SF Giants Minor Lines, 5/24/17

Newcomers and newcomers-a-coming in these lines. And a double-header. And a missed double-header. And rain. And more rain. But no Chris Shaw, who was on a plane.

Sacramento was defeated by Memphis (Cardinals), 9-5

The River Cats are expecting a newcomer soon, and maybe it can’t come soon enough.

Despite 12 hits, the River Cats fell 9-5 to the Redbirds. Four players ended up with multiple hits, led by center fielder Kelby Tomlinson’s three hits. Tomlinson has two three-hit games in a row, and has raised his batting average from .206 to .274 over the last five games. Jae-Gyun Hwang collected his second triple of the season. Hwang has hit only .247 in May (compared to .313 in April), but is slugging .457 to .413 in May.

Austin Slater had his second two-hit game in a row, bumping his batting average to the highest it’s been since mid-April. Ryder Jones, meanwhile, had his first multi-hit game since May 8th, rescuing a batting average that has sunk from .312 since then.

Unfortunately, the offense was not enough for Joan Gregorio. Gregorio may have tied his longest start of the season at 7 innings, he gave up season highs in hits (9) and runs (5). The nine hits raised his batting average against from .199 to .218. His ERA has jumped nearly a full point in his last two starts, from 2.04 to 3.02. Meanwhile, new River Cats reliever D.J. Snelten did not have a great start to his Sacramento stint. He gave up a two-out walk, followed by a home run. His ERA likely won’t stay at 18 forever.

Okay, so let’s talk about who is coming to Sacramento.

Shaw should be coming in by Thursday, playing left field for the River Cats

With that will be an exit, as Chris Marrero is headed to Japan. Henry Schulman has the list of guys that will fill in at first after Marrero’s depar…wait, WHO?

Huh. Slater at first. Didn’t see that coming.

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Richmond: Game 1 - Binghamton 1, Richmond 0

Richmond: Game 2 - Binghamton 5, Richmond 0

Game 2 was ended early, with Richmond having not yet batted in the bottom of the 7th. It was called for rain, though it may have been a mercy rule with the poor hitting of the Squirrels.

Game 1 saw Richmond limited to only three hits by P.J. Conlon…not even with any walks. The lone extra-base hit was Miguel Gomez’s double, to continue his then-seven-game hit streak. That was pretty poor. Then, in 6 innings of hitting in Game 2, they only collected two hits, including a single by Gomez to make it an eight-game hitting streak. In all, that was just five hits for the Squirrels, with just two doubles, and a single walk. Yikes.

Luckily, the pitching had some better performances. Sam Coonrod was the hardluck loser of Game 1, despite a fine performance. Coonrod had only given up 1 earned run once before in the season, in a two-inning start in late April. Though he only collected two strikeouts, he also only gave up one walk in a very effective game. And reliever Reyes Moronta had a needed quiet appearance, giving up a single but no walks.

In Game 2, reliever Jose Flores took the start, and looked good, allowing just three baserunners over four innings. But things took a turn for the worse when the bullpen came in, starting with newcomer Collin Balester.

Balester’s 2016 consisted of three starts in Korea, with a 8.03 ERA. He has a career 5.47 ERA in the Majors, and a 4.28 ERA in the Minors. He was originally signed by the Detroit Tigers in the offseason, but was released at the end of Spring Training. He signed with the Giants at the start of May. In his debut, he gave up three hits and three runs in one inning. Meanwhile, Rodolfo gave up a pair of hits and had an error leading to an unearned run. And Tyler Cyr, who has had an excellent season, gave up two hits and a run, getting just one out before the rain came. Cyr hadn’t given up a run since April 13th.

By the way, looking at Balester’s stats, there’s an interesting assignment for the 6’4” pitcher.

Who are these Pistons? And why aren’t they in the NBA Conference Finals?

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San Jose defeated Lancaster (Rockies), 11-7

Now this looked like a game in Lancaster. Especially with 25 MPH winds out to center, according to Joe Ritzo.

The Giants collected three home runs for the big victory. Dillon Dobson, playing at first base, hit a two-run home run in the second inning, putting him back into a tie for the team lead in home runs with 7. Gio Brusa then, in the 7th inning, hit his own two-run home run, giving him back the team lead at 8 (and also tying the game). Finally, in the eighth innings, Bryan Reynolds hit his second of the year, as part of a 3-run inning that gave the Giants a lead for good. Ryan Howard had a career-high four hits, including his sixth double. The entire team not only collected hits, but collected multiple hits…except for Jalen Miller, who went 0-for-4 but did collect San Jose’s only two walks.

On the downside was recently promoted Matt Solter, who got a harsh introduction to the California League’s launching pad. Solter gave up five runs on six hits and three walks, including a two-run home run. It was his second game with San Jose after posting a 3.98 ERA in seven games at Augusta. Meanwhile, Will LaMarche got tagged for two runs of his own in his second outing with San Jose.

Okay, offense aside, San Jose made some positional shuffling. Tell us, Joe Ritzo!

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Augusta and West Virginia were Cancelled. All of them

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: It rained in Augusta. And so, a series is lost.

The entire series was cancelled, since the GreenJackets and Power do not meet again in the first half of the season. The GreenJackets will move on to face the Rome Braves in Augusta, and it does look like it might actually not rain tomorrow (or for a couple of days).

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Today’s Scheduled Starters

Sacramento: Michael Roth vs. Marco Gonzales

Richmond: Cory Taylor vs. Corey Oswalt

San Jose: Matt Krook vs. Peter Lambert

Augusta: D.J. Myers vs. Ian Anderson