Home Runs Rule the Week in the Pacific Coast League

Adam Duvall got a brief call-up to the San Francisco Giants, but he is back in the Pacific Coast League doing what he has been doing all season long, belting long balls. Over the past three games, he has put three balls over the wall, giving him 26 on the year, 8 more than the next best in the league.

Meanwhile, the PCL representatives for the Home Run Derby in Durham on July 14^th have been announced, and only one player in the top 20 in PCL home runs will be participating. Francisco Pena and his 17 home runs will anchor the team, while Allan Dykstra and veteran Mike Jacobs will also try to put balls out of Durham Bulls Athletic Park on Monday.

The best offensive game of the week was put in by Ty Kelly of Tacoma in Salt Lake on Thursday. Kelly went 3-4 with two walks, but two of his three hits left the ballpark, including a grand slam to give him seven RBIs on the day helping his team to an 18-2 rout.

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John Gast with the Memphis Redbirds had a chance to lock down the best pitching outing of the week, but Mother Nature wouldn’t allow it. Gast got through 5.2 innings of perfect baseball before rain delays finally chased him from the game. He got through an earlier rain delay, and continued to be perfect, but after the second, it was time to lift him from the ballgame. Nashville was happy to see Gast go, as they put up three runs the very next inning, and another in the eighth to give them the 4-2 victory.

Noah Syndergaard is expected to be a key part of the rotation for the New York Mets for many years to come, but his numbers in Triple-A have been anything but impressive, even after you account for the Las Vegas park factor. Coming into the week, Syndergaard had failed to record an out in the sixth inning in six of his last seven outings, allowing three or more runs in five of those. He finally turned things around a bit this week, as he went seven innings and struck out eight while allowing just a single run against Albuquerque. Despite the 5.31 ERA and .303 average against, he has been putting up impressive strikeout numbers, with more than a K per inning.

The player of the month award went to Los Angeles Angels farm hand, Brennan Boech. Boesch slugged .786 and hit .405 with seven home runs in June for Salt Lake.