SF Giants Minor Lines 8/25/17: Raffi Vizcaino Ks 8 consecutive hitters

Yesterday we had almost nothing to highlight, today an embarrassment of riches. Two different double digit strikeout performances. A three double night. Where to go first? It’s an embarrassment of riches. So much good stuff let’s just get it going!

HIGHLIGHTS: Aramis Garcia had four hits including three doubles; Matt Krook struck out 4 in 2 IP; Raffi Vizcaino struck out 11 batters including 8 in a row; Norwith Gudino struck out 10

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Sacramento was rained out in El Paso

They’ll play a makeup double header tonight.

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Richmond won at Trenton Thunder (Yankees), 5-3

Richmond rode an early 4-run uprising to another victory over the league-best Thunder. Caleb Gindl’s three-run triple was the big blow in the game. Trenton has come into each of the past two nights with a chance of clinching their division but those rascally Squirrels have proved an unwanted nuisance.

The performance of the night belonged to Catcher Aramis Garcia, who had his first big AA offensive night. Garcia hit three doubles as part of a four-hit night. Garcia only has 15 hits so far with the Squirrels, but amazingly eight of them have been doubles. Garcia had only had four hits over his previous six games combined coming into the night and he ended up raising his batting average from .208 to .259.

Garcia wasn’t the only Squirrel taking bases two at a time either. Richmond had six doubles in all. Veteran Myles Schroder hit his 21st, while CJ Hinojosa hustled his way to his 14th and 15th of the year.

Tyler Cyr picked up his 18th save with a scoreless 9th. It was his 10th consecutive appearance without allowing an earned run.

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San Jose beat the Stockton Ports (A’s), 7-4

Matt Solter picked the Giants up with a fantastic spot start, allowing just one hit over 5 shutout innings to help San Jose keep pace in their division race. While Solter was putting up zeros, the Giants offense was putting up 2s, scoring two runs in each of the 4th, 5th, and 6th innings.

The Giants used a balanced attack to pile up 10 hits and 4 walks, with everyone but Catcher Matt Winn recording at least one hit but nobody getting more than two. As has been true for most of the month, the leader of the attack was 3b Jonah Arenado.

A double a night, says Joe? Yeah, pretty darned close!

Bryan Reynolds’ lone hit of the night was the capper, as he ripped his 9th HR of the year.

That was just Reynolds’ 2nd HR from the right side, though his overall numbers there have been impressive.

Once Solter was done for the night, Matt Krook came on and continued to dominate out of the pen. In his last three relief appearances (7.2 IP), Krook has allowed 1 run on 4 hits and 1 walk, while striking out 13. In two innings last night, Krook was just perfect.

The full numbers since going to the pen?

Things got somewhat dicey in the late innings as both Rodolfo Martinez and Dylan Rhealt allowed two runs in their innings of work. But in the end they stayed in a three way tie, one game behind Visalia for the division lead. Visalia. Always, Visalia!

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Augusta lost to Greenville Drive (Red Sox), 3-1

Raffi Vizcaino, who just appeared in relief three days ago, started. Melvin Adon, who was supposed to start three days ago but didn’t, relieved. But both struck out nearly everybody they faced. The two combined to strike out 16 batters over their 8 innings of work. Vizcaino, in probably the best stretch of his pro career, struck out eight consecutive batters at one point and had a 4 K inning in his final inning of work.

Adon picked right up where Vizcaino had left off, striking out three in his first inning of work after a leadoff single. Between the two of them they K’d 12 out of 14 batters in one stretch between the 4th and 7th innings.

Sadly, all of that amazing work was wasted because Vizcaino wasn’t quite warmed up and ready to go when the bell rang. Following a game-opening fly out, Vizcaino gave up a walk, single, single, and double to the next four batters. That three run uprising out of the gate held up for the win, despite the flurry of whiffing that came afterwards.

It’s been quite the up and down season for Vizcaino. After starting the year in XST, he threw 6 no-hit innings with 9 Ks in his first start of the year. But he hadn’t approached that level in two months of starts since then until last night.

For Adon, it appears that we’ve hit the innings slowdown portion of the year, which makes sense given that he’s about 35 innings past his previous high. For people who suspect his high octane arm could perform better out of the pen, he provided some ammunition last night. His 5 K, two inning performances was more strikeouts than he’d managed in five of his last six starts. In all he’s had eight starts this year with fewer strikeouts than he managed last night in the space of 10 batters.

Damn, that fancy new stadium better have a video feed!

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Salem-Keizer lost at Eugene Emeralds (Cubs), 8-3
losing their three game series, 1-2

Unlike San Jose, the Volanoes dream of simultaneously being the worst overall team in the league and their division’s 2nd half champion is quickly fading into obscurity. After a sweep of Boise gave them a brief taste of pennant fever, they dropped five of six games to their other two division mates (Hillsboro and Eugene) to drop back to their familiar spot in the basement. They now sit 4 games back with 8 left to play, most of them not against division foes.

Salem-Keizer was mostly non-competitive in this series finale. Here it was the opposition arm that had the big strikeout night, as Emeralds starter Javier Assad struck out 9 over 6 shutout innings while allowing just one hit.

The Volcanoes managed just four hits in all and didn’t score until the 8th inning, at which point they had been down 8-0 for several innings. Bryce Johnson kept up his running ways, stealing two more bases, his 23rd and 24th. He did also get caught stealing for the 9th time this year, but he’s seen a strong improvement in that category. The CS was his first since Aug. 7. He’d stolen 16 bases without being caught in the interim.

It looks like the Volcanoes, too, are in the process of limiting innings on their young arms. Stetson Woods made his first relief appearance of the year. Woods is 45 innings above his previous professional high. His first try at the bullpen role wasn’t too successful as he failed to retire any of the five batters he faced, walking four and surrendering three runs. It was just the second game this year in which he’s given up as many as three runs.

Jason Bahr started, but he too was restricted to just two innings, allowing one run while striking out three. Bahr’s ERA is hovering around 4.00, but his peripherals have been solid in his debut, striking out 34 in 31 innings while walking 10.

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AZL Giants lost to AZL Cubs, 5-4

Is it just me or does it seem a little of the life has gone out of the AZL club since Heliot Ramos has left the lineup? That’s now four losses in a row for the playoff bound club since Ramos took a fastball to the helmet. It remains to be seen if they can recapture their glory when the short short AZL post-season comes, and whether they’ll have Ramos back to help them recapture it.

The Giants’ pitchers kept up the night’s theme, striking out 15 Cubs in all. That included Ray Black striking out three of the four batters he faced, and three more Ks from Camilo Doval. That’s 42 Ks in 27 IP for the young right hander. However, Doval was mostly out of sorts last night, walking three and WP in a run. In his third inning of work he allowed three runs on two walks and a single. Keenan Bartlett tried to bail him out of the jam, but he too allowed two hits and a walk before getting the third out. That three-run rally gave the Cubs a 5-4 lead that would hold up the rest of the game.

This is from several months back, but you can see a lot of good video footage of Doval here. Definitely an arm to follow.

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DSL Giants beat DSL Reds, 3-1

And the final big K performance of the day! Norwith Gudino (hopefully) ended his long DSL career with style, striking out a career high 10 batters in this 7 inning performance, while allowing just one unearned run. Throwing out two intentional walks, Gudino piled up a tremendous 10:1 K:BB ratio in his third DSL season (83 Ks, 8 BBs). He’s currently leading the league in strikeouts. With two days left in the season it appears there’s only one pitcher with much chance of catching him, the Brewers Freisis Adames, who would need 9 Ks to tie Gudino in his final outing.

Another notable aspect of Gudino’s career — he’s done a great job of keeping the ball in the park. In nearly 200 innings in the DSL, he surrendered just 2 HRs. We’ll see where the big right-hander gets assigned next year. He seems physically mature enough to skip at least one level.

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Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento: Casey Kelly vs. Dillon Overton; Roberto Gomez vs. Chris Huffman
Richmond: Matt Lujan vs. Brody Koerner
San Jose: Mark Reyes vs. TBD
Augusta: Yordy Cabrera vs. Darwinzon Hernandez
Salem-Keizer: TBD
AZL: Jake Greenwalt
DSL: Francis Pena

Not too much to look forward to on the pitching side tonight, though Francis Pena has had a strong year in the DSL. And, just in case you’re wondering, yes Chris Huffman does look a little stoned. As you no doubt know, Johnny Cueto will be making a start in San Jose tomorrow.

The days are dwindling fast. So get out to the ballpark while you still can. You never know what you might see in the minors!