SF Giants Minor Lines 5/17/18: Melvin Adon goes 6 strong

Everybody limbered up and ready? It’s time for some Minor Lines!

HIGHLIGHTS: Chase D’Arnaud tripled and homered, Melvin Adon K’d 7 in 6 innings, allowing one run.

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Sacramento lost at Salt Lake Bees (Angels), 12-11

On a windy night in Salt Lake, the RiverCats found themselves in a classic PCL game. Sacramento scored in 8 out of their 9 at bats, but in six of those innings they scored just a single run, while Salt Lake had four crooked number rallies, including a monster 5-run inning against Madison Younginer in the 4th. That inning included a bases clearing single courtesy of an almost comically bad throw from CF Steven Duggar:

Seems like there might have been a miscommunication about where the cutoff man was supposed to be? Regardless, you don’t normally see something like that on a pro field.

The two teams combined for 32 hits in the game, and Sacramento tallied eight extra base hits, including a season high three triples. Sacramento got big production from their middle infield tandem as Chase D’Arnaud tripled and homered and Orlando Calixte clouted a three-run homer. It was the 5th HR of the year for both.

After Younginer’s tough night, the Sacramento bullpen shut down the Bees the rest of the way. Josh Osich, Jordan Schafer, and Ray Black were the only pitchers on either side to make scoreless appearances. Schafer was making his first appearance of the year. The six year major league vet missed most of 2017 after having Tommy John surgery.

On a most un-normal night for pitching, Ray Black seemed to find his way back to normalcy. This was closer to the Ray Black from Richmond. He mostly threw strikes and he avoided contact. 15 pitches, 10 strikes, 2 Ks. He seemed to have benefitted from a back up slider to Rymer Liriano and then engaged in a nice battle with Eric Young Jr., perhaps getting a call at the end. All in all, a nice night for Ray.

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Richmond’s game against Harrisburg was rained out

If you think this is getting repetitive you should try living in it. It’s wet out here right now! That doesn’t mean there was nothing at the park for the fans though!

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San Jose lost to Modesto Nuts (Mariners), 6-3
losing their series, 1-2

Melvin Adon had arguably his finest start of the year, allowing just one run over 6 IP. He also answered my call for a little more swing and miss (granted Modesto is an extremely whiff-tastic club right now). His 7 Ks were the second highest total he’s reached this year. He’s had 4 walks in two of his past four starts, but here he walked just one and poured 59 of his 87 pitches into the strike zone. Very encouraging effort, Melvin! Using three pitches and throwing some nasty stuff.

Unfortunately, LHP Caleb Baragar, fresh from a quick trip up to Sacramento, undid all of Adon’s good work in a hurry, giving up four runs in the 7th inning while recording just a single out. He wasn’t helped out any by 1b Frandy de la Rosa, who made two missed catch errors during the inning (including the leadoff batter).

That one inning was enough to sink the Giants as the bats were sleepy on an Education Day at the yard. After scoring three runs in the first three frames, San Jose hitters went down in order from the 4th through the 8th innings, with 16 in a row being retired in all. Jacob Heyward kept his recent hot hitting going with two more hits and an RBI. Jalen Miller picked up his 10th double of the year. The 21 year old is posting a .167 Iso which is far higher than any he’s posted in his career — the same with his .812 OPS thus far.

One interesting side note in this game: Modesto RF Gareth Morgan struck out 3 more times. Since homering off of San Jose starter Conner Menez on May 10, Morgan has K’d an astonishing 21 times in 24 at bats including a mind boggling stretch of 16 consecutive PA ending in a K. Really hard to wrap your brain around that one.

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Augusta won at Greenville Drive (Red Sox), 2-1

Good organizational soldier TJ Bennett has mostly filled in for San Jose and Richmond the last couple years (with even a side trip to Sacramento last year). But Augusta’s short on bodies lately and so TJ goes to Georgia. And good thing for the Greenjackets, as Bennett’s 2-run HR was the margin of victory in this day game.

Heliot Ramos didn’t collect a hit, but he did manage his 11th walk of the year as he’s trying to learn to be a little more discriminating. That boosts the ol’ OBP up to .295. Statistical achievement’s really not the point for Heliot this year, but not starting every AB 0-2 has got to help the development curve somewhat. Here’s the ending of a nice 8-pitch at bat for Ramos yesterday. Not a hit but nice swing on a ball and he shows some of the easy power he has the opposite way on a ball he didn’t quite barrel up.

Camilo Doval got his ERA down to a season low 7.62 (keep chipping away, Camilo!). Doval’s on a nice little roll lately, striking out 6 of his last 11 batters. Want to put an eye on the guy Fangraphs calls one of the weirdest prospects in baseball?

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Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento: Dereck Rodriguez vs. Parker Bridwell
Richmond: Chase Johnson vs. Logan Darnell
San Jose: Logan Webb vs. TBD
Augusta: Jason Bahr vs. Enmanuel De Jesus

Four power arms getting ready to light up a Friday night? Perhaps! Everybody get set for a big weekend of action!