SF Giants Minor Lines 4/14/18: Jalen Miller walks it off

#DidMacHomer? You bet he did!

I can keep this up forever, folks!

HIGHLIGHTS: Mac Williamson homered for 4th straight game; Jalen Miller hit walk off HR; Joey Marciano threw 6 shutout innings.

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Sacramento beat Tacoma Rainiers (Mariners), 12-7

For the third consecutive game, Sacramento allowed two runs in the top of the 1st to pub the team in a hole. But for the fourth straight game, Sacramento’s hitters posted at least two runs in the bottom of the 1st. The potent Sacramento offense jumped all over a Tacoma pitching that was laden with free gifts. Sacramento used 13 hits and an incredible 12 walks (plus a HBP) to run away with the victory. Every single hitter in the Sacramento lineup reached base at least twice so it’s hard to figure out where to begin highlighting folks. But leadoff hitter Steven Duggar deserves notice for reaching base 5 times, including three walks. Other standouts included Chase D’arnaud who fell a homer shy of the cycle; Myles Schroder, whose two-out three homer in the 4th gave the RiverCats the lead for good, and of course Mac Williamson, who continues to blaze a trail through PCL pitching.

Williamson picked up two hits, three RBI, a walk, a HBP, and scored twice. His 5 HRs lead the PCL. He also leads the league in average (.500), OBP (.611), and SLG (1.143) and is third in RBIs (13). And rather surprisingly, the slugger also has more walks (5) than strikeouts (4) for the season, which hasn’t traditionally been Mac’s MO. This is all absurdly small sample size, of course, (28 ABs) but he’s certainly doing what he has to do to punch himself a ticket up I80. When and how that ticket might get issued is still a question TBD.

Let’s give a little love to Myles Schroder, too. For a long time now, Schroder has been the only player still in the org from the 2007 draft besides Madison Bumgarner. Toiling in obscurity, playing whereever and whatever position is needed, Schroder is the definition of a good org guy. On opening day he got the disappointing news that he wasn’t being assigned anywhere and hung out in XST with the rookie level kids and other unwanted. But give him an assignment and a spot in the lineup, and Myles always finds ways to contribute.

Finally, I don’t really know what to make of this note, but it’s out there, so I’ll share:

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Richmond beat Reading Fightin’ Phils, 5-4

The Squirrels struck for 3 runs in the bottom of the 7th to nab a comeback win over Richmond. The rally came off the Phillies #12 prospect Seranthony Dominguez, and was started with some free baserunners as Dominguez walked Ronnie Jebavy with one out and then Ali Castillo’s potential double play ball was thrown away. After a WP brought in the first run of the inning, Ryan Howard turned around upper 90s heat for a game tying double.

A two-out single from veteran Luigi Rodriguez plated Howard with the eventual game winner.

Richmond was playing without Aramis Garcia, who injured his finger sliding into 3b on Friday night. You can read about Garcia’s injury, and his thoughts on sliding head first, here. For now, it appears the injury isn’t likely to keep Garcia out too long. He’s staying on the active roster and expects to be back in a few days. Richmond did make a few roster moves to bolster their catching situation however, with John Riley coming up from Augusta, and Jordan Johnson moving off the active roster. That move suggests they don’t expect to be without Garcia for a full turn through the rotation.

Without Garcia, Ryan Howard was left as the only hitter in the lineup who’s gotten off to a strong start, and he certainly did his part for the victory. Howard’s 1st inning single brought in the first run of the game off Reading’s Jacob Waguespack (who went from being a non-drafted free agent, to a Phillies Top 30 prospect when his velocity spiked last year). He also walked to complete a well-rounded offensive game. The more Howard just keeps hitting, the more Matt Duffyish he feels.

Ronnie Jebavy took a week to get a batting average, but he now has four hits in his last three games. He also has 7 walks this year in 8 games (to just 8 Ks) and is a perfect 4 for 4 in SB attempts.

Matt Gage, who you just may recall, was the last Richmond pitcher to hit a HR prior to last night (back in 2016), took the start, striking out 7 in his 6 innings of work. But two, two-out throwing errors (one of them his own) opened the door for scoring rallies against him and both times he followed the error by allowing a run-scoring double. Gage only allowed 5 hits in the game, but four of them went for extra bases.

Once the team came back to the take the lead, however, Michael Connelly and Tyler Cyr were lock-solid for the final three innings of work.

The comeback gives the Squirrels a 6-3 record which, according to play by play man Jay Burnham, may be a little history.

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San Jose beat Stockton Ports (A’s), 8-7 in 11 inn

For the second time this week, San Jose was the scene of an important rehab assignment. Let’s just check in and see how it wen.....uh ....oh...

Ok, suboptimal then.

Well, the rest of his outing went pretty well at any rate, as he retired 5 of 6 batters and got the ol’ fastball up to 94. Just shaking the rust off, right Shark?

Despite the large hole that the rehabbing major leaguer put them in, San Jose clawed their way back into the game. Jacob Heyward hit his 2nd HR of the year in the 4th, continuing his strong start to the year. And RBI hits from Frandy de la Rosa and Gio Brusa produced three runs in the 5th. With two outs in the bottom of the 9th, it looked like the Giants would fall just short of the comeback but baseball delivered a little of that voodoo that it do so well.

There’s a whole lot of Gut-Punch Face going on around the Stockton team in that highlight!

San Jose pitching, meanwhile, put up 9 consecutive zeros following the first. Raffi Vizcaino, bumped from the start by Shark, went 4 strong shutout innings, striking out 5. Raffi’s now thrown 9 innings without a run to start the year, with 10 Ks against 5 BBs.

Patrick Ruotolo added 2 innings, even pitching through the new extra innings rule in the 10th without a run.

But Dylan Rhealt wasn’t quite so successful in the 11th, allowing the free runner on 2nd to come around to score. In the bottom of the inning, the Giants wasted their gift runner when Johneshwy Fargas was immediately caught off 2b on a comebacker. But that just set up the dramatics for hero of the week, Jalen Miller, who sent everyone home happy.

Pretty incredible stretch for Miller, who’s now 9th in the Cal league in batting average and 11th in OPS (despite having drawn just one walk on the year. Uh...work on that Jalen!).

Before we go, here’s a San Jose twitter follow suggestion for you. If you don’t follow Tim Cattera photo, you really should. He’s constantly providing great stuff from San Jose (I realize in retrospect this may be rubbing salt into the wound for poor Stockton SS Kevin Merrill):

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Augusta lost to Lexington Legends (Royals), 2-1

The Greenjackets were stifled by the 1st place Legends, managing just 5 hits and 1 run in taking the tight loss. The few baserunners they managed to get on were mostly erased in short order. Heliot Ramos was caught stealing for the third time this year (against 1 SB). Malique Ziegler was picked off first. And two other runners were erased on double play grounders.

However, they were able to pile up two walks and two singles into the 2nd inning to score their lone run on a Logan Baldwin walk. With the bases loaded and one out, however, they couldn’t add on as Ziegler grounded into a 5-2 fielder’s choice ground out and Ramos grounded out to end the inning.

Joey Marciano (who I just found out is actually related to Rocky Marciano, according to his Southern Illinois website bio!) threw 6 strong innings. His worst throw of the day wasn’t a pitch, but as has so often been the case, an errant pick off throw which led to the one run he allowed. Reliever Peter Lannoo likewise contributed to his downfall with an unforced error as his 8th inning wild pitch set up the game winning run.

On the bright side, I do have game video of Heliot Ramos from friend of Minor Lines David Lee! Not from last night, but beggars/choosers, you know.

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Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento: Jose Flores vs. Christian Bergman
Richmond: Garrett Williams vs. Franklyn Kilomé
San Jose: Melvin Adon vs. Zack Erwin
Augusta: Jason Bahr vs. Andres Sotillet

Top of the rotation day, as some of the Giants’ finest pitching prospects take the bump around the system. Garrett Williams and Jason Bahr are both coming off terrific outings last time out while Melvin Adon has been solid his first two times out, but is still searching for his first signature game in the Cal League.

Have a beautiful Sunday everyone. That’s it from a rollicking Saturday night in the Minor Lines.