SF Giants Minor Lines, 5/8

And speaking of weird hair metaphors: Hunter's back! It's the little things that mean so much.

@RiverCats @hunterpence We're on it!! #ClawsUp pic.twitter.com/h8KGBi6GHk

— 7th Inning Stitch (@7thInningStitch) May 8, 2015

HIGHLIGHTS: Hunter Pence began his rehab. Erik Cordier struck out all 3 batters he faced. Jake Smith retired 11 of 12 batters faced with 5 Ks. Sam Coonrod struck out 8 in 6 innings.

Sacramento defeated Albuquerque (Rockies), 3-1

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	CS	Other
CF	Ryan Lollis	4	1	2	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	1
RF	Hunter Pence	2	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	SF
1b	Travis Ishikawa	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	HBP
3b	Adam Duvall	4	1	1	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	GIDP
LF-RF	Jarrett Parker	4	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
Ty Blach, W, 3-2	6.2	6	0	0	1	4	0	0	0	3.22
Cody Hall	0.1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1.10
Erik Cordier	1.0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	3.00
Mike Broadway, S, 3	1.0	2	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	1.42

Sacramento's offense did just enough to support its strong pitching on this night, when both Hunter Pence and Travis Ishikawa joined the club for rehab assignments.  Pence played 5 innings in RF, making 3 PA. With his first he gave Sacramento its ultimate margin of victory, as they put  up 2 runs within the first 3 batters on Ronny Cedeno lead off single, Ryan Lollis' triple, and Pence's Sac Fly to medium RF. After that Adam Duvall's 9th HR was all the scoring they'd do or need on the night.

Ty Blach threw 6.2 scoreless innings to continue what has been a strong run of PCL starts. He danced through a bit of trouble, with runners reaching 3b in both the 2nd and 4th innings. In the 2nd he came up with a big K with the tying runs in scoring position. Many worried that Blach's pitch to contact style wouldn't fit the PCL but so far he's having an excellent AAA debut. He did walk his second batter of the season though (in 36.1 IP). SMH.

Cody Hall and Erik Cordier combined to strike out 4 consecutive batters (all the batters they faced) after Blach left the game and though Mike Broadway allowed a run in the ninth on a leadoff double and single, the bullpen ultimately struck out 5 of the 8 batters they faced collectively.

Anyway, here's the highlight we want:

Well, most of us anyway:

I'm more excited that Blackburn might pitch on Saturday (starter is listed as TBD right now) than about seeing Pence rehabbing #MiLBFanProbs

— Kristin (@legaleagle88) May 8, 2015

Hm... probably should have put some kind of witness protection blur on that tweet. Sorry kdl!

Richmond defeated Bowie (Orioles), 4-2

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	CS
CF	Javier Herrera	4	1	2	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
3b	Mitch Delfino	4	1	3	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	0

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
Joe Biagini, W, 1-2	6.0	2	0	0	2	3	0	0	0	1.93
Stephen Johnson	1.0	2	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	4.40
Joan Gregorio	1.0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	4.50
Josh Osich, S, 4	1.0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2.70

Coming back home to the Diamond, Richmond completed its fifth consecutive victory, all of them coming against a first place team. It was the first chance for the home fans to cheer on a victory since April 13, nearly one calendar month ago, so the healthy crowd of nearly 10,000 must have enjoyed the night.

Herrera and Delfino were the only two Squirrels to reach base twice on the night, as they spread their 10 hits (no walks) around the lineup. They had only two XBH, but both keyed the scoring rallies. In the 3rd, a single and a wild pick off throw got Jax to 2b. Kelby Tomlinson's double brought him in and then Tomlinson himself scored on Javy Herrera's first hit.  And in the 6th, Herrera's triple began another two-run rally which provided the winning margin.

Joe Biagini, the 24 yr old 26th round pick (2011) out of UC Davis has generally fringy stuff, featuring a 14:7 K:BB rate in 28 innings this year. But he's worked his magic to a pretty microscopic ERA thus far on the year and was finally rewarded for it with his first AA win. Perhaps he's taking the Jack Snodgrass "How to Soft Toss Your Way to AA Success" class.  Richmond's staff on the whole didn't induce much swing and miss on this night, with only 4 Ks collectively, but they surrendered only 5 hits and mostly kept Bowie off the board. The only hiccup came when stephen Johnson surrendered a 2-run HR to Catcher Chris O'Brien.

San Jose defeated Stockton (A's), 10-9

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	CS	Other
2b	Hunter Cole	3	1	2	0	2	0	0	1	0	1	0	E
RF	Austin Slater	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	GIDP
3b	Ryder Jones	3	2	1	1	1	0	0	1	1	0	0
LF	Dylan Davis	4	2	2	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
1b	Brian Ragira	4	2	2	3	0	0	1	0	2	0	0
DH	Matt Pare	4	1	2	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
SS	John Polonius	4	1	1	3	0	0	1	0	0	0	0

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
Luis Ysla	1.1	7	6	6	1	1	1	0	0	14.14
Jake Smith	3.2	0	0	0	1	5	0	0	0	1.19
Ian Gardeck, S, 1	2.0	0	0	0	1	3	0	0	0	3.32

In a truly wild one at the Muni, SJ reversed a couple of trends noted yesterday. First they won only their second 1 run game of the year. And second, they went 5 for 9 with RISP, taking a game in which they were down 6-0 after two innings, and then nearly blew a 10-6 lead. Between the two teams there were 19 runs, 20 hits, 28 baserunners, and 20 Ks in this game. All but one of the SJ hitters reached base safely in this game (parenthetically: oh Mr. Slater: I AM DISAPPOINT!) and five members of the lineup reached base multiple times. The comeback was keyed by 3 run HRs from Brian Ragira and John Polonius.  Polonius' HR capped a wild 7 run 6th inning for the Giants.

and let's watch Ragira's first of the year as well (apologies for SJ's terrible audio)

On the mound, Luis Ysla suffered yet another disastrous start. In 3 of his 5 starts he has failed to go more than 2 innings and he has now surrenderd 20 runs in his last 9 innings of work.  With an ugly (though symmetrical) 14.14 ERA, it would look to be time for the ol' "work on some stuff" DL stint for Ysla. Jake Smith was the real hero of the game on the mound, coming in to a 6-0 blow out and settling things down through the mid innings. Smith retired  11 of the 12 batters he faced, 5 of them on Ks. Smith, a 24 yr old 48th round draft pick (2011) out of Campbell University, has had a terrific year out of the pen, featuring a hard slider according to play by play man Joe  Ritzo and a low to mid 90s fastball.

Augusta and Lakewood (Phillies) 2-2, 17 innings, suspended game

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	CS	Other
DH	Jonah Arenado	7	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
C	Aramis Garcia	7	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	2	0	0
1b	Skyler Ewing	5	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0
RF	Cristian Paulino	6	2	2	0	1	0	0	0	1	1	0
SS	Travious Relaford	4	0	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Sac, SF, E

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
Samuel Coonrod	6.0	7	1	1	1	8	0	0	1	3.90
Connor Kaden	4.0	2	0	0	1	3	0	0	0	5.59
Reyes Moronta	3.0	1	0	0	1	3	0	0	0	3.00

Lakewood BlueClaws and Augusta GreenJackets just tied a baseball game, 2-2. Game called in 17th due to fog. Lol wut.

— Doug Newton (@DouglassNewton) May 9, 2015

Lots of 1 for 7s in this one! If SJ's game was wild, this one was I suspect torpifying.  If Augusta had an offensive star in the game it was Cristian Paulino, who doubled and scored on a Relaford single in the 3rd and then singled, stole 2b, tagged up on a fly to LF(!), and then scored on Relaford's Sac Fly in the 5th. That game Augusta a 2-0 lead and some four hours later I'm sure they wished they'd held it!

The rest of the team managed 6 hits (5 singles) and 0 BB over 17 innings of play, all carefully interspersed and spread out so as not to intrude on one another or dim their fellow singles' glory. Indeed after the 3rd, the Greenjackets never again had an inning in which they managed two baserunners. They did however, have a few chances to end things. In the 9th, Arenado led off with a single with the heart of the order coming up, but Garcia, Ewing, and Cain were consecutively caught looking at strike 3. In the 13th, Ryan Jones got to 3b with 1 out on a single, sac bunt, and a balk, but he didn't try to score on Seth Harrison's ground out to SS and was stranded. And closest of all, in the 14th Aramis Garcia got to 3b with 1 out on a double and a WP. John Riley lined out to RF and Garcia tagged up and ran, but on his 14 innings of catching legs he was thrown out at home to keep the game tied. They had three innings earlier used Johneshwy Fargas as a PR.

On the mound, Sam Coonrod had his best start. Coming off back to back starts in which he surrendered 5 runs, he threw 6 strong innings with 1 BB and 8 Ks. The 1 BB is a particularly accomplishment for Coonrod, who's control has been better than expected this year. He did need an atom ball line drive DP to get out a difficult 5th inning in which he allowed three singles, but on the whole this was an excellent effort from last year's 5th round pick.  The woebegotten Ramon del Orbe once again blew the save, allowing the tying run to score in the 8th, but with only 1 hit and 1 bb in 2 innings of work, this was actually one of his better efforts. And Connor Kaden had easily his best game with four strong innings from the 12th to the 16th. Indeed, Kaden, Moronto, and Raymundo Montero's 8 consecutive scorless innings was probably the best stretch of relief pitching Augustua's gotten this year.

EDIT: WATCH CONNOR KADEN TALK CHILDHOOD MEMORIES OF LAKEWOOD BLUE CLAWS HERE:

WATCH: @TRSTribe alum @ConnorKaden talks memories of the @BlueClaws, returned to Lakewood w/@GreenJackets - http://t.co/WhtkeuiXzH @smfalk

— Chris Rotolo (@rote7123) May 9, 2015

The game was delayed for half an hour due to fog after the 17th and finally, mercifully suspended. No word on resumption yet.

Tonight we should see the 2015 debut of Clayton Blackburn and other exciting things no doubt!