Here we present the top 10 single-start pitching performances, as measured by game score, at each classification of the minors in May. To make up for late publication date of this piece, find a ranking of the top 10 game scores in the big leagues at the bottom of this post.

• Righty Chris Tillman hasn't done much with a full season's complement of starts for Baltimore the past three seasons (5.58 ERA, 1.58 WHIP in 181 innings), but the 24-year-old may be turning a corner in Triple-A this season. He went 2-5, 3.64 with a 38-14 K-BB ratio in 42 innings with Norfolk in May, topped off by the one-hit, nine-strikeout effort against Pawtucket shown above. Tillman's pitching so well that he may force his way into big league rotation conversation, where he could vie for starts with fellow Tides Zach Britton and (soon) Jamie Moyer. It's shocking to consider now, but Tillman was viewed as a similar talent to Adam Jones at the time the Orioles completed the Erik Bedard trade with the Mariners in February 2008.

• You know it hasn't been a superlative month for Double-A pitching prospects when a pair of 28-year-olds in Matt Buschmann and James Avery head the list of top game scores. Scroll down the list, though, and you see Athletics righty Dan Straily, who's embroiled in a dogfight for the minor league strikeout title with Diamondbacks prospects Trevor Bauer and Andrew Chafin, as well as Royals righty Jake Odorizzi, who pitched himself right out of the Texas League after his May 11 start versus Springfield. Odorizzi went 3-1, 1.98 with a 33-5 K-BB ratio in his final 27 1/3 innings for Northwest Arkansas.

• Rangers righty Cody Buckel allowed just three runs in five May starts, delivering scoreless outings three out of five tries while notching a 40-11 K-BB ratio in 33 innings. He leads the Carolina League in ERA (1.42) and strikeouts (86), but Double-A may be the true test for 19-year-old Buckel, who will have to prove wrong those who dock him for standing 6 feet and for not possessing a consistently plus pitch. That makes him sound an awful lot like a righthanded Robbie Erlin or a shorter version of Joe Wieland, two former Rangers farmhands who excelled with Myrtle Beach a year ago prior to being dealt to the Padres for Mike Adams in July.

• In a truly Dickensian month of May, Twins righty Tim Shibuya had both the best game score (90, above) and the worst game score (-22, May 30). In the latter he allowed 12 runs on 10 hits in just 2/3 innings of work—though he allowed only one home run and one walk and recorded strikeouts to notch both outs!