Pawtucket 15, Durham 6. Mitch Talbot is now 0-5 in his last 7 starts after giving up 7 hits, 4 walks and 5 runs (2 earned) in 3 innings. His ERA is now 8.47 on the season, and any hopes of seeing Talbot in the big leagues this season are fading fast. Wes Bankston homered for the Bulls and Jeremy Owens connected on 2 round-trippers. Ben Zobrist was 0-5 and is now 2-14 since his demotion. He might have been hitting better for the Rays.

Montgomery 4, West Tenn 0. Big night for James Houser in his return from the DL. He gave up only 2 hits and 1 walk in 6.1 scoreless innings. He struck out 7. Chris Nowak was 2-3 and drove in 3 runs, while John Jaso was 3-3 to raise his average to .337. Unfortunately Evan Longoria was hit in the elbow in his second at bat and needed to be removed from the game after it began to swell. Longoria has now reached base in 33 consecutive games.

Vero Beach 2, Daytona 0. Not to be outdone by Houser, Jacob McGee pitched 7 scoreless innings with 5 hits and no walks. He struck out 6 to lower his ERA to 1.51.

Rome 4, Columbus 3. Oh, but the Catfish sees your McGee and raises you a Jeremy Hellickson. Hellickson struck out 10 in 5 scoreless innings. He allowed only 1 hit and 2 walks. He struck out 7 of the first 9 batters he faced and did not allow a hit until the 5th inning.

NOTES FROM DOWN ON THE FARM...

• The Hardball Times has a story on "Ten Pitching Prospects Worth Knowing About." Both Chris Mason of AA Montgomery and Andy Sonnanstine of AAA Durham make the list.

On Chris Mason: Mason's strong start in 2006 was overshadowed when his strikeout rate dipped, his control faltered, and he started leaving the ball up in the zone and surrendering too many fly balls during the final two months of his first full professional season. He appears well-rested and has bounced back with another great start this year

On Andy Sonnanstine: The durable innings-eater continues to get batters to swing and miss by changing arm angles and effectively locating his secondary pitches and underwhelming fastball.

• Baseball America's weekly "Hot Sheet" has Evan Longoria as the hottest prospect in baseball. In doing so, they take a little shot at the player blocking Longoria from playing third base at AAA.

Just about every night, we take a walk down the street to see the Durham Bulls. And every night as we walk back to the parking deck located next to our offices, we wonder why we didn't just see Evan Longoria playing third base in Triple-A.

Longoria is wreaking havoc in the Southern League, batting .366 with four bombs and 11 RBIs last week alone. In all, the third overall pick last year is hitting .333/.451/.621 with 18 extra-base hits and nearly as many walks (25) as strikeouts (27).

Enough of Joel Guzman's tired act already. Guzman looks lethargic; like he's just not having fun. Guess a .240 on-base will do that to a guy. One thing's for sure, you know Longoria will bring the same energy to the park every day.