BOSTON — Red Sox outfield prospect Allan Castro crushed a homer in High-A Greenville’s 6-5 win over Rome on Friday.
It was his fourth homer in two days (three games). He homered twice in the first game of the Drive’s doubleheader on Thursday, then blasted another homer in the second game.
Castro, who turned 21 in May, has heated up after a slow start to the season. He went 2-for-4 Friday. He’s 13-for-35 (.371) with a .421 on-base percentage, 1.029 slugging percentage, 1.450 OPS, seven homers and two doubles in nine games during July.
MassLive ranked the switch-hitter No. 16 on its Red Sox Top 25 prospect list entering 2024. Baseball America ranks him No. 22 on its Red Sox Top 30 while MLB Pipeline ranks him No. 12 on its Boston Top 30.
Castro also improved as last year progressed.
“I think the main key for me was to be ready to hit the pitches I wanted to hit,” Castro said back in spring training. “So I was staying in the zone, trying to control the zone, trying to control the count. I think for me, as (last) year progressed, that’s how I got better. And trying to do some damage with pitches in the zone.”
He’s listed at 6 feet, 170 pounds but he added size and muscle over the past year. He’s now 6-foot-2, 206 pounds.
Other Red Sox minor league updates from Friday:
~ Wikelman Gonzalez, a 22-year-old who’s on the Red Sox’ 40-man roster, started for Portland and pitched 3 scoreless innings. Portland ended up losing 3-2 to Hartford.
Gonzalez allowed one hit and no walks while striking out two. Gonzalez reaches the upper-90s with his fastball but walks have been an issue this year. While opponents have batted just .226 against him, the righty (6.47 ERA) has allowed 33 walks in 48 ⅔ innings.
~ Niko Kavadas blasted his 15th homer of the season in Triple-A Worcester’s 12-5 win over Rochester. He went 3-for-5 with a career-high seven RBIs.
~ Chase Meidroth drew two walks and scored twice Worcester’s win. The 22-year-old right-handed hitter has 29 more walks (69) than strikeouts (40) this season.
~ Nick Yorke went 2-for-3 with two walks and three runs for Worcester. The 2020 first-round pick is batting .333 with a .429 on-base percentage, .544 slugging percentage, .973 OPS, six homers, six doubles, 17 RBIs, 29 runs, 19 walks and 26 strikeouts in 29 games for Worcester since his promotion.
