SF Giants Minor Lines, 5/21

I think we have a new candidate for Play of the Year! As usual, you have to sort of pick your way through the poor camera and director work and the odd decision to cut the replay off in the middle, but this gem might just have it all in terms of entertainment value. And as a side benefit, it came at a crucial moment in the game, as former RiverCat, former A, former Ray, former everybody Dan Johnson stepped to the plate with two on in a 2-2 tie. What followed was pure baseball magic.

HIGHLIGHTS: Hunter Strickland struck out all 3 batters he faced. Jake Smith threw 2 perfect innings with 3 Ks. Sam Coonrod threw 6 shutout innings.

Sacramento lost to Memphis (Cardinals), 4-2

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	CS	BA
CF	Darren Ford	4	2	2	1	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	.291
SS	Ehire Adrianza	4	0	2	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	.338
3b	Adam Duvall	4	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	.319

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
Robert Coello, L 5-2	5.0	3	2	2	3	5	0	0	0	3.44
Stevn Okert	1.1	1	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	2.89
Hunter Strickland	1.0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	1.66
Cory Gearrin	1.0	1	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	2.25

Sacramento began their first series of the year with one of the eastern teams from the PCL, as the Memphis Redbirds came to town. Most of Memphis' prospects are on the pitching side of things as their rotation includes Cardinals #1 prospect Marco Gonzales and #7 Tim Cooney (who starts tonight) as well as yesterday's starting pitcher Tyler Lyons who has been one of the starters the Cardinals have used this year to make up for the loss of Adam Wainwright.  On the position player side, their OF features former Stanford Cardinal #3 prospect Stephen Piscotty and #19 prospect Xavier Scruggs.

Returning home off more than week on the road, Sacramento struggled to get much offense going in this one. Five of their seven hits (and all three XBH) were clustered in the top 3 hitters of the lineup, Ford, Adrianza, and Duvall.  The rest of the team collectively reached base only two times. Memphis starter Tyler Lyons, who threw a CG, racked up 12 Ks vs. the RiverCats and 0 BBs. Sacramento did, however, continue their streak of homering in seven consecutive games, but that was pretty much all they managed in this one.

Ford added to his strong offensive game with an OF assist, while Adam Duvall committed two errors (8, 9).

On the mound, Robert Coello had a solid start though he appeared to run out of gas in the 6th when he allowed all three of his runs. Of course, his D let him down a bit in that inning as it included both Juan Perez' lost fly ball above and an Adam Duvall errant throw on a Sac Bunt. On the other hand they threw out two runners on the base paths! But Coello's fatigue in the 6th can likely be seen from the fact that both of his BBs for the game came in that inning. Steven Okert relieved him with 2 outs and got out of the inning with a K.  The best pitching of the night came in the 8th when Hunter Strickland came in and retired all three batters he faced by way of the swinging K.

Richmond had a scheduled off night
They start a series vs. Bowie tonight

San Jose beat Modesto (Rockies), 3-2 in 10 innings
sweeping the three game series, 3-0

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	CS	BA
CF	Jesus Galindo	5	1	1	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	.272
LF	Ryan Lollis	5	1	2	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	.333
DH	Hunter Cole	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	.330
2b	Austin Slater	4	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.314
RF	Dylan Davis	3	1	1	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	.217

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
Martin Agosta	5.0	6	2	2	0	3	1	1	0	4.35
Tyler Rogers	2.0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	6.00
Jake Smith	2.0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	1.88
Ray Black	1.0	1	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0.00

SJ hitters were high on contact in this game, as they had only 1 K (vs. 3 BB), but they had trouble turning much of that contact into runs.  Though five of their eight hits in the game went for XB, the team once again had trouble cashing those guys in as they went 0 for 7 as a team with RISP. They actually did a bit better driving in runs without runners in scoring position. As witness Jesus Galindo's performance leading off the bottom of the 1st.

Dylan Davis, last year's 3rd round pick, showed off both his prodigious tools in this game as he had an OF assist at 2b, and in the bottom of the 2nd he went the more traditional HR route.

By the top of the 3rd, the game was deadlocked 2-2 (Modesto also benefitting from a solo HR from young 3b Ryan McMahon) and there it would stay for some time.  After Agosta went 5 (including 0 BBs!), the bullpen handled the rest of the game. Jake Smith had yet another excellent outing, as he retired every batter he faced, half on Ks. The 24 yr old 48th rounder out of Campbell is putting together a fantastic season, with a WHIP of 0.745 and a 33% K rate.

The inning of great weather conditions (i.e., climatic) came in the top of the 10th when Ray Black allowed a leadoff triple. But he held the go ahead run at 3rd on a comebacker to the mound and back to back Ks, getting a borderline called 3rd strike to end it. In the bottom of the 10th, Ryan Lollis also tripled, and SJ found a way to get him home... or somebody did:

And so, a game that opened with perhaps the most exciting play in baseball (inside the park HR), ended with perhaps the most torpid scoring play of all, the balk off win. And yes, if you're keeping track, that would be back to back walk offs for SJ of the unusual variety:

#SJGiants won on a walk-off passed ball last night... they win on a walk-off balk in the bottom of the 10th today. #baseball

— Joe Ritzo (@JoeRitzo) May 21, 2015

And yes, I suppose I'm duty bound to include this in the wrap up as well:

#SJGiants RHP Tyler Beede showing off his hidden rapping talent at Education Day!! #GiantTogether pic.twitter.com/uYdlTRhg0K

— San Jose Giants (@SJGiants) May 21, 2015

Augusta beat Asheville (Rockies), 6-0

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	CS	BA
CF	Johneshwy Fargas	4	2	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	.325
DH	Seth Harrison	2	2	1	1	0	0	0	2	0	1	1	.253
3b	Jonah Arenado	4	0	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.277
1b	Skyler Ewing	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.197

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
Samuel Coonrod, W, 1-1	6.0	3	0	0	3	4	0	1	0	3.75
Carlos Diaz	2.0	2	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	3.75
E.J. Encinosa	1.0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	6.75

There you go, a little Johneshwy makes everything better! Well, actually, Augusta's offensive performance on this night was one for the ages. They had a total of 7 batters reach base safely on 5 hits and 2 walks (vs. 10 Ks). In fact, they had only 29 ABs in the game. And yet they managed to score 6 runs. Here's how the first one came around:

Augusta Bottom of the 4th

• Johneshwy Fargas grounds out, second baseman Forrest Wall to first baseman Josh Fuentes.
• Seth Harrison reaches on a fielding error by shortstop Emerson Jimenez.
• With Jeremy Sy batting, Seth Harrison advances to 2nd on a balk.
• Jeremy Sy strikes out swinging, catcher Dom Nunez to first baseman Josh Fuentes. Seth Harrison to 3rd on the throw.
• With Jonah Arenado batting, wild pitch by Helmis Rodriguez, Seth Harrison scores.
• Jonah Arenado grounds out, shortstop Emerson Jimenez to first baseman Josh Fuentes.

I believe we may have discovered the Platonic ideal of the ground attack! Fargas celebrated his return to the lineup by stealing his 16th base of the season and scoring two runs.

On the mound, Sam Coonrod had his highest BB total of the year and his second lowest K total, but he also matched his longest outing of the year and for only the second time this season surrendered 0 runs.  Last year's 5th round pick out of Southern Illinois now has a 24% K rate for the year. His season continues to show very nice development.

Sadly, no eye witness in the park tonight:

Apologies for the lack of detail from the Augusta game tonight. Everything will be back to normal tomorrow.

— David Lee (@David11Lee) May 22, 2015

For what it's worth, I played Augusta National today. Shot 87. So I think I have a decent excuse.

— David Lee (@David11Lee) May 22, 2015

David Lee, man of many talents! Well, fwiw, it looked pretty much like this:

Augusta GreenJackets vs Asheville. Minor League... Lake Olmstead Stadium, May 21 http://t.co/tnYDbwTlu6 pic.twitter.com/JvVAF9vB53

— Things to do (@enjoyaugustaga) May 21, 2015

Full slate tonight, though not much to anticipate prospect-wise on the mound, as the scheduled starters are Kevin Correia, Kelvin Marte, Jake Peavy, and Nick Gonzalez. That Peavy guy could be important though.