• Presented here are the top pitcher game scores from weekend series. Any prospect with a game score of 65 or higher is displayed.

• Giants righty Chris Heston turned in his finest start of the season for Double-A Richmond on Sunday, and that's saying something considering the fact that he's the Eastern League's ERA leader at 2.20. The 24-year-old took a no-hitter through 7 2/3 innings, losing the bid on a single by Bowie third baseman Zelous Wheeler, and tied his season high with 11 strikeouts. Heston missed two starts in late July with a blister on his middle finger, but his August results suggest he's feeling fine.

• The Mets received just six starts out of righty Jake deGrom during his first two pro seasons, but the former two-way standout at Stetson has made up significant ground this season to get back on track. The 2010 ninth-rounder missed all of ’11 while recovering from Tommy John surgery, but he jumped to high Class A for his start on Saturday after going 6-3, 2.51 in 15 starts for low Class A Savannah. DeGrom allowed only one hit in seven innings while striking out eight in his Florida State League debut.

• The fifth overall pick in June, Royals righty Kyle Zimmer now sports a 23-to-5 strikeout-to-walk ratio in four starts for low Class A Kane County.

Noteworthy Performance In Short-Season League Play

Short-season Brooklyn righty Hansel Robles has been just about untouchable in his past four New York-Penn League starts, allowing three runs in 28 innings while striking out 31, issuing zero walks and allowing 15 hits. He tossed eight shutout, one-hit frames against Vermont on Friday. The Mets signed Robles, who ranks third in the NYP in ERA (1.48) and strikeouts (51), as a 19-year-old out of the Dominican Republic in August 2008.

Worst Game Score By A Prospect

In three starts since jumping to Double-A Reading, Phillies righty Brody Colvin has more walks (11) than strikeouts (eight), a ratio that resulted from a poor start on Saturday. Colvin walked seven, struck out two and allowed eight runs on four hits in 2 2/3 innings (game score: 13) . . . The nightmare season continued for Yankees righty Dellin Betances, who logged a game score of 10 with Double-A Trenton by allowing eight runs on 10 hits over four innings.

• Presented here are the top runs created tallies from weekend series. All prospects with four or more runs created are displayed.

• Apparently reinvigorated by trades, a pair of center fielders have thrived with new organizations. Robbie Grossman has batted .358/.482/.537 in 67 at-bats with Double-A Corpus Christi since joining the Astros in the Wandy Rodriguez deal with the Pirates. Leon Landry has enjoyed recent homestand with high Class A High Desert to push his Mariners system batting line to .490/.519/.878 through 49 at-bats. Seattle acquired Landry in the deal that sent Brandon League to the Dodgers.

• Mariners catcher Mike Zunino, the No. 3 pick in the draft and the BA College Player of the Year, belted his 10th home run of the season to take the lead in the short-season Northwest League. He's batting .373/.474/.736 through 110 at-bats for Everett.

Noteworthy Performance In Short-Season League Play

Astros seventh-round right fielder/first baseman Preston Tucker went 8-for-14 (.571) with three homers and a double for short-season Tri-City over the weekend, pushing the Florida product's pro batting line to .354/.422/.570 through 79 at-bats.

Rough Stretch

Red Sox left fielder Brandon Jacobs has only infrequently shown the promise this season that made him such an interesting prospect a year ago. This is especially true after taking an 0-for-12 with five whiffs over the weekend with high Class A Salem. Jacobs has batted .255/.317/.404 with 11 homers in 96 games this year.

Bill James' game score calculation (Wikipedia entry) rewards pitchers who work deep into games without allowing many runs or hits while providing extra credit for dominance (strikeouts) and control (few walks).

The Bill James-devised runs created metric (Wikipedia entry explains ’02 version) rewards batters for avoiding outs and reaching base safely (on-base percentage) and for accumulating total bases (slugging percentage), two factors that correlate strongly with run scoring, and for obvious reasons.