Red Sox pitching prospect Wikelman Gonzalez, a 21-year-old righty, dominated in Double-A Portland’s 5-1 win over Somerset on Saturday. He didn’t allow a hit until Grant Richardson singled to begin the sixth inning.
Gonzalez, who throws a fastball in the upper-90s, gave up just one hit and one walk while striking out five in 6 scoreless innings.
Baseball America ranks Gonzalez the Red Sox’s No. 8 prospect overall and its second best pitching prospect behind Luis Perales who will start tonight for High-A Greenville. MLB Pipeline ranks Gonzalez Boston’s No. 1 pitching prospect (just ahead of Perales) and No. 9 prospect overall.
Gonzalez received a promotion from Greenville on Aug. 8. In eight starts with the Sea Dogs, he has gone 3-1 with a 2.45 ERA and 1.04 WHIP. Opponents are batting just .147 against him and he has 52 strikeouts in 40 ⅓ innings (11.6 K/9). The one thing that needs to improve is control. He has more walks (22) than hits allowed (20).
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Gonzalez, who was only 140 pounds when the Red Sox signed him in 2018 out of Venezuela, was between 94-99 mph with his fastball earlier this season for Greenville. He also throws a curveball, changeup and cutter.
“He kind of throws a little bit of everything,” Red Sox director of player development Brian Abraham said in July. ‘He’s kind of one of those guys that can manipulate the baseball in a lot of different ways. So very interesting, for sure. He’s able to mix it up and go get guys out a bunch of different ways.”
Alex Erro, who caught Gonzalez, went 2-for-3 with a homer. The 2019 17th round pick out of Northwestern was promoted from Greenville to Portland on Aug. 22.
Alex Binelas and Tyler McDonough also had two hits each for Portland. Nathan Hickey added an RBI single. Corey Rosier drew two walks and scored two runs.
Luis Guerrero, who pitched in the All-Star Futures Game, hurled a scoreless ninth inning and struck out one.
