Reyes, Flaherty among top prospect performers Friday

The future of the St. Louis Cardinals’ starting rotation shined on Friday night as Nos. 1 and 2 prospects Alex Reyes and Jack Flaherty had strong outings for Triple-A Memphis and Class A Advanced Palm Beach, respectively.

Making his second Triple-A start since returning from a 50-game suspension, Reyes, MLBPipeline.com’s No. 11 overall prospect, allowed one run on three hits in five innings for the Redbirds, who ultimately fell to Las Vegas, 4-1. The 21-year-old righty struck out seven hitters, walked two and hit another in the outing while throwing 58 of his 89 pitches for strikes. Of those strikes, 24 were of the swing-and-miss variety.

Reyes was cruising up until the fifth inning, when he allowed a leadoff single and then issued an eight-pitch walk to the following hitter. But he bounced back to strike out the next two hitters, both swinging, and appeared destined to escape the jam before No. 82 overall prospect Gavin Cecchini took him back up the middle with a game-tying RBI single. Between his two starts for Memphis, Reyes has piled up 15 strikeouts in nine innings while allowing just one earned run.

As for Flaherty, the No. 75 overall prospect turned in his best start of 2016 for Palm Beach as he struck out a season-high nine hitters in six scoreless innings, giving up four hits and walking two. It was an encouraging performance by the 20-year-old right-hander, who had allowed at least three earned runs in four straight starts for the Cardinals heading into the day. He’s pitched to a 5.08 ERA in 44 1/3 innings on the season, though his 44 strikeouts, strong groundball rate and three home runs allowed in that span suggests it will continue to come down.

The rest of the best performances from top prospects Friday

• No. 17 overall prospect Sean Newcomb (Braves’ No. 1) got back on track Friday …

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