Yusniel Padron-Artiles was a 22nd-round pick of the Boston Red Sox and isn’t ranked anywhere on the ballclub’s top-prospects list.
But Thursday, the 21-year-old right-hander put together the type of performance that certainly will garner some attention.
Padron-Artiles came on in relief for the Class A Lowell Spinners and struck out 14 batters — including a record 12 straight — in six innings of a 2-1 win over Batavia in a New York-Penn League semifinal playoff series in Massachusetts.
The Spinners say the 12 straight strikeouts set a minor league record. The most consecutive strikeouts in the majors came from Tom Seaver in 1970, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Seaver fanned 10 in a row.
Padron-Artiles attended Miami Dade Community College South and was picked in the 22nd round of the 2018 draft. He split the 2019 season between Class A Greenville and Lowell, going 7-1 with a 2.67 ERA for the latter.
On Thursday, he relieved touted Red Sox prospect Jay Groome in the fourth inning and proceeded to strike out 12 straight Muckdogs before allowing a leadoff single to start the eighth inning.
“It was a very important game, and I knew I had to give all I had and leave it all on the field,” Padron-Artilles, a native of Cuba, said through an interpreter, according to the Lowell Sun. “Going into the game, my mindset was to get every pitch to work. Get the curveball over and finish them off with the fastball.”
With the win, the Spinners forced a decisive Game 3 of the series Friday.
“[Padron-Artilles] got us that win,” Spinners first baseman Joe Davis told the Sun. “If it wasn’t for him, that’s a different game. We all could feed off his energy. You could see it on the mound. You could see it on the bench. You just had to feed off him, and that’s what we did.”