Minor League Road Trip, Day 3: Sit back, relax and watch Reynaldo Lopez throw fireballs

There's so much to experience at a Minor League Baseball game. In our years gallivanting around the Minors we've seen monkeys ride dogs, dogs work as batboys and more postgame fireworks shows than we could ever need. But some nights, it's even better to tune all that out and watch an awesome baseball player be awesome on a baseball field. Last night, Nationals prospect Reynaldo López did just that.
Currently ranked fifth in Washington's system by MLB Pipeline, Lopez had been particularly sharp of late. The hard-throwing righty had chalked up at least 12 strikeouts in three of his last five starts. On Saturday, he was nothing short of dominant. We realized by the second inning that we were witness to something pretty fire emoji, so we put our phones down, took up seats behind the dish and let the wonders of Lopez's fastball velocity wash over us. Sitting 95-98 mph with his heater for the entire outing, the 6-foot Dominican fireballer also showcased a devastating curveball, as well as a few impressive changeups. He finished with 10 punchouts over eight scoreless innings, including an exclamation mark on his last pitch of the night:

#Nationals RHP prospect Reynaldo Lopez ends his outing with a K on pitch #112. 8 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 10 K 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/If7w3RB8SL

— Cespedes Family BBQ (@CespedesBBQ) June 26, 2016

While Lopez may have stolen the show for the evening, New Hampshire does have two of the better prospects in the Blue Jays' system: Right-hander Brady Dragmire (No. 17) and first baseman Rowdy Tellez (No. 8) both grew up in Elk Ridge, Calif., and even played on the same Little League team together for a few years. Once we caught wind of this lengthy friendship, we were eager to ask these guys what it was like playing together as kids, and how much has changed on their respective journeys from Little League to Double-A.
You can catch the whole interview in the clip above, but the definitive highlight of talking to these guys was when Rowdy suddenly exhibited his unparalleled ninja abilities to take down a fly that appeared to be bothering his good friend Brady.

The Game, haiku recap:
Reynaldo Lopez
Was good, K K K K K
K K K K K
The BBQ Bump, an Update
On Thursday, we interviewed Phillies prospect Rhys Hoskins. He dingered on Thursday and Friday.
On Thursday, we also chatted with Yankees prospect Aaron Judge. He's homered in all three games he's played since talking to us.
On Friday, we talked to Mets prospect Dominic Smith. He homered in the game we were at and then again in Saturday's game.
The BBQ Bump is real, people. All you scuffling Minor Leaguers need some BBQ in your lives.
Where We Woke Up: Albany, N.Y.
Where We Slept: Manchester, N.H.
Miles Driven: 169
Miles Driven To-Date: 769
Time in Car: 3:32
Time in Car to-date: 13:52

Tomorrow's Plan: First, we're heading up to Portland, Maine, to see the Sea Dogs and No. 5 overall prospect Yoán Moncada take on our new friend Jake Fox and the Reading Fightin' Phils. And then we're going to do something insane: start driving toward our final destination. Sure, Maine isn't technically on the way to San Diego, and sure it's kinda like running into the stands before running to first base, but we just had to bat flip in both oceans on this trip. I hope you keepers of common sense can understand.