SF Giants Minor Lines, 5/19/17

Well, tonight’s games got ugly. Lots of errors. Lots of walks (but not as many from who you’d expect.

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Sacramento was defeated by Nashville (Athletics), 6-0

The River Cats did not do well at all in their return home. Four errors and just three hits left Sacramento shut out against the organization that once called their city home. Right from the start, a two-out error by Jae-Gyun Hwang led to a home run that put Nashville up 2-0 before Sacramento got up to bat. Although two other errors happened in the fourth, when the Sounds piled on four more runs, Gregorio walked three batters before any of those errors happened, and giving up a three-run home run.

In the end, Gregorio had the shortest start of his season (just barely) at 4 innings long. He matched his season-high in walks with five…a feat that was set in just his last start. Quickly, Gregorio’s K:BB ratio is going the wrong direction, now at 36:29.

The offense wasn’t much to talk about, but Ryder Jones picked up a pair of walks while not getting a hit. He has 11 in 102 plate appearances, against 19 strikeouts. Counter that to just 26 in 513 PA in 2016, or 16 in 432 PA in 2015.

One positive on the pitching side was another good inning of relief by Kyle Crick, with two more strikeouts and no baserunners. He’s got 19 K’s and 7 walks in 16.1 IP, which is looking pretty good.

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Richmond defeated Harrisburg (Nationals), 10-7

Have a night, Miguel Gomez! The diminutive hitter was just a home run short of the cycle, with his 9th double and 1st triple of the year. His new batting average of .338 puts him at 6th in the league (and notably, three of the others are also second basemen). Gomez is hitting .381 over his last ten games, with six multi-hit games.

Meanwhile, Chris Shaw broke out of a light-hitting string with three hits and his first home run since May 5th, his fifth of the year. At this point, Shaw has spent almost as many games in left field (15) as at first base (18), and he’s also showing an excellent BB:K ratio at 18:23 in 140 plate appearances. Those strikeouts are at a little bit of a high rate, but it’s hard to argue with the results. Both the high walk totals and the positioning are good news for him as he climbs the system.

Cory Taylor had a decent game. The 23-year old matched a season-high in innings, and had pretty pedestrian results. The 7 strikeouts were nice, giving him 42 in 35.2 IP, with 20 walks. But the bullpen results were more concerning. Rodolfo has only been in four games this season, and he’s given up a pair of earned runs twice already., and his ERA sits at 8.31. He has just two strikeouts in 4.1 innings with five walks, and 7 hits allowed. Meanwhile, Reyes Moronta gave up runs for the second time in three games since his callup to San Francisco. His ERA has jumped from 3.18 to 4.50 in that time. He’s got 18 strikeouts and 6 walks in 14 innings.

And one prospect made his season debut tonight.

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San Jose was defeated by Modesto (Mariners), 9-4

Matt Krook has some of the best raw stuff in the system, but has struggled mightily. So, do we look at the bright side or the poor side?

The bright side was that Krook threw only two walks in 5.1 innings. That’s a season-low, and his horrific numbers now have just 29 walks in 23 innings… (or should that be 29 walks in just 23 innings), with 27 strikeouts.

The dark side is that he did have a wild pitch and a hit batter, and he did allow three unearned runs. Two two-out errors hurt Krook in the first, and he gave up a bases-loaded double to allow three unearned runs. Meanwhile, Dillon Dobson committed two of the three errors that San Jose committed, giving him eight as he converts to second base.

The other good news is that the Giants had five extra-base hits, four doubles and a home run…one of each of which was from Gio Brusa. It was Brusa’s first home run since April 28th, and raising his batting average to .220, a season-high. Meanwhile, Heath Quinn collected his third double in his five games. So far, of Quinn’s five hits, four have been extra-base hits (3 doubles and a home run).

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Augusta was defeated by Charleston (Yankees), 5-3

A day after a great offensive game, Augusta suffered a punchless day with errors and another loss.

The recipient of the errors (and committer of one) and the lack of offense was starter Melvin Adon. It wasn’t a great game for Adon anyway, as he tied his season-high in walks and collected only four strikeouts. But it certainly didn’t help as three errors were committed in the second inning, as the leadoff hitter got on thanks to an error by Brandon Van Horn, and then Adon three the ball away on a pickoff attempt, letting that runner get to third. He scored on a sacrifice fly, but the inning continued with two outs as Adon gave up a walk, and two singles with a throwing error on one of them, giving up three unearned.

Adon’s ERA did lower itself slightly, down to 4.56, but despite giving up five hits today, he still just has a .217 average against, so he’s holding hitters at bay. He’s got a decent 1.25 WHIP to follow that up.

The biggest hit for the GreenJackets was by Ryan Kirby, who connected for his second triple of the season. Kirby is on a seven-game hitting streak, although all but one of those games have been just a single hit. However, Kirby now has 31 strikeouts in 76 at-bats, and just 8 walks. Kelvin Beltre picked up a single, but is batting just .250 in May, with a .288 OBP.

Finally, some new renderings of what will be one of the defining features of the new North Augusta ballpark.

Today’s Scheduled Starters

Sacramento: Michael Roth vs. Chris Bassitt

Richmond: Matt Gage vs. John Simms

San Jose: Mark Reyes vs. Reggie McClain

Augusta: Caleb Baragar vs. Nick Green

Baragar has had a couple of nice starts for Augusta, so he’s got a little roll going into today’s games. Hopefully the defense of all the teams can get it together today.