is 27-for-76 (.355) with 13 XBH through 18 games this season. 2B Echedry Vargas (.308) leads the squad with 36 hits this season. LF Marcos Torres (.259) has driven in a team-best 25 runs across 32 G for the Rangers. LHP Thomas Ireland paces the staff with a 1.04 ERA (2 ER/17.1 IP) while RHP Willian Bormie (2-0, 4.15) leads the Rangers with 30 strikeouts across 21.2 innings of work

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