SF Giants Minor Lines 6/9/17: Slade Heathcott can’t stop/won’t stop

There were only 9 more innings to go at that point!

HIGHLIGHTS: Jordan Johnson struck out 6 in 6 IP; Slade Heathcott tripled twice; Gio Brusa hit his 10th HR;

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Sacramento lost to Reno Aces (Diamondbacks), 6-4 in 17 inn

Once when I was in college I picked up a friend in Novato and headed out to the ‘Stick for a Giants game. Work and traffic made us a bit late and we missed the first inning, in which the Giants scored six runs (including a Darrell Evans HR). Ultimately, they’d lose the game 7-6 in, I think, 15 inn. So our experience of the game was a 14 inning 7-0 wipeout.

Why does that memory come back to me now? At one point, waaaaaay back in the 4th inning of this one, the Rivercats held a 4-1 lead. They would get just three more hits over the ensuing 13 innings of play — and one of them was from the losing pitcher!

Ok, ok the losing pitcher was a position player, so that’s a joke. Carlos Moncrief, who last pitched in 2009 while in Cleveland’s AZL rookie league team, took the mound after 5 relievers had gone 9.2 IP and while the strong armed OF showed off some impressive velo, he’d ultimately (possibly mercifully) give up two runs to end it.

Reno also used a position player on the mound, catcher Willians Astudillo, who went two scoreless innings and because the winning pitcher.

Anyway, if you like k’s this was the game for you. The game featured 32 strikeouts, with Sacramento hitters going down via K 17 times. Three different Rivercats (Juan Ciriaco, Ryder Jones, and Mac Williamson) ended up with 4 Ks apiece. Ouch. Wynton Bernard, who entered the game in the 7th on a double switch, would go 0 for 4 with a walk. It was that kind of night.

Joan Gregorio had a strong 5 innings, but he weakened suddenly in the 6, walking two of the first three batters and then giving up a big double to end his night and Tyler Rogers would allow a two-out single to bring in the inherited runner and tie it up.

From that point on the Rivercats relievers did some tremendous work, with Kyle Crick’s perfect two innings and Dusten Knight’s three inning stints being particularly notable, but the feckless offense wasted it all.

But hey, this happened!

Excellent work, guys! You were the highlight of the night!

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Richmond won at Altoona Curve (Pirates), 10-1

Now HERE’s some offense! In stark contrast to Sacramento, the new-look Richmond offense scored in 7 or their 9 at bats in this game, and in an incredible statistical anomaly, they got at least two hits from every starting position player in the lineup. Ryan Lollis gets a little kangaroo court fine for collect three hits and ruining the symmetry. The only position player to fail to collect a hit was one of the two PH used, Carlos Garcia.

Slade Heathcott, who started this road trip by hitting two HRs in a game, here managed the, possibly more aesthetically pleasing accomplishment of hitting two triples in a game!

That ball wasn’t really played that badly, and Heathcott easily glided into 3b standing up there, showing off his speed as well as his power. And Slade’s talents aren’t only being displayed in the batter’s box; he also managed this nifty little play.

Heathcott’s triples were two of the three that the Squirrels collected in the game. The third came from Catcher Jeff Arnold! We need photographic evidence!

Ok, that one maybe wasn’t played so well by the OF. That play, by the way, also came off a position player pitching to continue the theme for tonight.

As for the more traditional manner of pitching, Jordan Johnson had his best start of the year in this game. Going 6 innings and allowing just a single run, he also collected a season high 6 Ks while walking just 1. He’s allowed just 2 Runs in his last two starts over 13 IP. The Ks are a bit on the low side, (42 in 58.2 IP, along with 21 walks) but all in all Jordan’s really recovering well from his difficult Cal League season and putting together a strong AA campaign. His 2.76 ERA is 9th in the league (just in front of teammate Andrew Suarez), though his FIP is a less seemly 4.42.

As a side note, I always love highlights from Altoona (though I’m happy they’ve improved their camera image quality this year) because you get to see the famous rollercoaster behind the RF fence. That’s the world’s oldest surviving rollercoaster by the way, though it’s closed this summer for some needed renovations I understand. Nothing like homering off the Leap-the-Dips!

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San Jose lost at Visalia Rawhide (Diamondbacks), 4-3

Though the Giants failed in their bid for an elusive three-game winning streak, the OF draft of 2016 kept rolling. Bryan Reynolds pushed his hitting streak to 17 games, with two hits, including his 3rd homer of the year. It probably looked something like this:

And Gio Brusa extended his team lead, hitting his 10th HR, which is tied for third in the Cal League. Brusa’s blast tied the game in the 5th inning. I’m sure the reactions probably looked something like this:

Use your imagination!

Caleb Simpson got a bit of a wild hair up his nose, and with the help of C Aramis Garcia, gift wrapped the winning run, with a leadoff walk followed by a Passed Ball followed by a WP opened the 7th inning. That was the ballgame.

The two HRs accounted for all of San Jose’s runs. They had just four other singles and one walk in the game, while striking out 11 times. Like the Sacramento game, this was one for people who enjoy strikeouts as the two teams combined for 21 Ks in 9 innings of play.

Grant Watson, making his second start since coming off the DL, struggled through 4 innings, striking out 6 while walking 4, and stretching his pitch count up to 90.

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Augusta lost to the Greenville Drive (Red Sox), 5-0

Augusta followed up their sweep of Rome by going down very meakly to the Drive. How meakly? With two outs in the bottom of the third, Cristian Paulino doubled. Before Jean Angomas could finish his AB Paulino was thrown out trying to steal 3b to end the inning. In the 8th inning, again with two outs, Paulino singled Will Albertson to 2b. This time Angomas would fly out to CF to end the inning.

Therein lies a list of every moment in the game when Augusta had a runner in scoring position. It wasn’t good. Seriously, these kids were the highlights of the night:

You don’t believe me? LOOK AT THIS! Even the team PR department thought they were the highlight!

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DSL Giants beat the DSL White Sox, 4-3

Two walks, a single, and two errors allowed the DSL Giants to mount a two-run rally in the 8th and come back for the win. Franklin Labour, 19 year old OF repeating the league, had two hits including a double for the Giants only XBH of the game (and Labour’s first XBH of the year). Anyesber Sivira, 17 year old Venezuelan OF whose been the best hitter for the Giants in the first week, reached base three times on a hit and two walks. Prior to walking twice in this game Sivira had 0 walks, 0 strikeouts, and 0 XBH on the short season, which is pretty slaptastic!

Jorge Labradour, one of their bigger signings in the 2015 J2 class, continues to try to put things together in the DSL. The strong armed righty was reported to have a low 90s fastball and a feel for two secondaries when he signed, but he’s had his struggles in the DSL. This year, pitching in relief, Labradour has 3 BB and a HB, against 2 Ks, in 3.2 IP, while allowing 6 hits and 4 Runs. He managed to avoid giving up any runs in this game, though he did allow 5 baserunners in 2 innings of work.

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Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento: TBD v TBD
Richmond: Andrew Suarez vs Austin Coley; Colin Balester vs. TBD
San Jose: Jake McCasland vs. Bo Takahashi
Augusta: Raffi Vizcaino vs. Logan Boyd
DSL: Ok, I’m going to now predict that Luis Moreno 18 year old Columbian, will start [ED NOTE: THIS WAS PRETTY STUPID, APPARENTLY I CAN’T READ MY OWN POST].

Andrew Suarez and the first start of the year for Raffi Vizcaino highlight the night. Raffi had an excellent outing in front of friend of program Conner Penfold and myself back in Spring Training. You can see some of the footage from that in the link below, if you want to psyche yourself up for tonight’s game: