The Red Sox have promoted pitching prospect Shea Sprague to High-A Greenville. He posted a 1.46 ERA (24 ⅔ innings, four runs) over his final five outings for Low-A Salem.
Sprague allowed just 17 hits and six walks while striking out 28 during that stretch.
MassLive wrote a feature story on him Wednesday.
Boston drafted the 22-year-old left-hander in the 13th round out of UNC last July. He hails from Hanover and graduated from BC High.
Sprague has a four-pitch mix, throwing a fastball, changeup, slider and sweeper. His changeup has been his best pitch since high school and it induces swing-and-miss.
“With the Red Sox, they wanted me to develop a gyro slider, which is just a smaller shape and a little bit harder,” Sprague said. “So that one has really been where I’ve been putting a lot of my focus on — just developing that.”
Other Red Sox minor league notes from Friday:
~ Cooper Criswell continued to pitch well for Triple-A Worcester in a 3-1 loss to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He started and threw 5 scoreless innings. He allowed just two hits and two walks while striking out six. The 28-year-old has a 1.52 ERA (29 ⅔ innings, five runs), 0.94 WHIP, 38 strikeouts and nine walks in seven outings (six starts). He has held opponents to a .179 batting average.
~ Jhostynxon Garcia — also known as The Password — stroked two hits, including a double, for Worcester. He’s 15-for-37 (.405) with a .421 on-base percentage, .703 slugging percentage, 1.124 OPS, three homers, two doubles, six RBIs, six runs, one walk and eight strikeouts in nine games since Boston promoted him to Worcester from Double-A Portland on May 20.
~ Portland’s game against Altoona was suspended in the bottom of the fifth inning due to rain. At the time of the delay, Red Sox left-handed pitching prospect Connelly Early had allowed one run and struck out eight in 4 ⅔ innings. He gave up four hits and three walks. The 23-year-old has a 1.60 ERA (33 ⅔ innings, six earned runs) in eight outings, five starts. He has 55 strikeouts.
~ Franklin Arias had three hits in High-A Greenville’s doubleheader sweep over Jersey Shore. The 19-year-old shortstop is 40-for-107 (.374) with a .412 on-base percentage, .533 slugging percentage, .945 OPS, two homers, nine doubles, one triple, 19 RBIs, 14 runs, seven walks, nine strikeouts and three steals in 25 games since Boston promoted him from Salem to Greenville. On Thursday, The Athletic’s Keith Law released his top-50 prospect rankings and had Arias No. 8.
