D-Backs’ top pitching prospect Shipley gives Tacoma hitters fits in Rainiers’ 6-3 loss

The Tacoam Rainiers ran into the Arizona Diamondbacks’ top pitching prospect on Monday night in Reno, and that wasn’t good for the Rainiers’ hitters.

Reno right-hander Braden Shipley was in command for eight innings, limiting Tacoma to just a pair of runs against him in the Aces’ 6-3 victory.

Shipley (7-4) allowed eight hits but did not walk anyone while striking out two. He recorded 12 outs on infield grounders.

“That’s the second good game he’s thrown against us,” Tacoma manager Pat Listach said. “He got a ton of ground balls. In this ballpark, you really need a good sinker, and he had it working today.”

The 23-year-old had a similar outing June 12 at Cheney Stadium, when he allowed three runs over seven innings and earned another 6-3 win.

Meanwhile, recently acquired Tacoma starter Zach Lee is still searching for his first solid outing.

Lee pitched a perfect first inning, but he allowed two runs in the second inning on a solo home run by Kyle Jensen and three two-out singles.

Listach could live with that, but not the way the third inning played out.

With one out in the third, Lee issued three consecutive walks to load the bases. Gabriel Guerrero took advantage, bouncing a single through the middle of the infield to bring home a pair of runs. An error in the infield allowed another run to score, making it 5-0.

Lee (0-2) allowed five runs — four earned — in four innings. He has given up 14 runs in his first 13 innings for Tacoma.

“We’ve got to get more than four innings from our starter,” Listach said. “We can’t be down 5-0 every time he starts. We’ve got to figure out something, and we’ll get to the drawing board tomorrow and try to get him straight so he can go deeper into games.”

Tacoma scored its only runs against Shipley in the fifth, when Jesus Sucre and Zach Shank opened the inning with back-to-back doubles. Shank later scored on a sacrifice fly by Guillermo Heredia to make it 5-2.

Recent addition D.J. Peterson continued to hit well. The Seattle Mariners’ first-round draft pick in 2013 went 2 for 4, including a high-arching solo homer to left-center in the ninth inning, and is 9 for 19 (.474) with two homers since being promoted from Double-A Jackson.

ON TAP

Right-hander Jordan Pries (0-1, 8.10 ERA) was added to the roster Monday and will start Tuesday against Reno. The Aces have not announced their starting pitcher for the 7:05 p.m. start. The game can be heard on 810-AM.

This story was originally published July 4, 2016 at 10:10 PM with the headline "D-Backs’ top pitching prospect Shipley gives Tacoma hitters fits in Rainiers’ 6-3 loss."