This season Texas League fans have been fortunate enough to see some of the best pitchers in Minor League Baseball. From Lance McCullers and Mark Appel in Corpus Christi to Julio Urias in Tulsa, the eight western Double-A teams have faced some of the best young hurlers developing their game. Yesterday evening two more were embraced in a Top 100 prospect showdown at Hammons Field in Springfield, Missouri as Northwest Arkansas' Sean Manaea and Springfield's Alex Reyes took the mound for their individual team.

Although MLB.com's 83rd prospect Reyes had the tougher of the two lineups to face on the night since the Naturals threw 4 of Kansas City's top 12 organizational prospects at the flamethrower, he was not deterred and immediately started pounding the strikezone from the get-go. By doing so, the right hander was able to retire the first six batters of the game in addition to squandering a Frank Schwindel lead-off double with three consecutive strikeouts in the third.

Despite Manaea, whose fastball tops out at 96 mph (six mph slower than the Cardinals' prospect), not being as extrovert with his approach early in the game, success found him in his second start at the level by rolling through the first two frames facing one over the minimum and fanning four. Yet instead of starting the bottom of the third with a whiff, it would begin with a bang.

Leading off for the Cardinals in their half of the inning was first baseman David Washington, though unlike the prior lead-off batters, he didn't get the memo he was suppose to strike out. Crack, zoom, gone. Washington sent the Manaea offering way over the left center field fence for the first run of the game.

After the home run, things became even shakier for the southpaw as he loaded the bases with a two-out walk to Anthony Garcia. However, MLB.com's 43rd prospect was able to escape the jam by inducing Springfield's Mike Ohlman to ground out.

While the third was Manaea's turbulent inning, Reyes' was the fourth as he started it by walking Kansas City's top prospect Raul Mondesi Jr. Then the 2015 All-Star Futures Game pitcher balked advancing the speedster to second, setting up Jorge Bonifacio doubling in RMJ to knot the game at one. 

Once the game was tied, Reyes was able to immediately stop the bleeding by sending Bubba Starling and Lane Adams back to the dugout via groundouts.

Even though Springfield was able to start the fourth with a single by Bruce Caldwell, the Royals' top pitching prospect moonwalked his way out of trouble with a double play off the bat of Matt Williams and a strikeout of Washington.

With four innings in the books, Sean Manaea and Alex Reyes' nights were over. While both starters only allowed one earned run, Manaea struck out one more batter (6-5) than his counterpart while walking two more (3-1). The result of the game would be decided by the bullpens.

The first real action after the starters' departure came in the bottom of the fifth. Sam Selman (25th prospect for Kansas City) entered the game for the Naturals, but today he had forgotten the art of pitching. 

Thanks to a lead-off walk to Breyvic Valera, Springfield instantly had a runner on base against Selman. It would only get worse for the reliever. Charlie Tilson, single! Mike O'Neill, single! Patrick Wisdom, RBI single! Anthony Garcia, RBI HBP! At this point, Naturals' manager Vance Wilson had seen enough and removed his struggling reliever from play and replaced him with Matt Murray. Sadly the move proved futile as Caldwell capped the frame off by singling home three runs (two on base knock, one on throwing error) to jump the Cardinals' lead to five! Unfortunately for Northwest Arkansas, Springfield didn't stop in the fifth but continued in the sixth with six more runs, five of which came from home runs off the bats of Wisdom (two run HR) and Williams (three run HR). 12-1 Cardinals.

Even though Northwest Arkansas finally "picked up the boomsticks" and cut the deficit to eight with three runs in the top of the eighth, Springfield held on by the final score of 12-4.

As MLB.com top 100 prospects Sean Manaea and Alex Reyes had good nights on the mound, MLB.com's 31st prospect Raul Mondesi Jr. also did well by going 1-3 with a run scored at the plate. The 19-year-old 2015 All-Star Futures Game shortstop is now batting .248 with 5 home runs and 26 RBIs in 46 games with Northwest Arkansas.

The two teams will be back at it again tonight as Kansas City's 26th prospect Cody Reed leads the Naturals versus Springfield's Arturo Reyes.