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SF Giants Minor Lines, 5/27

Four thrilling one-run victories make for a happy Friday night at the park.

By Roger

Well. Uh. Ok. Congratulations to Chris Stratton then.  I'll be perfectly honest. This doesn't seem like an experiment destined to go all that well to me, but congratulations to Chris nonetheless. And after all the Giants make me look dumb about these things pretty regularly. Do some magic, Rags. Stratton was due to start tonight for Sacramento, so he'll have the most rest of the AAA guys when a replacement start is needed for Cain.

HIGHLIGHTS: Christian Arroyo went 3 for 5 with double; Reyes Moronta struck out the side; Michael Connolly went 7 one-run innings

Sacramento beat Oklahome City Dodgers, 5-4 in 11 innings

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

2b

Ramiro Pena

5

1

2

1

1

0

0

1

0

.333

.392

.467

RF

Mac Williamson

5

1

2

1

0

0

0

0

2

.291

.324

.520

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Ty Blach

7.0

7

4

4

1

5

1

1

0

3.92

Sergio Romo

1.0

0

0

0

0

2

0

0

0

3.00

The RiverCats opened their series with the Dodgers with a thrilling back and forth affair that had a little bit of everything. Sacramento got off to a 4-0 lead, scoring runs in each of the first three innings. But then the bats fell silent as the Dodgers mounted a comeback in the later innings. The 9th inning ended, not only with the score tied 4-4, but with a 3rd strike call that Mac Williamson found so objectionable it led to the ejection of both Mac and manager Jose Alguacil.

But Sacramento finally took home the win in the 11th. Following a Gorkys Hernandez double, the Dodgers issued an intentional walk to Ramiro Pena to set up a double play. The strategy worked, but the execution..... not so much

Delfino, though he went 0 for 5 on the night, was involved in plenty of action. Check him out here in the bottom of the 1st, making a nifty slide to score on Ryan Lollis' Sac Fly.

The offensive star of the night, though, was veteran middle infielder Ramiro Pena, who was the only RiverCat to reach base three times and had their only XBH of the night other than Gorkys crucial late inning double. Like Grant Green and Hak Ju Lee, Pena has been a fine pickup for Sacramento and offers excellent emergency depth for the infield.

Ty Blach went 7 fairly effective innings, though he did cough up a big two-run HR in the 6th that tied it up and extended the night. Blach was followed by Sergio Romo, making his third rehab appearance in a perfect 1-2-3 8th inning.

Hey, how would think old fried Charlie Culberson would do against Sergio's slider? Yep, you'd be about right.

The victory was Sacramento's third in a row and 5th of their last 6 as they try to inch their way back to .500. That's called a winning streak!

* * *

Richmond won at Erie Sea Wolves (Tigers), 7-6

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

SS

Rando Moreno

5

1

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

.233

.277

.294

3b

Christian Arroyo

5

2

3

1

1

0

0

0

0

.288

.320

.406

LF

Austin Slater

4

1

2

1

0

0

0

1

0

.328

.413

.516

CF

Myles Schroder

4

1

2

1

0

1

0

0

0

.271

.332

.367

RF

Hunter Cole

4

1

1

1

1

0

0

0

1

.239

.305

.346

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Matt Gage

5.0

4

3

3

3

3

0

0

0

3.77

Jake Smith BS 3 W 2-1

0.1

1

1

1

0

1

1

0

0

6.00

Phil McCormick

1.0

2

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

6.00

Tyler Rogers S 4

1.0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.00

This was another back and forth affair. Erie jumped out with a 3-run inning; Richmond answered with a three-run inning. Richmond took the lead 5-3; Erie came right back with a two-run HR to tie it. The see-saw continued right down to the final outs as Tyler Rogers stranded the potential tie run at 2b. Richmond, too, is going streaking, and this time it's in the right direction with four wins in a row and six of the last seven.

Christian Arroyo pushed his hitting streak out to 10 games now, with his sixth multi-hit game in that span. Over the 10 games he's had 18 hits including 6 XBH. It's probably not too much of a coincidence that Arroyo's hot spell and Richmond's are coinciding. Good to see Christian making lots of hard contact

And of course, Arroyo is just providing the "1" in Richmond's 1-2 punch, batting in front of the incendiary Austin Slater, who also had two more hits. Slater currently leads the Eastern League in batting average, is second in OBP, and fifth in SLG. Have a month Mr. Slater!

On the flip side of the dial two other Squirrels who were expected to be a big part of this offense are finding 2016 pretty difficult to this point. Rando Moreno, whose minor league career has had a significant On Year/Off Year pattern, is currently sitting with about 100 points less in OPS than he produced in 2015. And Hunter Cole continues to scuffle as well. Last year, over three levels, he produced an .833 OPS including .802 in about 200 PA in Richmond. But Cole has been able to get it going yet in 2016. Getting those two bats going would certainly help this offense.

The winning hit yesterday came from the Squirrels Swiss Army Knife Myles Schroder, who's played every position but Pitcher in his various tenures with Richmond (and he was warming up in the bullpen during a recent extra innings game). He was playing CF in this game, but he's always at his best in the batters' box. Sent up to try to bunt Ryder Jones to 3b, Schroder came up with a better idea:

Tyler Rogers, who still has yet to give up an earned run this year, seems to be taking to the closer role. He did give up a one-out double in the inning to provide some drama, but he cleaned it up well enough.  Which reminds me, one of my favorite things at Richmond games is when the Squirrels relieve Phil McCormick:

with Tyler Rogers

It's seriously got to be like a fun-house mirror effect for the opposition. Awesome. I love me some funky side-winders.

* * *

San Jose won at Modesto Nuts (Rockies), 2-1

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

SS

CJ Honojosa

4

1

2

0

1

0

0

0

0

.354

.417

.455

1b

Chris Shaw

3

1

1

0

1

0

0

1

0

.324

.391

.600

LF

Daniel Carbonell

4

1

2

1

1

0

0

0

0

.250

.250

.375

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Mark Reyes, W 3-1

6.2

3

1

1

2

3

0

0

1

4.23

Reyes Moronta

1.0

1

0

0

0

3

0

0

0

2.57

Rodolfo Martinez S, 13

1.0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

0.89

Nice to get back to a normal looking game, after the Thursday night massacre in Visalia.

Mark Reyes allowed just 3 hits over 6.2 IP and the bullpen took it from there, including a show of serious heat from the late inning guys:

The winning run came on a Daniel Carbonell double which brought in Chris Shaw who had doubled himself.  Carbonell had previously scored the team's first run when he singled, stole 2b, went to 3b on a WP and came home on a Sac Fly. The Giants managed just six hits themselves (plus two walks), but with the pitching locking things down it was enough. San Jose's pitching staff had led the league in ERA prior to Thursday night's game, but that blow-out knocked them down to 3rd.

On the hitting side, CJ Hinojosa is 2nd in the Cal league in BA average and Shaw and Hinojosa are 1st and 2nd in the league in OPS, which is fairly amazing given the disparate home environments in the league.  And Steven Duggar is 6th in the league in OPS. Pretty amazing.  Duggar took a collar last night at the plate, but he still contributed to the win

So the long road trip is almost wound all the way down. Today is the end of 14 straight games on the road, and with this win, the Giants clinched a winning road trip. Perhaps even more of an accomplishment is this note:

The road trip ends today, but that doesn't get this tired crew all that much of a break. They still don't have an off day until June 6, which includes a makeup double-header next Tuesday on what was supposed one of their two off days in the month.

* * *

Augusta beat the Charleston River Dogs (Yankees), 2-1

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

SS

Lucius Fox

4

1

2

1

0

1

0

0

0

.212

.309

.303

CF

Johneshwy Fargas

2

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

1

.200

.333

.200

RF

Jean Angomas

3

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

1

.199

.259

.272

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Michael Connolly W 2-1

7.0

10

1

1

1

5

0

0

0

2.95

Ryan Koziol

1.2

2

0

0

0

2

0

0

0

3.00

Caleb Smith S 3

0.1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

3.86

Michael Connolly's been a pretty terrific emergency fill-in for the rotation since Mac Marshall went down.  Needing a strong performance from Connolly to try to snap a four-game skid, Michael delivered. Though he allowed base runners in all but one of his 7 innings, and multiple base runners in 5 of them, ultimately Connolly left the game hanging onto a 2-1 lead that the bullpen would maintain.  He got a big assist in that effort from RF Jean Agnomas who ended the top of the 6th by throwing the would-be tying run of the game out at home.

The Greenjackets offense was pretty silent on the night (5 hits, 1 BB, 1 HB) but they did just barely enough to pull off the win. They got a big lift from the return of Johneshwy Fargas, who stepped into the lineup and immediately went back to his old Sally ways, stealing 3 bases in the game. In the bottom of the 3rd, Fargas was HBP and immediately stole his first base. And then he came home on an RBI triple from Lucius Fox (who also stole a base in this one, his 12th of the year). Fox would come in to score what would be the winning run of the game on a WP, killing the River Dogs with speed.

Caleb Smith nailed down the final out for the save. If he makes a habit of that, maybe he'll have to get used to this:

* * *

And there it is again: Friday Fun Day. Four thrilling one-run victories. Let loose the fireworks:

Today's Matchups:
Sacramento: Chris Stratton (or TBD if callup rumors are true) vs. Ross Stripling
Richmond: Tyler Beede vs. TBD
San Jose: Jason Forjet vs. Sam Howard (who throttled the SJ hitters two weeks ago)
Augusta: Michael Santos vs.TBD (it's true, that TBD guy gets around)

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