SF Giants Minor Lines 7/22/18

So, Baseball America put out its midseason Giants Top 10…

But we aren’t going to talk about that yet. We’ve got a lot of rankings to digest in tomorrow’s Prospect Round-Up. But we’ve got some baseball to talk about today.

Highlights: Bryce Johnson had a 3-hit game; Jose Marte had one of his best starts of the season.

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Sacramento Had A Scheduled Day Off

Sacramento sits at 43-58, the second worst record in the Pacific Coast League. After this off-day, the River Cats will pick up it’s season at home with three games against Omaha, and four more against Iowa.

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Richmond was defeated by Erie (Tigers), 6-4

In a relatively unimpressive day, the best performance was by a closer who wasn’t closing. Patrick Ruotolo came in after an uncharacteristically short start by Jake McCasland, and did not allow a single run, even from the two baserunners he inherited. He shut the door with two strikeouts in his first inning of work and didn’t look back. For McCasland, it was his shortest start of the year, although he’s worked primarily in relief this season. He has a 3.47 ERA as a starter, and a 4.05 ERA in relief. Garrett Williams also worked in relief, but did not escape unscathed as he gave up another run. Williams has been struggling in relief, now with a 7.00 ERA in nine relief appearances, while he had a 6.00 ERA in 14 starts.

At the plate, John Riley continues to come alive. He had his second 2-hit game in his last four. Riley has been working across three different levels, and at the Double-A level for the first time. He hit his second double at Richmond, and 9th overall in 44 games this season. Dylan Davis had Richmond’s only other extra-base hit, his 22nd of the season.

San Jose was defeated by Lake Elsinore (Padres), 3-2

Bryce Johnson had a strong game for San Jose in his second game back from injury, and he did it in the heat.

No. No thank you.

Johnson was 3-for-4, his first 3-hit game since the end of June, and also picked up his 20th steal on the season. Johnson had 25 steals in 57 games last season, but this season, he’s been far more efficient. He had a 71.4% success rate for steals in 2017 (25 in 35), while he has a 90% success rate this season (20 in 23).

Kelvin Beltre picked up his third home run of the season. The 21-year old is batting is batting just .221/.295/.314 in his debut at the California League. Jalen Miller added his 27th double of the year, but has cooled off, batting just .228/.291/.456 in 19 games in July.

On the mound, Mac Marshall made his first start in his return from injury, after a one inning relief appearance on Friday. It was another scoreless, if short, appearance for Marshall. Although he did give up a season-high in hits (4), but was effective with no walks allowed. DJ Myers worked most of the relief, with 4.2 innings scoreless innings. Unfortunately, the bullpen faltered with Nolan Riggs, who came on with no runners on and two outs in the 8th inning. He gave up a single, a double, a walk and finally a 2-run triple to blow the save and take the loss.

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Augusta defeated Charleston (Yankees), 2-1

Jose Marte put forth one of his best starts of the season, allowing just two hits and two walks while striking out 7, getting Augusta a needed win. Marte hadn’t had a scoreless outing since May 21st, but perhaps he’ll be pulling some things together now. Marte’s ERA had been as low as 2.27 as of that game, but has mostly been rising to the mid-3’s through this game. The only thing that stopped him was the rain.

With Marte handling things on the mound, Shane Matheny scored the first Augusta run with his fifth home run of the year. Matheny had not hit a home run since June 17th, and his batting average has dropped from .230 on that day down to .197 in the two months since then. Orlando Garcia added his 11th double in the 8th inning, to be singled in by Matheny. That would be the winning run.

In addition, Ryan Kirby added his 24th double of the year. Kirby’s batting average has been hanging around the .230s for most of the season, but he has consistently been getting extra-base hits, however, and has a .195 ISO, with 24 doubles and 12 home runs (and a triple).

In your nightly Heliot and Jacob watch, both went 0-for-4 with a strikeout. Gonzalez has gone hitless in his last three games, going 0-for-13 with 5 strikeouts. Ramos also has five strikeouts over his last three games, while going 2-for-14.

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Salem-Keizer defeated Spokane (Rangers), 9-6

Did Joey Bart homer? No, it’s been a week since he last did, but he’s still hitting.

The Giants’ top prospect was 2-for-3 with his 6th double of the season, and now has hits in 12 of his last 13 games. Bart is now batting .328 and slugging an amazing .731 on the season. Wander Franco (Yes, that one) hit his 9th double in a 2-hit game. He’s batting .256/.281/.430 on the season. Meanwhile, David Villar was also 2-for-4 and raised his batting average to .297 with Salem-Keizer.

Sean Hjelle had his first really difficult start, giving up a home run, walk, then another home run to the first three batters he faced. Hjelle did begin to settle down, striking out the side in the rest of the first (along with a single). He was removed after giving up a fourth hit in the second, although that was more for pitch count reasons. Hjelle reached 34 pitches, his highest pitch total in the pros this season.

Greg Jacknewitz worked the long relief outing, giving up three runs in five innings of work (although that did slightly lower his ERA from 5.72 to 5.67). Jesus Tona picked up the save, his first since July 12th and 6th of the season. He struck out the side, giving him 26 on the season. It was Tona’s first outing of just one inning in five appearances, after he’d gone two innings in each of those other appearances.

This game was the end of the first half for the Northwest League, and the Volcanoes end up 20-18 and in 3rd place in the South division. Hillsboro takes the first half title for the south division, while Everett takes it for the North.

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AZL Black defeated the AZL White Sox, 7-5

20-year old Sean Roby picked up his second home run as part of a 3-hit day in a big day for the Black squad. The 12th round pick has had three 3-hit days in his young career so far, batting .280 on the season between the two AZL teams. Joining him on the 3-hit parade is Abdiel Layer, riding his fourth multi-hit game in a row. The 40th round pick has raised his batting average from .220 to .307 over that span. Layer has two doubles in the last two days, after having gone without an extra-base hit after a 13-game span without one.

Israel Cruz picked up the start, going at least five innings for just the second time in his season, and striking out a season-high 7 for the third time on the year. Luis Amaya only gave up a walk to the six batters he faced. The 19-year old has not allowed a hit in four of the five appearances he’s made since giving up a 5-hit game.

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AZL Orange lost to the AZL Cubs 1, 6-4

Anyesber Sivira is continuing a hot streak for the Orange team. He now has five consecutive multi-hit games, after kicking it off with a 5-for-5 day. The 18-year old has raised his batting average from .173 to .301 over the five games. While going 13-for-21, he’s collected four doubles as well, giving him seven on the season. Beicker Mendoza picked up his 10th double on the year, tying his career-high from his rookie season in the DSL in 2015. Andres Angulo picked up his fourth double, one short of his career-high in 2016 in the DSL.

The Giants started Jasier Herrera, and he had a season-low three innings of work. Herrera’s ERA has jumped from 1.08 to 4.01 over his last four starts, as he’s gotten hit harder and harder. His batting average allowed has risen to .284 and has a WHIP of 1.49.

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The DSL Giants Split a Double-Header against DSL Colorado

Game 1 - The Giants were defeated, 3-1

Game 2 - The Giants won, 8-2

In Game 1, the Giants offense just ran into a buzzsaw, only garnering one hit. Game 2 saw three players get multiple hits. It was a day of opposites.

The lone hit in Game 1 came from 19-year old Martin Doria, and he was promptly picked off and caught stealing. Juan Sanchez was on the mound and had a pretty decent game. He did give up a season-high seven hits, but mostly kept the runs off the board. His ERA has been steadily rising over the last four starts, however, now at 1.77.

Game 2 saw two slumping players break out. Samuel Jorge, who had a 4-for-4 day with his first home run of the season. Jorge had gone 3-for-30 with just one walk in his nine previous games. Ghordy Santos had two doubles in a 2-for-4 day, breaking an 0-for-28 slump over his previous nine games.

Jesus Gomez made his first start of the season, going 3.2 scoreless innings, but also walking a season-high 4 batters. In his first year, the 17-year old Gomez has been working mostly as a long reliever, averaging about 2.1 innings per appearance.

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Today’s Scheduled Starters

Sacramento: Casey Kelly vs. Jake Kalish

Richmond: Taylor Hill vs. A.J. Ladwig

San Jose: Logan Webb vs. Ben Holmes

Augusta: Garrett Cave vs. Reiver Sanmartin

Salem-Keizer: TBD vs. TBD

Logan Webb is the highlight for Tuesday’s games, as the young pitcher has really made a name for himself in his return from injury this year, but Casey Kelly sometimes puts up some great starts for Sacramento.