Minor-league week in review: Yhoswar Garcia makes professional debut in Clearwater

Yhoswar Garcia made his Clearwater debut this past week. (Baseball Betsy)

A top Philadelphia Phillies prospect and 2020 international signee made his professional debut in the team’s system in the latest week of the Minor League Baseball season.

19-year-old Yhoswar Garcia, signed by the Phillies last year out of Venezuela, played in his first four minor-league games for the low Class A Clearwater Threshers.

The Threshers record after six weeks of play sits at 18-18; the High-A Jersey Shore BlueClaws are 15-19; the Double-A Reading Fightin Phils improved to 11-25; the Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs are also 18-18.

Garcia Makes Debut for Threshers

The center fielder was promoted to Clearwater on Wednesday, and he made his first pro start on Thursday. In his first at-bat against the Tampa Tarpons, he beat out an infield single then stole both second and third. Garcia walked, was hit by a pitch and stole two more bases to finish with four on the game.

He singled, walked and stole a base Friday, tripled and walked Saturday and went hitless with an RBI on Sunday. Garcia hit .200/.368/.333 with five steals in four games.

BlueClaws Strike Out 20 Times in Loss to Wilmington

The Wilmington Blue Rocks shut down Jersey Shore’s offense on Saturday, recording 20 strikeouts in a one-hit, 3-0 shutout.

Nationals 2020 first rounder Cade Cavalli started the game for Wilmington and put together one of the outings in the minors this season. He threw 97 pitches over seven hitless innings, walking two batters and striking out 15.

Left-hander Sean Nolin pitched the eighth inning, striking out two. Fellow lefty Matt Cronin struck out three in the ninth, but did allow Jersey Shore’s only hit of the night, a one-out single to center field by Logan O’Hoppe.

Stokes Helps Lead Fightins to First Series Win

First baseman Madison Stokes played a big role in Reading’s first series win of the year as the Fightins took five out of six games agains the Hartford Yard Goats.

Stokes hit a fifth-inning sacrifice fly to center field on Friday to put Reading up 2-1, which ultimately proved to be the game winner when the game was called after the inning due to rain.

The 25-year-old also hit his second home run of the series and season on Sunday in a game that the Fightins would later come back and win 7-4.

Stokes played in five of the six games in the series, going 8-for-19 with two doubles, two homers, four RBIs and five runs scored.

Feliz Closes the Door for IronPigs

33-year-old reliever and former Rookie of the Year Neftalí Feliz made two scoreless appearances against the Rochester Red Wings for Lehigh Valley, continuing what has been a productive return to the minors for the veteran right-hander.

Feliz struck out two and allowed a hit in a scoreless inning on Wednesday. On Saturday, he completed a four-out save in relief of Cristopher Sánchez to finish a seven-inning 2-1 victory in Game 2 of a doubleheader.

In his first time pitching in an affiliated minor-league regular season since 2018, Feliz has posted a 1.59 ERA in 11 1/3 innings in 12 outings.

Farm Notes

Left-handed pitcher Bailey Falter was promoted to the Phillies major-league team on Monday for the second time this season. He’s posted a 1.82 ERA for Lehigh Valley in seven outings. Enyel De Los Santos was sent back to Triple-A.
Nick Maton played outfield for the first time in his professional career on Saturday. Playing center, his only real test came on a hard-hit fly ball that carried by where he was positioned. Maton initially ran in, but recovered in time to make the catch.
Right-hander Kyle Glogoski was placed on the Double-A injured list Saturday with a right elbow sprain.
The Phillies re-signed Grenny Cumana on Sunday and assigned him to rookie ball on Monday. The 5-foot-5 outfielder was a 2019 Eastern League All-Star for Reading before suffering an injury, and could serve as another key addition to the Fightins lineup at some point.