Yu-Min Lin Makes Much Anticipated Return for Diamondbacks Affiliate

Three of the four Diamondbacks affiliates won on Thursday night, with some good pitching performances in the mix to go along with timely offense.

Triple-A: Reno Aces 3, Sacramento River Cats 2, 10 innings.

One of the top ranked Diamondbacks pitching prospects, Yu-Min Lin of Taiwan, made his season debut Thursday night, pitching a very good game in the process. Lin needed just 63 pitches to complete five innings, allowing two earned runs on five hits, zero walks, and three strikeouts.

Lin mixed all his pitches, throwing a 92 MPH fastball, curve, change up, and cutter. He managed to get swing and miss with all four of those pitches and his overall zone percentage was a robust 56%.

The home run he gave up was a PCL/ Sutter Home Park special by Grant McCray. Just 95 MPH exit velocity, the ball went up at a 42 degree launch angle and traveled 334 feet, just barely sneaking over the fence in left field.

Yu-Min Lin strikeouts are SO back 🤢 pic.twitter.com/6TrCqRCINy
— Reno Aces (@Aces) May 2, 2025

Kyle Amendt threw a scoreless 10th inning to record his first save. He has not allowed an earned run in 13.2 innings so far this year.

Veteran backup catcher Aramis Garcia stayed hot, hitting two homers, giving him five for the season. The 32 year old is hitting .265/.478/.612 for the Aces. He's a career .211/.248/.325 hitter in 327 major league plate appearances.

Double-A: Midland Rockhounds 2, Amarillo Sod Poodles 0

The Sod Poodles were shut out, failing to give any run support to Roman Angelo. The 24 year-old right-hander threw five scoreless innings, giving up two hits, walking two, and striking out five.

Tommy Troy collected one of the Soddies three hits, and is now batting .292 with an .862 OPS

High-A: Hillsboro Hops 12, Vancouver Canadians 2

Big John West, (6'8", 265 lbs.) got all the run support he needed and more, tossing five innings and allowing two runs. He walked four batters and needed 92 pitches to record 15 outs. But he limited the damage by giving up only three hits and striking out three. That gave his offense time to get going, which they ultimately did, spotting him a 7-2 lead at the time his outing was over.

Drafted out of Boston College in the 12th round of the 2024 amateur draft, West was pitching in just his fifth game of affiliated ball. While he has a 5.24 ERA, he's holding his own with a 1.16 WHIP and 21 strikeouts in 22.1 innings pitched.

Ryan Waldschmidt resumed his assault on Northwest League pitching, going two for four with a homer, three runs scored, and an RBI. He's batting .316 with a 1.061 OPS. Demetrio Crisantes set the table for the bottom of the order, going 2-for-3 with a walk and scoring four runs.

Druw Jones, Angel Ortiz, and Ben McLaughlin all had multi hit, multi RBI games from the sixth, seventh and eighth spots in the order. In all the Hops pounded out 15 hits and drew five walks, and went 7-for 20 with runners in scoring position.

Class-A: Visalia Rawhide 3, Fresno Grizzlies 2

The best pitching performance of the night belonged to Lorenzo Encarnacion. The 23 year old right-hander went six innings, allowing one run on three hits. He walked one and struck out six. His record improved to 3-0 and his ERA now stands at 3.60.

Slade Caldwell continued to get on base, drawing three walks and scoring two runs. Yasel Soler hit a solo homer in the eighth that put the Rawhide up 3-1 at the time. That valuable insurance run turned out to be the difference maker.

Deyan Zapata threw scoreless seventh and eighth innings, but gave up a walk and a single to start the ninth. A throwing error by Ruben Santana resulted in a run. Zapata induced a 6-4-3 double play however before being lifted to allow Darlin Pinales to come in and get the final out.

In 12 innings of relief, the 21 year old Zapata has a 1.50 ERA, due to allowing just two earned runs, although he's given up six runs in total. He has a 1.17 WHIP and has struck out 11 to just four walks.