SF Giants Minor Lines 6/6/17: Bryan Reynolds hit streak reaches 15

You all look like you need some happy news, so let’s start it off with last year’s top pick getting himself on a roll:

HIGHLIGHTS: San Jose pounded out 15 hits and Augusta 13; Stephen Woods struck out 8 in 6 IP.

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Sacramento lost to Fresno Grizzlies (Astros), 5-2

Ok, fine, I cursed the RiverCats offense. I’ll wear it. I said they should be rolling now, and they immediately came four outs away from a shutout. My bad. Sacramento bats managed just six hits in this game, with DH Chris Shaw the only one in the lineup who managed a multi-hit line. Ryder Jones and Jae-Gyun Hwang both reached base safely twice with a single and a walk, while Christian Arroyo went hitless but reached twice via a walk and a HBP. That HBP was important as it led to the RiverCats 8th inning rally, as Mac Williamson, who had grounded out to 3b Colin Moran twice previously in the game, finally snuck one by Moran to score the first run.

And Chris Shaw single followed and that was all the offense for the day.

Dan Slania’s line doesn’t look terrible, but it was in fact another rough day for the big guy. Though he was actually throwing a shutout until nearly his very last pitch, he was in constant trouble and ran his pitch count up to 100 without managing to complete 5 innings. Slania allowed 9 of the 21 batters he faced to reach base safely, and as is often true in baseball if you flirt with fire long enough, you’re going to get burned. With two outs in the 5th after allowing back to back singles, Slania finally got his burn when Preston Tucker took him deep for a three-run HR. Slania pitched to just one more batter and walked him.

Fresno would score all five of their runs on HRs, as solo shots from Colin Moran off Matt Reynolds, and AJ Reed off Ryan Webb rounded out their offense.

As a final note, Christian Arroyo’s 0 for 2 day? Just the second time this year he’s gone hitless in a AAA game (18 games played). He’s slashing a cool .429/.487/.700 at this level. It’s a different game up there.

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Richmond’s game in Binghamton was post-poned due to rain

Tough way to start the six-day, seven-game road trip which is now a five-day, seven-game road trip. Get those taxi squad arms lined up!

Double header today starting at 5:05.

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San Jose beat Lancaster Jet Hawks (Rockies), 7-4
winning their three game series, 2-1

Wow, that’s a heck of a note! I know I’m still a little disoriented, but it’s June, now, right?

The Giants pounded out 15 hits to help overcome a rough start from Matt Solter and pick up the series win. Perhaps it’s important here to note that this game was NOT played in Lancaster!

Every member of the lineup collected at least one hit and six Giants had two hits. That included Bryan Reynolds, whose hit streak now stands at 15 and who tied for the league lead in triples (5) with this shot.

I thought for a second they had a SLO-MO camera going there! For those who haven’t seen this before, Reynold’s recent hot stretch has fairly closely coincided with some mechanical tinkering to his LH swing:

Ronnie Jebavy collected two doubles in the game. He has four doubles in just four games since coming back from his separated shoulder injury, suffered in last year’s playoff opener.

The Giants fourth XBH came from Jalen Miller, who had a badly needed two-hit-and-a-walk game, including his second triple. Miller was just 3 for his last 27 coming into the game and has been dropped down into the 9th spot, as the young MI is really struggling with his challenging assignment. Still fun to watch him run!

On the pitching side, an interesting tidbit is that of the four pitchers used, three are former Indy League players (starter Matt Solter, and relievers Will LaMarche and Dylan Rheault). JJ Cooper’s kind of game! After Solter worked his way through a rocky four innings, relievers Mark Reyes and LaMarche and Rhyeault combined for five, shutout innings, allowing just three hits over that time (with 1 K and 0 BB). That work helped the offense make their comeback and assure the series win.

It wasn’t a great start, but still a Happy Belated Birthday to Matt Solter from all of us at Minor Lines.

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Augusta beat Rome Braves, 11-3

Steven Woods, Jr. bounced back from his worst start as a pro (6 ER in 1.1 IP) to have possibly his best. Woods clamped down on the Braves, limiting them to just 1 run on 5 hits, while striking out 8 and walking just 1 (he also had a HB). That was the best K/BB ratio in any start this year and continued a trend of strong K/BB for Woods lately. Throwing out the disaster start last week, his last five starts have included K/BB of 8/3, 7/1, 10/2, and now 8/1. If he can keep this going for awhile the Giants will likely be very happy with his campaign. Woods now has 53 K and 25 BB in 46.2 IP on the year.

Woods was supported by a highly unusual late inning offensive explosion from the Greenjackets. Locked in a tight 2-1 game, Augusta put a big 5-spot on the board in the 6th inning, helped by a crucial throwing error on Jose Vizcaino’s sac bunt. That error (in addition to bringing in a run itself) would ultimately allow SS Brandon Van Horn to come to the plate with two-outs and Van Horn produced one of the most exciting plays in baseball: a three-run inside the park HR!

Van Horn had actually come to the plate with the bases loaded, but a WP just prior to his blast prevented him from accomplishing one of the rarest feats in baseball, the inside the park Grand Slam. My God! why won’t they put a video feed in at Lake Olmstead! (maybe next year at the new facility, I hope).

Augusta found scoring was so much fun they added three more in the 7th and another in the 8th. In all they produced 13 hits for their 11 runs. They were helped along by four Rome errors, three walks and a HB. Kelvin Beltre led the hit parade with 3 hits and a walk. Beltre was all over the stat sheet actually, as he also committed two errors of his own (his 7th and 8th of the year).

Jacob Heyward keeps slowly pushing his numbers up as he had two more hits, including a run-scoring double. Heyward’s now up to .247/.335/.440 and his K rate has slowed to a less excruciating 27%. That’s still not great for a major college player in the Sally, but it’s at least been trending in the right direction. Over his last 23 games (since May 5), Heyward’s batting .318/.383/.541 with 5 HRs and a K/BB of 18/8 in 95 PA. Prior to that he had had 27 Ks (10 BB) in 75 PA from Opening Day through May 3. So Jacob’s definitely got a good thing going on right now.

Great first night of a homestand! All the fans got sent away happy. Strikeouts, offense, and free crazy bread!

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DSL Giants lost to DSL Blue Jays, 10-2

Ok, I am patiently waiting here for somebody on this squad to do something remotely worth writing about. The DSL Giants continue their trend of combining little offense with porous pitching and defense, leading to their third straight big loss. The young lineup managed six hits, with Ghordy Santos’ double being the only XBH. The also had a few adventures with gloves on their hands in this one. Perhaps this section of the box score may tell the story of the game:

Yep, that’s a DSL game alright.

The DSL Giants pitching staff isn’t providing much excitement so far. Yesterday they used four pitchers and the youngest of them was 19 ¹⁄₂ years old, which isn’t really the “excitement sweet spot” for your typical DSL pitching staff, though the Giants have had some success with older signees in the region. Some.

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Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento: Tyler Beede vs. Francis Martes
Richmond: Sam Coonrod vs. Donovan Hand; Cory Taylor vs. Chris Flexen
San Jose: Travel Day
Augusta: Melvin Adon vs. Jeremy Walker
DSL: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This is pretty much as exciting a lineup of starting pitchers as the system can manage, with the systems #1, 11, 17 and 21 prospects taking the hill. The matchup in Sacramento as just about as good as the minors can produce, with the Giants #1 prospect facing the Astros #1 prospect and the highest ranked pitching prospect in the minors. If you’re dreaming of a Cueto to Houston trade at some point in the next month, this is likely the guy you’re dreaming of getting back in return (I’m sort of a Kyle Tucker fan myself). So if you’re in the Sacramento area, get out and see this!

Before we go, a few transactions from yesterday to catch up on, including the perpetual Catcher merry-go-round: