SF Giants Minor Lines 5/9/18: San Jose has a BIG inning

I know Heliot Ramos is scuffling a little bit lately, but I don’t think they should make him pay his way into the stadium!

HIGHLIGHTS: Eury Perez had 3 hits, 3 Runs scored, and 2 SB; Logan Baldwin collected four hits on the day including triple and HR;

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Sacramento beat Salt Lake Bees (Angels), 8-4

The top of the order really brought the lumber for the RiverCats in their afternoon game. The first four hitters combined for 9 hits, 6 runs, and 6 RBI to push Sacramento to the win. The RiverCats broke the game open with a big four-run 8th inning which included six consecutive hits before an out was recorded. The biggest of those came from Austin Slater, who now has as many doubles on the season as he has singles (13 of each) and is fourth in the PCL with a blistering 1.130 OPS.

AAA vet Eury Perez has provided a nice spark since joining Sacramento. He scored three times in this game with three hits and two SB. Perez combined with leadoff man Steven Duggar to score five times in the game. Chris Shaw, who came to the plate with bags juiced all game long, picked up an easy 3 RBI on two hits.

The RiverCats have now won five in a row and are 7-2 in the month of May. That spurt has pushed them to two games out of first place in their division with an 18-15 record.

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Richmond beat Akron RubberDucks (Indians), 1-0
losing their series, 1-2

It was getaway day at the Diamond, with the Squirrels squeeking out a briskly-paced 1-0 win that was virtually offense-free. Ryan Howard’s Sac Fly scored Matt Lipka with the game’s lone run in a game that featured just 10 hits in all.

Luigi Rodriguez contined his scorching pace, picking up two more hits and reaching base all three times he came to the plate (including a HBP). He also nabbed his 7th SB of the season. Rodriguez is hitting a whopping .418/.506/.597 now as he inches closer to qualifying for the league hitting title.

The Squirrels pitching staff had seen some losses lately, with Matt Gage moving up to Sacramento and Tyler Cyr hitting the DL. They supplemented the staff, calling up Carlos Diaz from San Jose and grabbing Peter Lannoo off the bus from Maryland to Georgia as they passed by on I-95. Both of the newcomers appeared in this game, combining with starter Cory Taylor and closer Caleb Simpson on the four-hit shutout. Taylor wasn’t exactly sharp, walking four in his 6 innings. But he allowed just 1 hit to keep the walks off the board. The two teams combined to go 1 for 16 with RISP, and that one hit didn’t score a run. Getaway day.

Simpson’s season has been lost a bit in the glare of Ray Black’s brilliance, but the hard throwing Simpson has been strong out of the pen himself. He has been wild — he does have 11 walks in 12.1 IP — but his 16 Ks and just 1 ER allowed speak to how difficult his stuff is to square up when he’s in the zone.

Howard had just his sixth hitless game of the season (and yet still found a way to be the star) as he continues to barrel up pretty much everything thrown his way. The former UMissouri SS was a real object of affection for John Barr and the Giants’ draft team — as they showed by drafting him not once...but twice in two years. And he’s done nothing but make them look smart ever since. Have a profile!

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San Jose won at Modesto Nuts (Mariners) 9-5

Entering the top of the 6th, San Jose had two hits and no runs, and had sent just 18 batters to the plate over the first 5 innings.

IN the top of the 6th, San Jose collected 8 hits, 2 walks, and a HB, scored 9 runs, and sent 15 batters to the plate. They didn’t do much in the other 8, but a 9-run inning will get you where you need to go most of the time. The barrage started with Jalen Miller’s 4th HR.

“Just a solo HR” as the play by play man noted, but there was much more to follow!

Wander Franco and Johneshwy Fargas continued their hot hitting with two hits apiece. Franco hit a bases clearing double to finish off the big inning. That was his 12th double of the year, though he has just 1 HR. His average is up to .298

It’s been a while since the Giants had an inning quite like this one. How long you ask...?

Mac Marshall continued to be stingy with runs and showed good stuff, but he battled some control issues again. His outing ended at just 2.2 IP when he walked his final three batters. Marshall hasn’t pitched beyond 3 innings yet this year, but he’s allowed just 2 ER on the season in 17.2 IP. The left-hander has 23 Ks to 10 walks over that time.

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Augusta lost to Rome Braves, 6-3 in Gm 1 (7 inn)

Augusta lost to Rome Braves, 7-3 in Gm 2 (7 inn)

LHP Joey Marciano has steamrolled through the Sally so far this year, having allowed just 2 ER in 28 IP coming into the first game of this double header. So when he struck out the first four batters he faced, it looked like more of the same was coming. Then suddenly four batters later he had tripled his earned runs allowed for the season, with a very loud excalamation point.

Kevin tells me the ball was it hit so hard it left a dent in the building.

Marciano would recover nicely and ended up K’ing 8 and allowing just 1 more run, but that 2nd inning stumble was enough to sink the Greenjackets in game 1. In game 2, a Manny Geraldo error opened the door to a 3-run 2nd inning off Aaron Phillips. In both cases, Augusta couldn’t muster the offense to come back from the early deficit. And in the end, Rome had muscled their way into a tie with Augusta atop the Sally League Southern Division.

Logan Baldwin did not leave his hits in Maryland or on the long bus ride home. He continued right where he left off on Monday, scorching balls left and right. His 4 hits on the night included his first HR of the season and his third triple. Baldwin is 11 for his last 16 ABs over his past five games, a stretch that includes a double, two triples, a homer, three walks, and four SB. Yowza! His OPS has leapt from a woeful .439 to .667 in just those five games.

Kevin was in attendance for the twinset. He’ll have a piece up soon on the new stadium, but for now he sent me a few game notes:

I was looking forward to seeing Marciano, but it was not a good game for him. His fastball sat at 86-87, and touched 88 at its highest. One particular 86 MPH fastball he threw was hit a long, long way. It hit off the facing of the incomplete apartment building in left, leaving a dent! Please note, there was essentially no wind tonight to help it. Marciano also did not do well defensively, failing to hustle off the mound to help get a groundout that went to first.

The one positive for Marciano is that his curveball was very, very successful. He was getting a lot of swing-throughs with it, and most of his strikeouts happened thanks to it.

Logan Baldwin had a good day. In Game 1, he lifted a home run to the opposite field that just barely cleared the left field wall. In Game 2, he came up with Heliot Ramos on third, and put down a safety squeeze that was perfect, past the pitcher and pulling the first baseman away from first, scoring Ramos and going for a hit. I don’t know if he did it on his own or had it called. The hitch in his swing will be a problem, and probably is a bit right now. Baldwin also had showed that he could handles balls off the wall in right and had a solid arm.

Ramos didn’t get to do much today, not putting out the best swings. He did hit a high hopper down the third base line, beating out the throw even when it didn’t look like he was running maximum effort. He beat the throw, and when the ball got away from the first baseman, he took second. My first impression on him was that he has excellent batspeed. But hey, just one strikeout today. (Apologies for the shaky/deshaked video)

Jacob Gonzalez hit a couple of line drives as well, showing off good bat speed but not a lot of loft. He showed off some quick hands with line drives hit at him, but he didn’t get a good first step when they were shot to the side of him. Unfortunately, his pitchers allowed for a lot of hard hit balls. (Apologies again for the shaky/deshaked video)

Other notes:

• Manuel Geraldo is as bad as advertised at short. He whiffed on a ball under his glove, showed a long transfer time from glove to hand, and a couple of minor brain farts.
• Tyler Brown had some line drives the opposite way that got caught. The infielder is helping in left, and he showed good instincts playing a ball off the wall and has a strong arm.
• Ryan Kirby did not show good hands at first. He booted what could have been a double-play ball hit to him (he still got one out), and he let another ground ball go under his glove, but Orlando Garcia was playing deep in a shift and bailed him out on a rare 4-1.

Geez, Kevin, don’t hold back! (also, never apologize for shaky video!)

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Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento: Tyler Beede vs. Osmer Morales
Richmond: Shaun Anderson vs. Erik Swanson
San Jose: Conner Menez vs. Danny Garcia
Augusta: Jason Bahr vs. Alan Rangel

It’s ace day in the system, featuring some big strapping right-handers and one sneaky lefty.

So pull up a seat and enjoy a game!