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No time for idle chit chat when you've got blockbuster footage like this. MAC!
HIGHLIGHTS: Tyler Beede threw a brilliantly effective 6 innings. Erik Cordier K'd all 4 batters he faced.
Sacramento lost at El Paso (Padres), 7-1
|
|
Name |
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
2B |
3B |
HR |
BB |
SO |
SB |
CS |
Other |
|
LF |
Juan Perez |
4 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
1b |
Adam Duvall |
4 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2E, .436 BA |
|
Name |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
K |
HR |
HB |
WP |
ERA |
|
Ty Blach |
4.0 |
10 |
6 |
6 |
0 |
4 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
5.60 |
|
Hunter Strickland |
2.0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1.17 |
Sacramento forgot to bring their hitting shoes on the trip from SLC to El Paso, getting shut down by former SD rotation member Robbie Erlin and a trio of relievers. The RiverCats managed just 8 hits, including 3 doubles, and 9 baserunners overall. Duvall and Perez accounted for half the hits themselves and two-thirds of the XBH. No one else on the team reached base twice.
On the pitching side, Ty Blach's pitch to contact act is suffering a tough go of it in the high desert, which some would find predictable. Three starts into the PCL he's got a 5.60 ERA and a WHIP of 1.47. He has yet to walk a batter on the season and has only surrendered 2 HRs, and he does have 11 K in 17.2 IP, but the hits have been coming in bunches off of him. BABIP or stuff? The eternal question. The Chihuahuas lineup features the #4 and 6 prospects (BA) in the system in newly promoted catcher Austin Hedges and toolsy OF Rymer Liriano (albeit the #1 was shipped off in a last second deal for Craig Kimbrel).
Absent much else in this game, let's watch Ehire flash some leather.
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Being swept in the 2 game series, having now lost 6 straight
|
|
Name |
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
2B |
3B |
HR |
BB |
SO |
SB |
CS |
Other |
|
SS |
Kelby Tomlinson |
4 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
PO |
|
LF |
Daniel Carbonell |
4 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
|
|
3b |
Mitch Delfino |
1 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
RF |
Mac Williamson |
5 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
Assist |
|
C |
Jackson Williams |
3 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
Name |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
K |
HR |
HB |
WP |
ERA |
|
Chris Stratton |
3.0 |
4 |
6 |
5 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
5.79 |
|
Stephen Johnson |
1.1 |
5 |
3 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
4.26 |
|
Josh Osich |
1.0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
Richmond hitters put up a pretty solid attack today with 15 base runners and 4 XBH. Tomlinson, Delfino, and Williams all reached base 3 or more times. Kelby Tomlinson was on base three more times today, but in all it was a frustrating series for Kelby in some little ways. He led of this game with a 2b, but ended the inning by getting picked off 3b by the Catcher. And later his tailing throw on a routine grounder (though the error was given to 1b Oropesa) was the tiny pebble that started the 4th inning falling to disaster. The night before he had made a poor decision to throw home in the 1st inning which could have led to a big inning. Just the frustrations of trying to do a little too much for a team in a tough skid no doubt. Williamson connected for his 1st AA HR, a soaring shot, however the rest of his day with the bat was a rough one as he took the hat trick and appears to be scuffling at the moment picking up the advanced offspeed stuff of AA pitchers. On the bright side, he definitely didn't take his offensive problems out into the field with him in this series as he was truly a force in the field, converting a lot of would be hits into outs and showing range both coming in and going back. And even tossed in an OF assist on the side. As I said yesterday, the scout we were chatting with after one of the plays said "he looks like Dwight Evans out there" Someone catching him on another series might not have the same reaction but it was quite a two days for him out there. At the end of this shot of Chris Stratton there's a not so great shot of one of the lesser good plays he made today.
Chris Stratton's day started out fine and ended up going very very bad. His fastball was consistently 90-92, touching 93, and had cutting action, which may have been a two seamer. He mixed in the curveball and an occasional change, plus the hard slider, though nothing really featured much bite, rather everything had subtle slide. He stayed on the corners well and mostly breezed through the first three innings. Here he is striking out veteran Bowie 1b Mike McDade.
However, in the second inning after allowing his first base runner, it was quite apparent that he wasn't as comfortable out of the stretch and he really struggled to locate at this point, missing off the outer edge of the plate consistently. He got out of it and then was fine again in the third, but in the 4th inning, a leadoff error put him back in the stretch and then he really lost his release point and the strike zone, walking the bases loaded on back to back pretty noncompetitive at bats. It's almost shocking to look at the box score and see that he had only 2 BBs, because the pitches/strikes ratio (67/37) is much more indicative of his command on the day which saw him working from behind a lot and doing a lot of nibbling just off the corner trying to get batters to chase.
Stephen Johnson relieved Stratton after 4 runs had scored in the inning (without an out recorded) and Johnson fared little better. Five more runs would score on his watch before Phil mcCormick came in to restore some sanity. The Stephen Johnson who reportedly threw 100 in college does not seem to be anywhere in evidence anymore. His fastball was 91-92 consistently today. However, he did feature a sharp little 78 mile frisbee slider with some bite on it. (Had I not been knocked into at the end of the following video you'd see Williamson throwing out the runner at 2b btw).
McCormick was followed by Tyler Rogers which was fun to see because of the cognitive dissonance it created in a stands full of people who all saw the RHP funky sidewinder following the LHP funky sidewinder and say in chorus, "wait, wasn't he throwing with the other arm last inning?" Finally Josh Osich threw the best inning of the day on either side of the field with a truly dominating assortment of pitches. He retired the side on 8 pitches, all strikes, and K'd 2. His fastball got as high as 94 and his tight slider wasn't touched by anybody who offered at it. He dispatched a pretty good hitter in Mike Yaztrezemski on three consecutive swing throughs.
San Jose defeated Inland Empire (Angels), 4-1
|
|
Name |
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
2B |
3B |
HR |
BB |
SO |
SB |
CS |
Other |
|
3b |
Ryder Jones |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.395 BA |
|
LF |
Rafael Rodriguez |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
HBP |
|
1b |
Brian Ragira |
3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.130 BA |
|
2b |
John Polonius |
2 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
HBP |
|
Name |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
K |
HR |
HB |
WP |
ERA |
|
Tyler Beede, W, 1-1 |
6.0 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2.93 |
|
Erik Cordier |
1.0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
Ian Gardeck |
1.0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1.86 |
|
Dan Slania, S1 |
1.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1.29 |
The beat up Giants lineup didn't exactly pack a punch on this day, but they did enough. RafRod continued his strong start to the season doubling in a run, and John Polonius pitched in with two hits, a double, and 3 times on base. Ryan Lollis was the only other player to reach base twice and nobody other than Polonius had two hits. They peripherals-challenged lineup did manage to draw 4 bbs against only 5 ks on this day. The big news for the offense came off the twitter feed:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Everything happens for a reason, Cali bound in a few hours</p>— Hunter Cole (@hcole6) <a href="https://twitter.com/hcole6/status/590658626223796224">April 21, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Good news for Hunter, though it makes me suspect that either Slater or Arroyo (or possibly both) look to be out for a good while at this point.
On the pitching side, the day belonged to Tyler Beede who had a strong bounce back effort. He pounded the strike zone, throwing 43 of his 66 pitches for strikes and though he managed only 1 K, the two seamer was picking up ground ball after ground ball. He finished with 12 ground ball outs. In all he retired 18 of the 23 batters he faced. And it should not go unnoticed (even though Pitcher Wins LOL and all that), for his efforts he picked up his first professional Win. Cordier, Gardeck, and Slania finished up with 3 innings of 1-hit ball. Thanks to a Ty Ross PB, Cordier managed the rare 4K inning in his inning of work. Pitchers are allowed a maximum of 30 days of minor league rehab assignment, so the delayed options clock decision on Cordier is set to expire somewhere around May 15 at this point.
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Augusta lost to Charleston (Yankees), 5-4
|
|
Name |
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
2B |
3B |
HR |
BB |
SO |
SB |
CS |
Other |
|
CF |
Johneshwy Fargas |
5 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
.347 BA |
|
SS |
Jeremy Sy |
5 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
E |
|
C |
Aramis Garcia |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
1b |
Skyler Ewing |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
DH |
John Riley |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
RF |
Randy Ortiz |
3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
|
|
Name |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
K |
HR |
HB |
WP |
ERA |
|
Nick Gonzalez |
4.0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
4.70 |
|
Ramon Del Orbe, BS |
1.1 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
8.10 |
|
Carlos Diaz, L |
1.2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
5.14 |
The Augusta offense continues to be surprisingly effective even without much production so far from the 4-5 hitters Garcia (.185 BA, .635 OPS) and Ewing (.229 BA, .663 OPS). Garcia took a hat trick on this game. Still the Jackets amassed 15 baserunners and 4 XHB. Johneshwy Fargas continued his hot hitting with 3 more singles, however, after a streak of 9 consecutive successful SB he was CS twice on this night. In the end, just a couple too many of those runners were stranded however, setting the team up for another late inning loss. Let's let David Lee take it up:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Augusta leaves two on in the 6th. Going to the 7th leading Charleston 2-1.</p>— David Lee (@David11Lee) <a href="https://twitter.com/David11Lee/status/590684566219788289">April 22, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Augusta's Nick Gonzalez: 4 IP, 2 H, R, 6 K, 1 GB, 6 FB, 3 LD, 8 swinging strikes, 86-89, t90.</p>— David Lee (@David11Lee) <a href="https://twitter.com/David11Lee/status/590674844288684032">April 22, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Another rough night for Augusta's bullpen. Three-run 8th ties it at 4 with Charleston. Still hitting.</p>— David Lee (@David11Lee) <a href="https://twitter.com/David11Lee/status/590695615086100480">April 22, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Charleston takes the lead in the 9th on an error by Sy. 5-4 going to the home half.</p>— David Lee (@David11Lee) <a href="https://twitter.com/David11Lee/status/590701438470332416">April 22, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Augusta leaves the tying run on second. Charleston takes another in the late innings to win 5-4.</p>— David Lee (@David11Lee) <a href="https://twitter.com/David11Lee/status/590704597049745411">April 22, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
For an org whose predominant strength appears to be relief arms, Augusta seems have gotten the short end of the stick. the offense and the rotation have been doing enough to win games. The team's 4-7 record lies firmly at the feet of a bullpen that has given up runs in bunches and probably has a few too many arms like the minor league journeyman Ramon Del Orbe.
One interesting question now is who is going to replace Hunter Cole in the lineup. We know that Kelvin Beltre was a strong consideration for the Augusta squad when Bobby Evans spoke to reporters in camp. Could a big promotion for Beltre be the end result of SJ's rush of injuries? Stay tuned!....
A light three game schedule today as Richmond takes some time to think about what it's done and Augusta will be done with their getaway day game before some of you wake up and read this. Scheduled starters are Jake Dunning, Chase Johnson, and Jose Reyes.