Gunkel among top prospect performers Thursday

Tom Murphy is likely hoping July never ends considering the Rockies’ No. 11 prospect has raised his batting average over 100 points in 16 games so far this month.

Murphy went 3-for-4 with a homer, three RBIs and two runs scored in Triple-A Albuquerque’s 8-3 win over Salt Lake.

The 25-year-old has been red-hot at the plate all month, hitting .569 with 21 RBIs in 16 games.

Murphy has hits in 14 of 16 games this month, but a batting average doesn’t go from .208 to .309 with just one hit a night. The catcher has at least two hits in 11 games and three or more in five, including a July 14 performance in which he hit for the cycle.

Murphy is likely to cool off at some point, of course, but after a rough June, Murphy has certainly dug himself out of a statistical hole and is now batting .309 with 15 homers and 44 RBIs through 55 games overall.

The rest of the best performances from top prospects Thursday:

• Gleyber Torres (Yankees’ No. 1, No. 26 overall) collected his first RBI for Class A Advanced Tampa while going 2-for-4 at the plate. After going 0-for-5 in his first game with his new organization, Torres has three hits in eight at-bats over his past two games.

• A.J. Reed (Astros’ No. 2, No. 38 overall) homered for the third time in four games in the first half of Triple-A Fresno’s doubleheader. Reed hit a two-run homer in the first inning, drove in a run with a base hit in the third and singled again in the fifth, finishing 3-for-3 with three RBIs. He went 0-for-3 in the second game of the doubleheader.

• Blake Rutherford (Yankees’ No. 5, No. 64 overall) continues to rake for the Rookie level Pulaski Yankees. The Yankees’ first-round selection went 4-for-5 for the second consecutive night and is hitting .429 through the first 22 games of his professional career.

• Raimel Tapia (Rockies’ No. 5, No. 88 overall) is staying hot for Double-A Hartford. The 22-year-old has six hits in his last nine at-bats and …

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