Naturals' Ray rolls to first scoreless outing

Corey Ray produced his first scoreless outing of the season by doing things his way.
The Royals' No. 25 prospect gave up two hits and two walks while striking out three over six innings on Friday as Double-A Northwest Arkansas blanked Tulsa, 4-0, at ONEOK Field.

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"Kind of struggled with the curveball a little bit, but the fastball and changeup were pretty good," Ray said after improving to 2-1. "[Catcher Zane Evans] called a really good game today. I was able to execute pitches and my defense, as always, was stellar today."

The right-hander surrendered all four baserunners in the second and third innings. He opened each frame by giving up a single and a walk before recording three straight outs, including a double play grounder to shortstop Humberto Arteaga in the third.
"Just grinding, making pitches," Ray said. "Today, I was able to make those pitches. I got a good double play, it was a good play by Arty. I was able to attack the zone and let my defense work behind me."
After the third, Ray retired the last nine batters he faced before the Naturals lifted him for reliever Ashton Goudeau in the seventh. The Texas A&M product relied on his changeup to compensate for that underachieving curve.
"I was able throw it for strikes in fastball counts," he said. "When you can do that, it makes pitching a little easier for you."
Ray fanned three, his second-lowest total of the season, but thrived by inducing six groundouts and six flyouts. The numbers meshed with the 24-year-old's style. With a career strikeout rate of 7.5 per nine innings over 310 2/3 frames, he feels at his best when pitching to contact.
"When you get a bunch of outs in three pitches or less in a game, that's when everything is going good for you," the 2014 fifth-round pick said. "Being able to throw strikes and being able to trust your defense behind you is huge. If you can throw strikes and get people out like we did today, it's really good."
Ray dropped his ERA by more than a run to 3.60, a number inflated by the fact that he's given up more home runs (6) than any other pitcher in the Texas League. In 20 innings over four starts, opponents are batting .217 against him.
Frank Schwindel had a big night at the plate for the Naturals as he continued a torrid stretch. The 24-year-old smacked three hits, including his third homer in three games, and fell a triple shy of the cycle to raise his average to .403. During a 10-game hitting streak dating back to April 17, he's 20-for-40 with multiple hits in each of his last six contests.

"He's one of the older guys on the team and it's a lot of fun watching him during batting practice and during the game," Ray said. "How he grinds and competes out there is a lot of fun to watch."
Drillers starter Andrew Sopko (0-2), the Dodgers' No. 28 prospect, allowed a run on five hits while fanning five over five innings.