Saturday: Braves 6, Biscuits 1

Aaron Northcraft threw six shutout innings and the Mississippi Braves avoided a five-game series sweep with Saturday's 6-1 win over the Biscuits.

Northcraft (2-3) gave up two hits with two walks and recorded 10 groundball outs. It was his best start since also throwing six shutout innings in the season opener.

The Biscuits avoided their third shutout by scoring in the eighth. Cameron Seitzer singled in Mikie Mahtook.

Montgomery starter Victor Mateo gave up three runs on three hits and four walks in five innings. It snapped a streak of eight consecutive quality starts by the Biscuits.

Paduch coming back to Biscuits

Jim Paduch, who spent much of the last two seasons with the Biscuits, is returning to the team.

Paduch has been demoted from Triple-A Durham, where -- after a win Friday -- he was 2-3 with a 7.54 ERA. The right-hander gave up four runs on seven hits (including three home runs) over 6 1/3 innings in a start Friday.

The 30-year-old was a combined 4-8 with a 5.16 ERA the last two seasons for Montgomery.

Buschmann best in May's BCS/RPI race

Buschmann

Right-handed pitcher Matt Buschmann finished first in the Biscuit Crumbs Standings/Rays Player Indicator rankings for May.

Buschmann, who finished with 20 points, was 4-2 with a 2.13 ERA in six May starts for the Biscuits and, after a final-day promotion, threw 2 2/3 perfect innings for Triple-A Durham on Friday. Buschmann landed in the daily rankings five times after his seven appearances.

Montgomery starter Merrill Kelly was second with 16 points based on the five quality starts he made in the month. He was one point ahead of Bowling Green's Taylor Guerrieri.

Kelly

Durham's Wil Myers and Bowling Green's Andrew Toles were the top position players. They tied for fourth with 13 points. There were 28 May days that had rankings and 73 players drew at least one vote.

Bowling Green's Tommy Coyle, the April BCS/RPI champion, is first on the full-season list ahead of Toles.

MAY
20 points: Matt Buschmann
16: Merrill Kelly
15: Taylor Guerrieri
13: Wil Myers, Andrew Toles
11: Vince Belnome, Marty Gantt
10: Jeff Ames, Kevin Kiermaier, Jeff Malm

Coyle

First-place days
2: Jeff Ames, Vince Belnome, Matt Buschmann, Taylor Guerrieri, Jeff MalmDays in rankings
5: Matt Buschmann, Merrill Kelly, Kevin Kiermaier
4: Taylor Guerrieri, Wil Myers, Andrew Toles

SEASON TOTAL
31 points: Tommy Coyle
27: Andrew Toles
26: Vince Belnome, Matt Buschmann, Marty Gantt
22: Taylor Guerrieri
21: Sean Bierman, Merrill Kelly
18: Ryan Carpenter, Kevin Kiermaier

Today's Rays pitchers

Durham's Alex Torres has an 8.64 ERA in two starts since returning from the major leagues.

DUR (Alex Torres 2-2, 3.52) vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (Chien-Ming Wang 3-4, 2.65), 6:05
MGM (Victor Mateo 2-5, 6.45) at Mississippi (Aaron Northcraft 1-2, 4.43), 6
CHA (Parker Markel 2-4, 6.96/?) vs. St. Lucie (Domingo Tapia 2-4, 3.86/?), DH, 4
BWG (Reinaldo Lopez 2-2, 1.70) vs. South Bend (Kyle Winkler debut), 7:05

Ranking the Rays ... Bierman, Riefenhauser

For Friday ...

1. Sean Bierman, BWG: 6 shutout, 4 hits, walk, 4 Ks, 10 GBO
2. C.J. Riefenhauser, MGM: 1 2/3 perfect, 0-3 inherited runners score (0-12 for year)
3. Matt Buschmann, DUR: 2 2/3 perfect, 3 Ks, 3 GBO
4. Enny Romero, MGM: 6 innings, 2 unearned runs, 6 hits, 5 Ks
5. Kevin Kiermaier, MGM: 3b, 3 1b's, steal, 2 runs