SF Giants Minor Lines 8/14/17: Jonah Arenado HRs and doubles

You know the old cliché: come to Minor Lines everyday and you have a chance of seeing something you’ve never seen before.

Possibly the most amazing aspect of that play was that the 3b stopped after receiving the throw to get Mac, and only belatedly saw that they had a chance to turn two. Serious heads up from both the SS and the 2b to bring that one off.

HIGHLIGHTS: Jonah Arenado had three hits with HR and double; John Polonius had three hits with HR and two doubles; Alexander Canario doubled twice and tripled;

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Sacramento lost to Salt Lake Bees (Angels), 8-2
splitting their four game series, 2-2

Here’s a crazy stat: the RiverCats have now scored first in eight consecutive games, and yet the team is just 3-5 in that time. Ouch. Just pitches after the crazy play at the top, Tim Federowicz did the honors for Sacramento with his 7th HR of the season.

With a lot of Sacramento’s offensive firepower either in San Francisco or on the DL, Federowicz has been carrying a lot of the weight lately. He leads the club with 7 RBI this month (more than he had all of July) and is hitting .308/.367/.615 for August.

Unfortunately, that was it for the RiverCats offense. They did have nine hits in the game, but the only other XBH was a Slade Heathcott double and they went 0 for 6 with RISP. Meanwhile, the Bees put together a huge rally in the 6th, hanging six runs on starter Casey Kelly and Dusten Knight in the frame.

The inning started with a solo HR, but Kelly got two quick outs after that. The third one proved elusive, however. In all there would be five hits, two walks, a fielding error, a couple of stolen bases and a wild pitch before the Cats could finally stagger back to the dugout with the 3rd out, done in for the night.

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RIchmond had their final off night of the year

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San Jose beat Lancaster JetHawks (Rockies), 10-3

The boom or bust Giants’ offense did some serious booming last night. Things got going right from the start, as Jonah Arenado opened his big game in the bottom of the 1st.

Arenado had been having a pretty disappointing return season to the Cal League at the All Star break, but he’s been on an epic run lately. Over his last 19 games, Arenado’s hit .413/.448/.675 with three HRs, a triple and 10 doubles. Arenado’s gotten much better reviews for his defense at 3b this year, as well.

One somewhat comic element of Arenado’s Cal League career is the way he pummels the Rockies’ affiliate. He punished Modesto last year, and his fury has followed the Rockies to Lancaster this year.

It doesn’t really make up for his big brother man-handling the big league club, but it’s sweet that he tries to balance the scales!

But that was just the first volley in a fusilade of extra base hits. The Giants first four runs of the game all came on solo HRs. Gio Brusa hit his 12th — and first since June 22nd! John Polonius got a rare start and took advantage of it with two doubles and his 2nd HR of the year. And in the 6th, Bryan Reynolds gave San Jose the lead for good with his 7th.

In all San Jose had 9 extra base hits including five doubles in addition to all the HRs. A four-run explosion in the 7th and two more in the 8th salted the win away. They ended it with a lot of octane coming out of the bullpen as the hard throwing duo of Rodolfo Martinez and Michael Cederoth took the last two innings. Cederoth has been plagued (both in San Jose and with the Twins) with wildness, but he got through a clean inning here. As for Rodolfo:

Martinez is an easy 40 man add this winter for me. He’ll be gone in a heartbeat if they leave his arm unprotected for the Rule 5 draft.

So the Giants kept the good times rolling at home with the big win to open up their crucial homestand. If San Jose wants to see the Cal League post-season, they need to go big during this stretch at home.

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Augusta had the night off

They start a series at home against Columbia tonight. This is the first of their final 10 games to be played at Lake Olmstead Stadium before they move into their beautiful new home in 2018.

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Salem-Keizer lost at Vancouver Canadians, 7-4

Like San Jose, the Volcanoes had a chance to sneak their way into second half playoff contention in a very weak division. But instead they just keep piling up the Ls. Now 7-12 in the second half, they’re still only 2 games out of first amazingly enough (though all three of their division-mates are tied for 1st at 9-10). Overall, the Volcanoes have the worst record in the NWL this year at 23-24.

Not too much good to say about this one. The team managed just five hits, two of which came from Bryce Johnson who keeps on hitting. Orlando Garcia reached base three times thanks to two walks, though he also committed his 5th error of the year leading to four unearned runs.

Just another loss in a season full of losses.

But they are less than a week away from their biggest win of the year -- the tremendous Total Eclipse of the Park promotion which has been more than a year in the planning and appears to such a hit it’s bringing in national writers and selling out hotels all over Oregon.

Here’s the full path of the eclipse if you’re trying to see it (and who wouldn’t?!)

Oh and speaking of the eminent Dr. Tyson, he also has this to say about the eclipse:

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AZL Giants beat the AZL Indians, 10-2

The AZL Giants, on the other hand, have their league’s best record at 27-13. And there’s no doubt that it’s the bats who have been leading their push.

Heliot Ramos and Jacob Gonzalez picked up five hits, a walk, two doubles and four RBI between them as the top of the 2017 draft keeps representing in the AZL. But they were hardly alone with the firepower. Diego Rincones pushed his average back over .300 with two hits including his 3rd HR of the year. And Aaron Bond went deep for the 5th time, tying Ramos for the team lead.

In all the team bashed out 15 hits including six XBH. Quite a power show.

And on the pitching side, the most interesting element was yet another Pitcher conversion experiment. The Giants already have long time OF Julio Pena (holder of the DSL Giants season record for HRs) trying to convert to the hill. And yesterday witnessed the Pitching debut of SS Francisco Medina. A solid 2 innings with 1 K. It’s been a long time since his career exploded out of the blocks with 6 HRs in a month down in the Dominican.

And in case you missed it, more good reports on the defensive side of Ricardo Genoves’ game.

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DSL Giants beat DSL White Sox, 8-7 in 10 inn

Alexander Canario’s two-run double tied the game in the bottom of the 8th and then back to back errors in the 10th inning delivered the Giants to an improbable come from behind victory. It was the Giants sixth consecutive win, keeping them 5.5 games behind 1st place.

Canario’s game-tying hit was the culmination of a big day at the plate, as the 17 year old had two doubles and a triple. However, Canario’s day wasn’t all good. He struck out with the tying and winning runs in scoring position in the 10th and he also was caught stealing twice. On the second of those, he was picked off 3b representing the go ahead run in the 8th inning. So that might need some catching.

That play was one of two late inning plays that involved the 1b for no reason I can comprehend. DSL play logs are always entertaining, but this might be the tops. Try to imagine what these plays actually looked like.

That second one is particularly confusing. How exactly, on a ground ball to SS, does a batter “advance to 1st” on a throwing error from the 1b? I assume what they’re saying there is that Jorge beat out a DP and then the 1b tried to get the Batista at home and Duda’d the ball away.

Ghordy Santos late season surge continued with two more hits, two RBIs and his 14th SB of the year (as well as using his speed to beat out a double play, I presume, on that final play). He did make his 17th error of the year. That was one of six defensive miscues for the Giants (including three from Samuel Jorge) which sunk Luis Moreno’s start. Moreno allowed six runs in the game only one of which was earned.

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Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento: Roberto Gomez vs. Matt Koch
Richmond: Tyler Herb vs. Taylor Hill
San Jose: Garrett Williams vs. Jesus Tinoco
Augusta: Stephen Woods, Jr. vs. Darwin Ramos
Salem-Keizer: Peter Lannoo vs. TBD
AZL: Deiyerbert Bolivar
DSL: Aneudy Acosta

Garrett Williams puts his 0.00 Cal League ERA on the line. While in Augusta, Stephen Woods, Jr. tries again after only getting to pitch to one batter Friday before rains ended his start. Deiyerbert Bolivar follows up his best start since returning from Tommy John surgery.