SF Giants Minor Lines 5/4/18: Scary night in Maryland

Those of you who follow me on twitter know that very early in the Augusta-Delmarva game know that there was a very scary high speed collision between Heliot Ramos and Jean Angomas. Angomas was down and not moving for about 15 minutes before being taken away in an ambulance. It put a damper on a beautiful night for everybody that was there:

But the news from the hospital was ultimately as good as one could imagine:

So thank god for that.

HIGHLIGHTS: Ronnie Jebavy doubled and homered; Heath Quinn had four hits with a double;

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Sacramento lost at Fresno Grizzlies (Astros), 11-2

After a long bus ride from Las Vegas, around the mountains and back up into the valley to Fresno, the RiverCats were unsurprisingly tired and flat Friday night. They actually led this game at the halfway point, 2-0. But Fresno then unleashed a torrent of runs, scoring in every inning from the 5th on, and crooked numbers in most of them.

It was the kind of night when even the things that went right, somehow went wrong:

Since April 26 Shaw is 12 for 33 with 5 HRs, a triple and two doubles. He has still struck out 11 times in that stretch to just 2 walks, but he’s showing consistent power anyway.

Otherwise, this was a game to turn the page on. Before I go though, shout out to ABC30 in Fresno though for this really cool graphic! Google Earth is cool!

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Richmond lost at Reading Fightin’ Phils, 7-6

Richmond’s luck has really turned around on them. For awhile when the offense was scuffling the pitching would hold tight and secure the low-scoring wins; when the pitching stumbled the offense would find a way to rise up and take the high-scoring wins. Now they’re falling just short on both ends.

The Squirrels exploded for a 5-run inning in the 4th, but that was pretty much it for the night and the pitching allowed a steady drip of runs to the Phils who scored in six of their eight at bats in the game.

The big inning was punctuated by Ronnie Jebavy’s first AA HR, part of a two-hit night for Ronnie. Jebavy’s been having more luck at the plate lately, though he’s still hitting just .185 with a .607 OPS on the year.

The explosion wasn’t enough to overcome an imminently hittable Cory Taylor however. Taylor was behind in counts nearly all game, and ended up allowing 10 hits, including two HRs. Taylor has allowed 32 hits, and 17 ER in just 26.1 IP this year.

Richmond posted this outstanding play from Jonah Arenado on their social media today, and I think it’s necessary to say that this is NOT the play that has kept Arenado out of the lineup lately, but like his brother the man does like to throw himself around on the field.

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San Jose won at Lancaster JetHawks (Rockies), 7-6 in 10 inn

Wander Franco led off the 10th with his first HR of the year, a two-run shot that provided the measure of victory as San Jose moved to a perfect 5-0 in extra inning games this year.

Mac Marshall allowed his first runs of the year in the 3rd inning on a two run single, but still flashed quality stuff.

Matt Winn put the Giants up early with his 2nd HR of the year, a three run shot in the 2nd inning. The Giants offense had 12 hits for the game, including four from the hot hitting Heath Quinn. But they did have trouble converting those hits into runs, going just 4 for 13 with RISP, and a some of that had to do with the team’s trouble making contact. They whiffed 14 times in this game, including hat tricks from both Winn and Gio Brusa, and they didn’t have a walk in the game. That’s been consistent through the year as the team has 256 Ks to just 79 walks on the year. Having played 29 games that works out to about 9 Ks per game. It’s the baseball world we live in that that is the second lowest strikeout total in the league, but it’s also the lowest walk total in the league.

This was the Giants first game in Lancaster since their historic double cycle night last month. From Baseball Prospectus’ Wilson Karaman’s view, it seemed the JetHawks pitching staff decided they didn’t want to see much more of Jalen Miller swinging at fastballs after that night.

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Augusta lost at Delmarva Shorebirds (Orioles), 3-1

As I noted at the top, there was something of a pall over this game after the 20 or so minute stoppage in the 1st inning that ended with Jean Angomas being transported out in an ambulance. The play, which came on the leadoff batter in the bottom of the 1st, was a liner into the gap that neither Ramos nor Angomas could quite get to and Angomas to the full force of Ramos into his torso. I actually caught the play on video but I don’t believe I’ll share it.

Ramos’ stayed in for the rest of the inning (with a large bandaid on his cheek where he’d cut a gash), but was pulled once the inning was over. I’m sure he was watched for concussion. He was in the dugout and on the rail the entire game and looked in good shape physically, though he was naturally distraught in the immediate aftermath of the play.

The situation created roster issues for the Greenjackets. John Riley had been sent back up to Richmond (after Ronnie Freeman went up to Sacramento) and Augusta had apparently not received any player to replace him yet. With two OF out of the game, Augusta had only Catcher Rob Calabrese left on their bench. To fill the OF they shifted Tyler Brown out to RF (for possibly his first try at OF ever) and brought Orlando Garcia into the game from the DH position.

That led to the game’s only real sense of fun as SP Jason Bahr was forced to bat for himself for the first time in his career. Bahr was clearly told not to swing under any circumstances, but in his second at bat, he still managed a 7 pitch at bat and nearly worked a walk!

The game actually ended with relief pitcher Peter Lannoo on deck with the tying and go ahead runs in scoring position, which would have been a sight to see.

Manuel Geraldo and Jeffry Parra led the offense. Geraldo lined an opposite field HR in the first that was the Greenjackets only score. I didn’t get that one but I got this clean single

Parra made hard contact several times in the game, including this ringing double into the corner.

Starter Jason Bahr had a good game statistically, but his stuff was far down from where I’d seen it in spring. He was working with a fastball at mostly 91-92 (on the stadium gun) that generated very few swing thrus. Nearly all of his swing and miss last night came off his breaking stuff. It was a very different look from the guy who was throwing mid 90s in March. Not sure how the weird first inning affected him.

Jacob Gonzalez made one fantastic play at 3b, though had trouble handling another. He’s still a work in progress over there. Gonzalez was rung up on a pretty egregious check swing/strike call with potential tying runs on base to end the 8th inning, in one of the few dramatic moments of the later innings of the game.

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Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento: Tyler Beede vs. David Paulino
Richmond: Shaun Anderson vs. Franklyn Kilomé
San Jose: Raffi Vizcaino vs. Trey Killian
Augusta: Garrett Cave vs. Gray Fenter

Lots of hard throwing right-handers for tonight’s slate. The Sacramento and Richmond games both features a matchup of two of the best pitching prospects from their respective organizations. Paulino was the Astors #10 prospect this year and Kilomé, who the Squirrels have already seen once this year, was likewise the Phillies #10 prospect. Good matchups for a Saturday night!