SF Giants Minor Lines 6/8/18: Gio Brusa Homers, Doubles, Breaks SJ Slump

Minor Lines would like to officially send their thanks to the Warriors on finally catching up to the Giants in titles…even if they were able to get three titles done a little bit faster.

Seriously, though, congrats. This pretty much makes 1993-2012 worth it.

Good news though is that outside of the indoor sports arenas, the weather was nice.

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Sacramento defeated Colorado Springs (Brewers), 4-1

It’s all about the pitching in Sacramento today, and Ray Black didn’t even pitch!

Former first round pick Casey Kelly had a great game against the Colorado Sky Sox, limiting them to just one run on five hits and two walks, striking out six. The six strikeouts were his third-highest total of the season, but he also had his highest pitch total of the season at 107. Add in Tyler Rogers striking out two in a wedding, and Derek Law having one of his few outings without allowing a baserunner, and you’ve got a solid win for the River Cats.

All this despite collecting just five hits. Austin Slater collected two of them, he second two-hit game in the row, and fifth of the last nine games. All Slater has done this season is bat .363/.466/.586 with 19 doubles (2nd-most in the league), two triples and four home runs. And, now, play first base.

What about Steven Duggar? Well, he took the day off after a pretty good day yesterday. Gregor Blanco made his first appearance with Sacramento…ever, actually. Blanco got off to a good start at 1-for-3 with a triple and a walk. Chris Shaw added a single to collect a hit in his fourth straight game, but has continued a downward trend on strikeouts, with 9 in 18 at-bats over those four games.

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Richmond was defeated by Harrisburg (Nationals), 8-7

The River Cats won despite a lack of hits. The Squirrels won despite a lot of them.

The Squirrels collected 13 hits, including 7 doubles, but fell by a run to the Senators. Matt Lipka and Ryan Howard led the way, with a pair of doubles each. Lipka was without a double for nine straight games and now has three in his last two games, giving him five on the season. He has raised his batting average from .191 to .225 since June 1st. Ryan Howard, meanwhile, has 18 doubles on the season now.

Also on the two hit train was Aramis Garcia, but it wasn’t enough to get him back over the Mendoza Line.

On the mound, Mike Connolly took the brunt of the damage on the mound making only his second start of the season. Ironically, he ended up going fewer innings than his last three relief appearances. His ERA jumped from 2.94 to 4.21 in the game.

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San Jose defeated Modesto (Mariners), 6-4

Gio Brusa picked up both of San Jose’s extra base hits, but it was enough for the win. Brusa’s 2nd inning home run was his 7th of the year, and put San Jose up 2-1. He also added his 12th double. In 5 games since coming back from injury, Brusa is batting 7-for-18 with a double, triple, and two home runs.

Meanwhile, a pair of newcomers helped Melvin Adon hold onto the win. Adon had a solid start, but not a great one. Despite only going five innings, Adon hit his season-high in pitches with 99. Adon’s season has been stuck in the mid-4’s with a .270 average against and a 1.4’s level WHIP.

In relief, the Giants saw the season debut of last year’s 31st round pick Keenan Bartlett . Bartlett gave up a run on one hit and two walks in his debut. Bartlett had a 1.54 ERA in 15 relief appearances in the AZL last year, with 34 strikeouts and 12 walks in 12.1 IP. Meanwhile, last year’s 11th round pick Doug Still made his San Jose debut (and second start of his career. He fared much better, striking out four and giving up just one hit. Still made his career debut in Augusta earlier in the week, going unscored upon in two innings.

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Augusta was defeated by Columbia (Mets), 4-1

Augusta’s slump continued, as they lost their 7th game out of the last 8 as the bats continued to slump.

Orlando Garcia’s 3rd home run of the year was all the run-scoring the GreenJackets would get. The good news is that puts him halfway to last year’s home run total in Salem-Keizer. The bad news is that he’s played exactly one game less in Augusta than he did in Salem-Keizer last year.

John Gavin had a good enough day to keep the GreenJackets in it. Gavin gave up only one earned run for the second time in three starts and had his first start of the season without walking anyone. Unfortunately, the loss went to John Russel, who doesn’t give up runs unless he’s giving up three at a time, at least in the last month.

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The DSL Giants were defeated by the Tigers2, 2-1

The Giants were unable to muster much offense for this game. Early offensive star Luis Toribio had his 3-game home run streak and 5-game hit streak end, but he did pick up a pair of walks. 17-year old Toribio has 5 walks against 7 strikeouts in his first 6 games, but also is 6-for-17 with a double and three home runs.

Meanwhile, 19-year old Robinson Batista collected a hit in his fourth straight game, and picked up his second double of the year. Meanwhile, 18-year old Enoc Watts has a hit in each of his four games this season. Watts hit .134 last season in 28 games.

On the mound, Juan Sanchez had his second good start, going five shutout innings. He has 12 strikeouts and just one walk in his first 10 innings of the year. But reliever Sonny Vargas had a more mixed game. On one hand, he blew the save, giving up a run on two hits. On the other hand he struck out four of the nine batters he faced.

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Today’s Scheduled Starters

Sacramento: Matt Gage vs. Alec Asher

Richmond: G1: Shaun Anderson vs. Jefry Rodriguez; G2: TBD vs. TBD

San Jose: Logan Webb vs. Ljay Newsome

Augusta: Jose Marte vs. David Peterson

DSL: TBD vs. TBD

Matt Gage is expected to come off the DL to start on Saturday, and will meet the Sky Sox Alec Asher, who has a 3.27 ERA in Triple-A between two teams (he was with the Dodgers organization earlier this season). Richmond will try to make up some time with a doubleheader, but neither team has announced starters for Game 2. Augusta will try to get back on track with Jose Marte on the mound, but will face The Mets’ first round pick from last year David Peterson, who has a 1.93 ERA this year. MLB Pipeline has Peterson ranked #2 in the Mets’ system.

Finally, a bit of news about missing players…

...And about what the Arizona League might look like with two Giants teams…

...And….just to be completely off-topic.

I don’t get it either, Grant, don’t worry…