SF Giants Minor Lines 8/31/17: Walk-offs!

Juniel Querecuto has some mad hacky skills, y’all!

Second order of business: want to read a great article about the dominant prospect story of the offseason? I have just the thing for you!

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Sacramento beat Las Vegas 51s (Mets), 8-7
sweeping their four game series, 4-0

Remarkably easy carry was the story of the night. All three pitchers the RiverCats employed ended up allowing a HR that blew a Sacramento lead. Dusten Knight’s evening was particularly rough, as he took the hill with a 7-3 lead in the 7th and tromped back to the dugout with a tie game on his ledger. He escaped the BS designation only because the lead he blew was too large for a Save.

But in the end everything turned out great, as old friend Juan Ciriaco sent the fans home happy with a walk off single.

Minor Lines lends its full-throated support to a Juan Ciriaco call up this month!

Chris Shaw, of course, will have to wait for 2018 for his callup. But Shaw’s 2 for 5 night completed a fantastic month of August, in which he hit .314/.343/.578 with 6 HRs, 9 doubles, and 17 — by far his best month since his call up to AAA. That 4 BB/32 K in 102 ABs is still going to need some fine tuning, and will no doubt lead to a few lumps at the next level. But I find that I’m in favor of the notion of a Shaw/Billy Hamilton/Giancarlo Stanton OF for 2018. GitRdun, Bobby!

And speaking of callups, congrats to all the latest Giants who have worked hard to get back to SF. Specific shout out to Federowicz who has had a fantastic year for Sacramento (and, parenthetically, to my brother Jeff who’s been telling me for awhile now that FedX would get the 3rd Catcher call up while I figured in the end they’d take the easy route and just bring up Brown).

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Richmond beat Altoona Curve (Pirates), 4-3 in 11 inn
winning their four game series, 3-1

Indy ballers representing, take 2! KC Hobson drove his 11th HR deep into the night to erase a 2-0 deficit in the 7th inning and send this one to extras.

In the 11th, Tyler Cyr would allow his first earned run in the month of August thanks to two different infield singles to CJ Hinojosa. But in the bottom of the 11th, Richmond had an answer. Aramis Garcia and Jerry Sands opened the inning with singles. After a Sac bunt moved them over, Hunter Cole battled through a great AB to tie the game with a Sac Fly. And then it was Hobson’s time to shine again, this time with a little help.

Way to go, Son of Butch!

Long before all of that, Dan Slania made his final pitch to stay a member of the 40 man this winter and, like many of his pitches this year, it made a middling impression. He came within one out of a quality start, allowing just 2 runs in 5.2 IP but he labored throughout and was finally removed with two outs and one on in the 6th after throwing his 105th pitch of the day. Though he didn’t allow a run after the top of the 1st, he had runners in scoring position in all but one of his innings.

Richmond has brought the entertainment to the home crowd this year at least — with 10 walk-offs in 61 overall victories! They also played the best teams in the league tough, winning the season series against both of the division winners, the Curve and the Trenton Thunder.

And speaking of the Thunder, we can’t leave the EL scene without a note of appreciation for what the Yankee’s AA squad has accomplished this year. The Thunder hit an extremely rare landmark last night and it’s only appropriate to give a Minor Lines tip o’ the cap!

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San Jose lost at Inland Empire 66ers (Angels), 5-3

Dom Mazza’s second Cal League start didn’t go a whole lot better than his first, as the lefty allowed four runs in the bottom of the first to put the Giants behind the 8-ball right from get go. He did have some help, with Ryan Howard making one of his two errors in the season on the second batter. But then Mazza hit a batter and gave up a single to load the bases before the crucial at bat.

Mazza and Will LaMarche would clamp down from there, but it was already too late. While San Jose would pick up 8 hits and 3 walks, they went just 3 for 11 with RISP and never managed more than a 1-run rally. Jalen Miller had his second two-hit night in a row and Cristian Paulino added two more. And Gio Brusa continued to show some late season signs of life with his 28th double of the year. It was Brusa’s fifth extra base hit in the last five games.

But all for naught. San Jose now sits by itself in last place, 1 game back of three different teams all tied at the top of the division. They almost certainly have to sweep four games in Stockton to have any hope of advancing. But, as exciting as playoff pushes (and the tantalizing thought of the season continuing beyond it’s defined boundaries), the salient point about this team is probably still that they’re not very good. At 61-75 overall they still have the worst record in the Cal League and it’s a well-deserved distinction. Still, go team! I want to see Shaun Anderson and Garrett Williams and Bryan Reynolds make a playoff appearance!

You can hear manager Nestor Rojas discuss the playoff push with Joe Ritzo here.

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Augusta and Salem-Keizer both had their final off days of the year

Both return home tonight for the final weekend. Only San Jose will finish the season on the road.

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AZL Giants lost to AZL Dbacks, 7-5

The losses continue to pile up. That’s now 2-8 since Heliot Ramos left the lineup.

Poor pitching continues to be the biggest issue. Jake Greenwalt has had a slightly encouraging campaign overall for a teenager, but he’s had a rough go of it down the stretch. Following two straight games in which he was removed early (once after an illness and once being hit with a comebacker) he’s been getting rocked pretty consistently. Greenwalt has now given up 19 earned runs in his last four starts, with three of those ending in the 4th inning. He’s given up at least 4 runs in each of those. Greenwalt has also allowed a somewhat astounding 10 HRs this year in just 49 innings, including at least one HR in each of his last six starts. Not so good, Jake!

Mac Marshall made his second appearance of 2017 and it was ominously reminiscent of 2016 as he walked two of the four batters he faced. Sidney Duprey finished up with five solid innings, striking out five but allowing three runs (to earned) to get hung with the LOLL.

Jacob Gonzalez is going through a bit of a dryspell lately, having gone just 3 for his last 24 with no XBH. That followed a spurt in which he had 10 hits in four games with three doubles and his lone HR. Ebbs and flows; it comes and goes.

Diego Rincones had the only two-hit game for the Giants, stretching his hitting streak to 6 games. Rincones, who just turned 18 in June has had a very solid rookie league campaign, hitting .316/.377/.439 with three HRs. It sure would be fun to see a Bond/Ramos/Rincones OF in North Augusta next spring!

The AZL Giants play their last game of the regular season tonight and will spend the next three days looking for a light switch to flip on before heading into the AZL Semi-Final game on Tuesday. It will be interesting to see if they start Seth Corry tonight on his normal rotation or hold him back for that semi-final game.

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Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento: Roberto Gomez vs. Kyle Lloyd
Richmond: Matt Lujan vs. Yefry Ramirez
San Jose: Matt Solter vs. TBD
Augusta: Raffi Vizcaino vs. TBD
Salem-Keizer: TBD
AZL: TBD

Final weekend! Just as housekeeping we’ll be back next week with Minor Lines on Monday and Tuesday for the season finale, and then a very abbreviated ML for the AZL Giants’post-season and, who knows, maybe some San Jose action.

And finally, a heartfelt Happy Birthday to my delightful and wonderful wife, who supports me in all this nonsense with amazing grace.