D-backs Minor League Roundup Features Epic At-Bat, Great Pitching

31-year old-Albert Almora Jr., brought in to provide outfield depth, had three hits, including a homer, and drove in five runs. He's batting .379 since rejoining the Aces.

Hayden Durke bounced back to pitch a scoreless inning, striking out one. On July 13 he endured the worst outing of his career, allowing seven runs, six earned without recording an out. Prior to that he had thrown two scoreless outings since being promoted to the Aces.

Durke's ERA still stands at 18.00, and is going to take a long time to come down. But if he continues putting up zeroes in a high percentage of his outings, don't be surprised if he's promoted to MLB sometime this summer.

Double-A Amarillo Sod Poodles 6, San Antonio Missions 0

Jose Cabrera was magnificent, throwing seven shutout innings, allowing just one hit, one walk, and one hit batter. He took a no-hitter into the fifth inning, and also struck out five.

Shortstop Jose Fernandez paced the offense with three hits, including a triple, and drove in three runs.

Ryan Waldschmidt had two hits, including a double, and two walks, scoring two runs. He has his triple slash back up to .279/.390/.456 since being promoted to Amarillo. That works out to a 136 wRC+, or about 36% better than league average.

High-A Hillsboro Hops 5, Everett AquaSox 9

The Hops came back from a 3-0 deficit to take a 5-4 lead. But a run in the eighth tied it up, and then a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the ninth sent them down to defeat. Edgar Isea loaded the bases with two outs before giving way to Jake Fitzgibbons.

This was Fitzgibbons' very first game since being promoted to the Hops. He had pitched marvelously for Visalia in High-A this year, giving up just one run in 29 innings, that coming on a solo homer.

Squeezed by the umpire on the first two pitches to fall behind 2-0, Fitzgibbons put one down the middle to Charlie Pagliarini that was blasted over the wall to dead center, sending the Hops to defeat.

Daniel Eagen started and had a sub-par game, lasting only 4.1 innings, giving up four runs, three earned. Slade Caldwell had two hits, including a double, and drove in a run. Jansel Luis had three hits, scoring once. Angel Ortiz hit a solo homer, his seventh of the year with Hillsboro.

Class-A Visalia 2, Inland Empire 66'ers 1

Mervin Fell threw five strong innings, giving up just one run on a solo homer. He walked three and struck out eight. Ryan Bruno threw two scoreless innings of relief, followed by scoreless innings from Alvin Guzman and Darlin Pinales, who recorded his fourth save.

Both Rawhide runs came in the fourth inning, helped by a balk and a wild pitch, both with a man on third base. Visalia recorded just five hits in the game, and JD Dix went 0-5, dropping his average to .278 with a .746 OPS.

Arizona Complex League Note:

Catcher Ivan Luciano had two hits to raise his average to .282. He's played in 40 complex league games, 28 at catcher and 12 as DH. He has 26 walks and a .406 OBP, but hasn't hit with much power yet, slugging just .350 with five doubles and a homer.

They run a lot in the complex league, and there have been 61 attempts in his 210 innings behind the plate. He's caught 16 of them, for a 26% rate. League average caught stealing percentage is 34%.