SF Giants Minor Lines, 8/29/15

We need to update our trivia contest, as Ricky Oropesa bashed his way onto the two HR list. Ricky did it in style with homers in back to back innings, the second a Grand Slam that helped Richmond's faint hopes beat another day. And, not for nothing, he hit the bejeezus out of this ball.

HIGHLIGHTS: Ricky Oropesa doubled, homered, and Grand Slammed. Beicker Mendoza knocked in five with a single and a HR.

* * *

Sacramento lost to Iowa Cubs, 5-1 in Gm 1 of DH (7 inn)

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	BA	Other
RF	Jarrett Parker	3	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	.286	SB (18)
LF	Mac Williamson	2	0	1	1	1	0	0	0	1	.271	HBP
SS	Nick Noonan	3	0	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	.271

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA	Pitches	Strikes
Ty Blach, L 11-11	4.2	9	5	5	3	1	1	0	0	4.21	99	58
Curtis Partch	1.1	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	3.71	21	14

Sacramento lost to Iowa Cubs, 2-1 in Gm 2 of DH, 12 inn.

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG
RF	Jarrett Parker	5	1	1	1	0	0	1	0	3	.285	.381	.510
SS	Nick Noonan	3	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	.274	.313	.387

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA	Pitches	Strikes
Chris Stratton	6.0	6	1	1	0	3	0	0	0	4.01	84	58
Cody Hall	2.0	2	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	3.46	40	29
Steven Okert	2.0	2	0	0	2	3	0	0	0	3.70	36	21
Brett Bochy L 6-1	0.1	3	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	2.73	14	9

Ah, one of baseball's cruelest tricks, the extra-inning double header nightcap for two teams playing out the string. Sacramento certainly did their best to make it go quickly, as they had just 2 hits in the 12 innings, along with 2 walks and 11 Ks. Iowa outhit them 13-2 in the game, but it still took them 12 innings to manage to score their 2nd run. It went 12 innings because one of the RiverCats two hits was Jarrett Parker's 20th HR of the year, a 7th inning shot that tied the game at 1:

Parker also had his 18th SB of the year in the first game, sort of accruing the combo meal on the day. Besides Parker, most of the rest of the team's offense came from Nick Noonan. Parker and Noonan had 5 of the team's 7 hits in the double header. Noonan also had the team's other SB. Since Nick's one tweaked oblique away from being our starting SS I guess we should watch his highlight as well:

Ty Blach nearly gave up more runs in the first inning of the first game, than the two teams accumulated in the entire 18 innings that followed. He gave up singles to the first five batters he faced, in what was ultimately a 4-run inning. He managed to put things back together and make it into the 5th inning, with just a Mike Olt solo HR against him the rest of the way. But Blach clearly didn't have his normal control working in this game. The 3 BBs were the second worst total of the year for him, and he also had one of his worst Strike/Pitches ratios of the year.

Chris Stratton threw 6 strong innings in the nightcap. He allowed half of his hits in one rally in the second inning (when he gave up his run) but none were all that well hit and he avoided hard contact well throughout. Steven Okert danced through some danger in his two innings, putting four of the 10 batters he faced on base.

* * *

Richmond beat Akron Rubber Ducks (Indians), 5-3

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG
3b	Myles Schroder	4	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	.246	.296	.335
DH	Hunter Cole	3	1	1	0	1	0	0	1	0	.298	.341	.468
1b	Ricky Oropesa	4	2	3	5	1	0	2	0	1	.258	.314	.425

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA	Pitches	Strikes
Joan Gregorio, W 3-2	5.0	7	3	3	4	4	1	0	1	3.34	90	50
Adalberto Mejia	2.0	2	0	0	0	4	0	0	0	2.47	34	21
Derek Law S 10	1.0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	5.16	13	8

Oropesa accounted for all the Richmond runs in this game with two swings of the bat. The HRs came in consecutive innings (the 2nd and the 3rd) and both were off long time major league starter Gavin Floyd, who's trying to get his career back on track after multiple arm problems (this was just Floyd's third game of the year and it didn't last long). Oropesa is certainly doing his bit to make the final games of the season meaningful as he's gone 11 for 21 over the past two series with five doubles and three HRs. Richmond's fate has often mirrored Oropesa's this year: he/they were miserable in April, scorching hot from mid-May through July, and cooled off after the All Star break. Maybe a final couple of white-hot weeks will finish the cycle. Anyway, let's watch his first HR, too:

Interestingly, this game featured three different pitchers (two of whom are on the Giants 40 man roster) whose seasons have been something of a mystery to evaluate.  Joan Gregorio made his 8th start and he continued his season long pattern of being neither noticeably good nor bad. I literally have no idea what to make of Gregorio's 2015. He was given a difficult assignment in leaping up to AA and he hasn't been overmatched there and he moved from relieving to starting. So it seems like a big development leap for him, and yet nothing about it has been noticeably impressive.

Adalberto Mejia made a welcome return from the DL and threw two pretty dominant innings in relief. Between suspension and injury, Mejia has pitched just 47 innings in his return to AA. Derek Law finished up the game with an excellent 9th.  Law managed 22 innings in his return from TJ, though his normally pristine command has wavered, as is to be expected.

On the whole, i give all three of them "Incompletes" for 2015 grades.

With back to back victories over Akron, Richmond kept their faint playoff hopes alive. They're still in 4th place but now just 3 games out of a playoff spot and just 1 game behind 3rd place Akron, with a chance to tie them in the standings with a win today.

* * *

San Jose beat Rancho Cucumonga Quakes (Dodgers), 7-6 in 11 inn

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG
CF	Angel Pagan	5	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
SS	Christian Arroyo	5	1	2	0	2	0	0	0	1	.313	.353	.477
LF	Daniel Carbonell	5	2	3	2	0	0	0	0	1	.270	.325	.381
1b	Angel Villalona	5	1	2	2	0	0	1	0	2	.248	.331	.462

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
Christian Jones	4.2	5	3	3	2	3	1	0	1	3.59
Tyler Rogers	1.1	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	1.50
Dan Slania	0.2	4	3	3	1	1	0	0	0	3.56
Ian Gardeck	2.1	3	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	3.72
Luis Ysla	1.0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	6.00
Jake Smith S 15	1.0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	2.38

Brute was at this game so I imagine we'll hear more and hopefully get some photos later on. With their 7th straight victory, six of them on the road, San Jose has surged to the 2nd half division lead, 1 game in front of Visalia. They're also now in sole possession of the first Wild Card spot with a three game lead over Modesto for the potential 2nd wild card spot. So they're positioning themselves well, but of course, they need to keep the victories coming with just 8 games remaining.

Angel Villalona continued his recent hot streak, hitting a game tying two-run HR in the 8th inning to help send this one to extras. In the 11th, Aramis Garcia walked to lead off and his PR (John Polonius) came around to score the game winner on a Sac Fly from Ty Horan.

For those curious, Angel Pagan is still playing for the @SJGiants in the 7th, just nailed a runner at home. He's running good!

— SF Lunatic Fringe (@sflunaticfringe) August 30, 2015

Christian Jones made just his second start of the year, and he disrupted the Giants recent stretch of flawless performances from their starters. Jones gave them almost 5 innings (his previous high was 3.2 IP) and left with a 4-3 lead.

On the whole though this game continued several trends for the pitching staff in the second half. Most of the staff was excellent. Jake Smtih was tremendous (K'ing all 3 of the batters he faced for the Save), and Dan Slania is really struggling. The All Star closer from the first half has turned into one of the very few guys on the staff who they really can't trust. He's allowed runs in 5 of his 10 appearances in August, surrendering 11 runs in 14 IP during the month.

New Giants starter Andrew Suarez was Joe Ritzo's most recent guest on the Giants pre-game show:

* * *

Augusta lost at Savannah (Mets), 2-0 in 6 inn (rain)

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG
3b	Jonah Arenado	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.266	.295	.376
RF	Dylan Davis	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.270	.345	.442

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
Michael Santos L 0-2	4.0	4	2	2	1	6	0	0	1	3.21

.@gnatsbaseball @gnatethegnat and the Gnaturals showing us how it is done! #GnateisGreat pic.twitter.com/5JK4Vzx5ng

— Jeff Miller (@jam911) August 30, 2015

Rain ended this one in the top of the 6th, and at this point it appears the Greenjackets would be ok with rain ending the rest of the season as well. Going 1-10 over the last two weeks has buried their playoff hopes as they're five games back with 10 to play. Augusta managed just two singles and a walk in getting shut out.

Michael Santos set his season high for Ks in this game, one off his career high of 7. Last year in the AZL Santos went exactly 5 innings in all but one of his 12 starts (4.2 in the other). But this year's been a different story, as he's made it to 5 innings in just 3 of his 9 starts for Augusta. Another "Incomplete' grade I'd say, and one of the bigger prospect disappointments of the year in the system for me.

* * *

Salem-Keizer beat Boise Hawks (Rockies), 2-0

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG
C	Miguel Gomez	3	1	1	1	0	0	1	0	0	.328	.341	.458
1b	John Riley	3	1	2	1	1	0	1	0	0	.253	.371	.393

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
Andrew Leenhouts W, 7-4	7.2	6	0	0	1	5	0	0	1	2.57

The Volcanoes managed just four hits in this game, but two of them left the yard and that was all that Andrew Leenhouts needed to get the victory. Leenhouts, who has been an All Star pitcher in the NWL on three separate occasions (which isn't really something you want on your minor league resume) got his league leading 7th win of the year and he now has the third lowest ERA among qualified pitchers.

The two HRs added to the Volcanoes league leading total. Their 55 HRs as a team are 13 more than the second best team in the league. They also lead the league in SLG and OPS, but sit just 4th in Runs Scored. Pitching is clearly ruling the day in the league as two of the three worst run scoring teams are Hillsboro and Eugene.

Miguel Gomez is 2nd in the league in BA and 8th in OPS as he continues his fine NWL year.

With the win, SK's flickering hopes stay alive. They are now tied with Eugene for the Wild card and Eugene and Hillsboro are tied for the division lead. The schedule helps them as they have Eugene coming to town for three games starting Tuesday, and all the other games left on their schedule come against Boise, who have by far the worst record in the league this year.

* * *

AZL Giants had a scheduled off day.
The AZL Cubs won their final game last night 3-2, taking a half game lead over the Giants for 1st place. And with that, the AZL Giants' season is over.

I have a strong feeling we'll be seeing Phil Bickford showing up on the league prospect list though, and quite possibly Jalen Miller as well.

* * *

DSL Giants beat DSL Rangers1, 9-2
DSL Giants lead the best of 5 championship series, 1-0

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	BA
SS	Manuel Geraldo	4	2	2	0	0	0	0	1	1	.250
RF	Sandro Fabian	4	2	1	2	0	0	1	0	0	.313
LF	Beicker Mendoza	4	2	2	5	0	0	1	0	0	.357

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
Norwith Gudino W 1-0	5.2	5	2	2	1	4	1	0	0	3.18
Reymi Rodriguez, S 1	3.1	0	0	0	3	2	0	0	0	0.00

Beicker Mendoza hit just 1 HR in his fine DSL season (.300/.354/.383).  But the Valentine's Day baby has now hit huge HRs in back to back playoff games. The Giants took care of this one early with a run barage in the opening innings. Mendoza's two-out, two-run single put the exclamation mark on a four-run 1st inning. In the second, Sandro Fabian added on with a two-run HR. Like Mendoza, it was the second consecutive game with a HR for the 17 year old, who has hit four HRs since August 1st (5 overall this year).

And then in the 4th inning, again with two outs, Mendoza hit a 3-run HR giving the Giants a 9-1 lead and they'd cruise to the victory.