Friday's Trip to the Minors

Lexington was off Thursday night, but here's the rest of the news and notes from Thursday's games:

26-year old Jeremy Johnson pitched the first six innings of a seven hit shutout on Thursday night. Casey Daigle picked up a hold and Chad Paronto got the final five outs for his 12th save of the season. Johnson has started five games this month, pitching 27 innings and allowing 29 hits and 11 earned runs while striking out 20 and walking seven. His BABiP of .337 is a little high, so he may get a bit better from here.

As for the hitters, Tommy Manzella, Chris Johnson and Brian Bogusevic each had two hits while Mark Saccomanno exended his hitting streak to 17 games. Manzella leads all Astros farm hands with 38 hits this month and finally got his season average up to .300. Johnson had his fourth straight two-hit game and his average for the month is up to .333.

Outfielder Yordany Ramirez has cooled off considerably in the past week. Through the last seven games, Ramirez is hitting 2 for 24 and his averages this month has plummeted to .241/.256/.460. His season average is down to .286 and his slugging percentage has fallen considerably. He did steal his third base of the season on Thursday, but his speed isn't good enough to make an impact at Triple-A, much less in the big leagues.

Reliever Danny Meszaros gave up his first two runs with Corpus Christi on Thursday when he gave up a two-run homer in his second inning of work. Meszaros didnt' strike out anyone but also didn't give up a walk and has only given up three runs total this season in 20 innings.

Outfielder Josh Flores is hitless in his last eight at-bats, but was 7 for 15 prior to that. Flores is hitting .259/.326/.407 this month, which is an improvement on his April stats. Flores is slowly rounding into form after missing an entire season. The 23-year old has been starting mostly in center field and playing solid defense. He's supposed to have the best tools in the Astros system, according to Baseball America, and if he can keep hitting, will be a valuable prospect.

Lancaster third baseman David Flores is 8 for 17 in his past four games, with three doubles, two stolen bases and eight RBIs. Flores has been struggling this month, though, with a line of .247/.293/.398 and has struck out 13 times in 97 plate appearances.

Starter David Duncan pitched 5 2/3 innings and allowed seven hits and three runs in his best start this season. The 23-year old only had a game score of 49, but he was one out away of his first Quality Start in 2009. I don't really talk about that stat much, because I'm not sure how valuable it is, but the strikeout numbers are solid and his Power/Finesse Ratio suggests he can be a power pitcher, though the strikeout totals haven't come yet. His peripherals are not great, but he may be a talented guy who is getting beaten up by this ballpark in Lancaster.