Bulls' Yarbrough strikes out career-best 13

Ryan Yarbrough climbed atop the International League leaderboards in wins and strikeouts with a dominant start on Friday, and he'd like to think those numbers are an accurate reflection of his growth as a pitcher this season.
The Rays' 23rd-ranked prospect set a career high with 13 punchouts while allowing two runs on four hits over six innings in Triple-A Durham's 5-3 win over Lehigh Valley at Durham Bulls Athletic Park. He did not walk a batter en route to his 10th win, tying him with three others for tops in the league.
"I'm not normally considered a strikeout pitcher," Yarbrough said. "Even last year, I don't think I've had this amount of strikeouts and I had more innings. So it kind of shows that I'm able to improve on some things. The wins are especially a good sign. It shows that you're keeping your team in the games and going deep in the games. And as a starting pitcher, that's all you can really ask for."

Gameday box score
The 25-year-old left-hander displayed unhittable stuff from the outset as he fanned Scott Kingery, Rhys Hoskins and Dylan Cozens, three of the Phillies' top 12 prospects, in the first inning.
"It was just one of those days when everything was working," Yarbrough said. "So it was just a matter of mixing speeds and mixing locations, and it just kind of went my way tonight."
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The 2014 fourth-round pick worked around a leadoff double by Matt Williams in the third and struck out the side in the fourth before the IronPigs were able to scratch across their first run in the fifth on an RBI groundout by Herlis Rodriguez.
"This is the first time we've seen them all year and they have probably one of the most potent lineups in the league," Yarbrough said. "Since we've only seen them one game yesterday, we didn't really have too much to go off of, so I was just sticking to our game plan, seeing how things evolve throughout the game." 
With one out in the sixth, the southpaw gave up a solo homer to Hoskins on an 0-1 pitch. The long ball was Hoskins' 21st -- good for second in the IL -- and trimmed the Bulls' lead to 3-2.
"He's probably one of the better hitters in the league with the kind of numbers he's putting up," Yarbrough said. "It was just a down and away fastball and he went and got it, so kudos to him, it was just a good swing. At that point, I was more worried about keeping the lead, so I just went right after the next guy, hoping to get our team back out there to hit and score a couple of extra runs."

The Old Dominion product punched out Cozens and Andrew Pullin after the long ball to finish his outing on 91 pitches. With 118 strikeouts, he leapfrogged both Charlotte's Lucas Giolito (106) and Gwinnett's Lucas Sims (115) for the league lead. Teammate and Rays No. 2 prospect Brent Honeywell Jr. is fourth with 104.
"There's definitely a little friendly competition," said Yarbrough, who totaled 99 strikeouts over 128 1/3 innings last season with Double-A Jackson in the Mariners system. "Me, Honeywell and Yonny Chirinos, who got his 10th win a couple of days ago, and even our other starters, when we are playing on a team where everyone is playing really well, you're just like, 'OK, he did that, so I've got do a little better now.' A little competitiveness definitely makes it a little bit more fun to go out there and see what can happen."

The Florida native also tied ninth-ranked Rays prospect Jacob Faria, who has since been called up to the big leagues, for most strikeouts by a Bull this season. Faria accomplished his feat on May 10 against Columbus.
Hunter Wood took over for Yarbrough and allowed a solo homer to Kingery in the eighth. The long ball was his 23rd of the season and fifth since a promotion from Double-A Reading. Chaz Roe tossed a perfect ninth for his first save of the season.

Durham's offense was paced by fifth-ranked Rays prospect Casey Gillaspie, who hit a solo shot in the third, and Kean Wong, who lofted a two-run homer two batters later. Curt Casali chipped in two RBIs.