SF Giants Minor Lines 8/13/18: Late-Season Streaks Continue

As the season winds down, and the games stop having playoff implications, it’s up to players to finish their seasons strong. A few of them kept their late runs going strong tonight.

Highlights: Heliot Ramos, Jake Wong and Heath Quinn all continue their strong streaks.

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Sacramento was defeated by Reno (Diamondbacks), 5-0

Okay, good news first: It wasn’t an entirely awful start for Tyler Herb. Sure, he had the loss, giving up a pair of runs on seven hits. But that’s a quality start, and he threw a season-high nine strikeouts with just a single walk. Herb has slowly been lowering his ERA and is on the cusp of getting under 5 as a River Cat. Herb missed May and almost all of June, and spent half of July in the AZL.

The offense was quiet, with just the rehabbing Brandon Belt to get an extra-base hit with a double. The entire offense was about former Major Leaguers, most notably Kelby Tomlinson. Goggles was 2-for-2 with a walk, extending a 14-game hitting streak that spans three minor league stints. He’s definitely keeping pressure to stay in SF rather than Sac.

Miguel Gomez picked up a hit as he tries to adapt to Triple-A. Gomez hit .286 in July, but is hitting just .195 in August. Peter Bourjos collected a pair of hits, and is 9-for-21 (.429) over his last six games.

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Richmond had a Scheduled Day Off

The Squirrels had the day off to travel up to Bowie, after having their game on Sunday suspended by rain with the score tied. It was the Squirrels last scheduled game with New Hampshire, so the Squirrels announced that the game would be made up at the end of the season if needed. The Squirrels (55-61) are 10.5 games back of first place Akron in the Western division, but New Hampshire is in first in the Eastern division, with a 3.5 game lead, so it’s possible the game will be needed. (The top 2 teams in each division moves into the playoffs.)

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San Jose was defeated by Inland Empire (Angels), 8-3

Okay, bad news first. Mac Marshall was all over the outside of the strike zone. He walked the first batter he faced, and then gave up the only hit he would…a home run. Three more walks loaded the bases, and he was relieved with two out in the first inning. His reliever, Sandro Cabrera, did not help him. Cabrera gave up a triple that piled the runs onto Marshall’s line. Other than the line that went to others, Cabrera looked okay, giving up a pair of unearned runs with four hits and two walks.

In the good news inbox, Heath Quinn continues to look good in what has been a very strong season for him. He has gotten on base multiple times in each of his last six games, including 6 walks against just three strikeouts. His OBP has climbed from .375 to .391 over that streak. Meanwhile, Johneshwy Fargas had his third straight 2-hit game. He also broke a streak were he had collected six over the last five games. It’s the first time his batting average is over .280 for the first time since May 28th.

Finally, at the end of the bullpen, Frank Rubio had another good outing. Rubio’s ERA looks awful from one huge game in early July where he gave up eight runs without getting an out. But he has allowed just one earned run in his last eight appearances (10 innings). He has 13 strikeouts against two walks and six hits in that span.

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Augusta defeated Greenville (Red Sox), 3-0

A win? A win!!!

Now that it’s August, it seems the patience with Heliot Ramos is paying off. Ramos didn’t have the most hits, but he had the biggest hit, a 2-run triple, and his hot streak continued. Ramos has a 6-game hit streak, the last three with extra bases, and he also added a walk. Ramos’ K/BB numbers will be ugly this year no matter what, but he now sits at 116 to 32.

Elsewhere in the box score, Logan Baldwin picked up a pair of doubles, giving him 17 on the season. Baldwin has had a very up and down season, and has only played in 6 games in August after slumping much of the summer, but is 7-for-19 with two doubles, a triple and a home run in this final month. Ziegler had a 2-hit day, with his 8th double at Augusta in 36 games. That nudged his OPS over .800 (.805 to be precise) in 36 games at Augusta.

The only description for starting pitcher Jose Marte’s day is “escaped”. He escaped without allowing a run despite a season-high five walks. Marte had given up five runs in each of his last two starts, so this was a welcome change. Camilo Doval continued to pad his numbers with a quiet ninth inning, striking out one without allowing a baserunner.

Finally, as a pseudo-journalist, I just want to make a request of whomever is writing headlines at the GreenJackets website…

Come on, man…you’re better than this.

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Salem-Keizer was defeated by Vancouver (Blue Jays) in 10 innings, 3-1

Let’s start with the good news once again. 3rd round pick Jake Wong continues to do strong work in short appearances. Wong has gone three innings in his last four appearances, each oth them without allowing a run. He also matched a season-high with four strikeouts without allowing a walk. In 18.1 innings, he now has 18 strikeouts against four walks. Alex DuBord followed up with his best outing, four scoreless innings (he has allowed runs in each of his last six appearances), and Trent Toplikar followed up with two scoreless innings…but unfortunately, he went out there for the tenth.

The game was scoreless through nine innings, but the tenth started off wrong as a fielding error by shortstop Nico Giarratano allowed the placed runner on second to score right away. Toplikar was unable to shut things down after that, with two singles allowing another run. The top of the inning finished as Joey Bart caught a runner stealing from first, but the runner went into a rundown, allowing the runner on third to score a final, third run.

The offense was a bit imbalanced for the Volcanoes. Joey Bart was hitless with three strikeouts, Diego Rincones was 0-for-5, and Aaron Bond was 0-for-3 with a walk. Also, there was one scary moment for Bart in the 10th…

GIANTS PLAYERS NEED TO STOP GETTING HIT WITH BASEBALLS. And other people’s knees (Sorry, Crawford.)

Half of S-K’s hits were from Christopher Burks, who had a career-high three hits. That took him off the interstate, moving him from .170 to .216 in terms of batting average.

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Both AZL Giants Teams had a Scheduled Day Off

Both teams were rained out yesterday, so its been a nice rest for the AZL squads. The Black Squad, at 9-6, are tied for 3rd and just two games back of the first place Cubs 1 squad, and are at least competitive for a playoff spot. The Orange squad at 7-8 is in 5th place, and 4 games back, although they’ve been helped with a 4-game win streak.

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The DSL Giants were defeated by the Royals2, 10-9

It took 12 games and 8 innings for 17-year old Cesar Gonzalez to hit his first professional home run. It took him one inning to hit his second. Gonzalez’s 3-hit day broke a 4-game hitless streak that spanned back to July 27th, since the 4th-string catcher plays only sporadically for the DSL team. Thanks to the sporadic playing and the sudden two home runs and now four doubles, Gonzalez briefly takes over the team OPS lead (non-qualified) at 1.066; fellow catcher Rodolfo Bone is second at .924. On the downside, Gonzalez also had two errors, a rare catcher interference and a pickoff.

Ismael Alcantara picked up a pair of doubles to get up to 10 on the season, as he bounces around a .220 batting average, as he has for the past week. Meanwhile, Luis Toribio was 0-for-4, but did collect multiple walks for the first time in nine games. Although his batting average has slipped to .267, he has a .427 on-base percentage.

Jesus Gomez took the start, just his second of the season, and it was a bit rough. He gave up four runs (two earned) on five hits and two walks, increasing his WHIP to 1.32 and average allowed to .206, the highest they’ve been since late June. But the roughest pitching like was Alvaro Ferreras, making just his fourth appearance of the year. He allowed just one hit, but he walked the bases loaded to start the inning. He gave up a single that allowed a run, and then Gonzalez picked a runner off of third. However, that’s where Gonzalez got a little too cocky, and he committed an error on another pickoff attempt in the same at-bat, which let in another run. Ferreras ended up with three runs allowed, two unearned.

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Today’s Scheduled Starters

Sacramento: Chris Stratton vs. Matt Koch

Richmond: Jake McCasland vs. Keegan Akin

San Jose: D.J. Myers vs. Erik Manoah

Augusta: TBD vs. TBD

Salem-Keizer: TBD vs. TBD

Chris Stratton is the big name among the Giants’ starters, as the former first round pick will be making his second start in his second stint in Sacramento. He struck out eight while allowing just one earned run in his last start.