SF Giants Minor Lines 8/2/18: 20 Runs

What is going on here exactly?

HIGHLIGHTS: Dylan Davis had three doubles among four hits; Jonah Arenado, Manuel Geraldo and Jean Peña had three hits.

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Sacramento lost at Memphis Redbirds (Cardinals), 3-0

Sacramento managed just three singles in this game — one of them coming from starting pitcher Tyler Herb. They added a walk to their offensive totals, but also struck out 10 times against Memphis starter Jake Woodford and his mates. Woodford is the Cardinals #18 prospect. The Ks were extremely well shared across the lineup, as only Peter Bourjos and Orlando Calixte had more than one and they only had two apiece.

The RiverCats got 7 innings of effective pitching of their own from a couple of right-handers who have spent the majority of 2018 on the DL. Tyler Herb was making his third start since re-joining Sacramento, while Robert Gomez inning of relief was his first appearance in AAA since waaaay back on April 21.

Again, what exactly goes on in Memphis?

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Richmond won at New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Blue Jays), 20-8
losing their series 1-2

With two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the 1st inning, starter Conner Menez ran into a bit of a buzz saw — walk, single, double, HB, triple, single, double. By the time the 1st inning was over, the Squirrels were down big again: 5-0.

As it happened, they had a response for this! And more response and more response yet! TWENTY RUNS!

Richmond began their comeback almost immediately with a four-run 2nd inning. They took the lead with three-run rallies in both the 4th and 5th. Padded things a bit with solo runs in the 7th and 8th. And then really exploded with an 8-run 9th that ended with New Hampshire backup C Ryan Hissey getting the final three outs (though it was an actual Pitcher who took most of the damage).

Bo Bichette and Cavan Biggio, who combined to bludgeon Richmond on Wednesday, this time teamed up to help them along, as the middle infield duo committed three errors int he 2nd and 4th inning rallies to help the comeback.

Dylan Davis really had the whomping stick going. The LF bashed out three doubles among his four hits for the day. The 2014 3rd round pick has had a rough go of it in AA as he’s hitting just .251/.294/.422 in his second attempt at the Eastern League.

Jonah Arenado, who came into the series hitting .191, ended up with seven hits in the three games, though six of them were singles. His OPS for the year is just .575

An astounding 61 runs were scored in the three run series, most of them by the Fisher Cats. It was nice that Richmond got to share in all of the fun before leaving the state.

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San Jose lost at Visalia Rawhide (Diamondbacks), 7-1
losing their series, 1-2

Once again, San Jose had a chance last night to end a streak of futility that stretches back to April of 2013. Did they do it?

They did not. The Giants scored a run to take a brief lead in the top of the first and then rarely threatened to score again. In the 5th inning Bryce Johnson singled and stole 2b. In the 7th inning Sandro Fabian doubled and advanced to 3b, and while he was on base Bryce Johnson walked and stole 2b again. That was it for base-runners who passed 1b on the night.

But about those Bryce Johnson SB:

Quite a stretch the speedy switch-hitter has going. Though San Jose is just third in the league in team SBs, they do have the league’s top base-stealing pair as Johnson and Johneshwy Fargas have now combined to thieve 59 bases this year.

LHP Mac Marshall pitched into the 5th inning for the first time this year in this game. The 5th turned out to be a crucial point in the game as Marshall failed to retire any of the three batters he faced to open the inning and all three would come around to score to make it a 5-1 lead.

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Augusta won at West Virginia Power (Pirates), 2-1

Most of Augusta’s original rotation that dominated the Sally league for much of the spring have gone on to other places now. Jason Bahr to the Rangers, and Joey Marciano and John Gavin moved up to San Jose (though Marciano is now on the DL). So Augusta is finding new arms to make do with.

Yesterday they turned to 2017 NWL All Star Stetson Woods, and he once again showed the form that got him that honor. The über-tall Woods shut off the Power for 5 shutout innings, striking out 7.

That almost wasn’t good enough as the Greenjackets weren’t having much success themselves with West Virginia starter Travis MacGregor. But in the 5th inning Orlando Garcia unloaded his 6th home run of the season to break the scoreless tie. And in the 6th, Malique Ziegler doubled and came around to score on an Heliot Ramos Sac Fly.

From there the bullpen hung on for dear life and took the low-scoring Game 1 victory.

Short games give us extra time for reading. Would you like to get to know Augusta’s manager Jolbert Cabrera a little better? Of course, you would!

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Salem-Keizer won at Tri-City Dust Devils (Padres), 6-4

Aaron Bond blasted his 4th HR since joining Salem-Keizer, breaking a 4-4 tie with two outs in the 8th inning, and the Volcanoes went on to pick up a 6-4 win. Bond is hitting just .275 in his 20 games with Salem-Keizer, but he’s hit for power with 9 extra base hits (among 22 overall), good for a .513 SLG.

The Volcanoes lead the league in HRs with 52 in just 48 games. They also lead in Runs, RBIs, Total Bases, Batting Average, OBP, and SLG. Their offense has been so dominant that they have nearly 100 more total bases than the second best squad in the league. Interestingly, given how much they’ve bashed the ball, they are next to last in the league in drawing walks — you’d think pitchers might want to pitch around some of those power bats a little more carefully.

2nd round pick Sean Hjelle threw a perfect two innings to start things, but let’s talk a little more about the guy who ended it. Let us now sing the praises of converted Catcher Jesus Tona, who has dominated the NWL this year at the back of the Volcanoes bullpen. Tona has been pretty close to perfect. He’s allowed just one earned run on the year and just three runs in all. He’s allowed one HR, which accounted for two/thirds of his runs allowed on the year. Meanwhile, he’s struck out 31 batters in 21.1 IP, walked just six, has a miniscule WHIP of 0.89 and league batters are hitting just .178 against him.

The former backstop is a squat guy at just 5’10”, but the Giants have to love what they’ve seen from the convert so far this year. Hard-throwing relievers can move fast sometimes!

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AZL Giants Black and Orange were Postponed by Rain and Lightning

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DSL Giants beat DSL Royals2, 7-4

Iron Man Sonny had his best outing as a pro, setting a career high with 7 Ks while matching his longest outing. He allowed just two hits and one unearned run.

Helping to support Vargas, Jean Pena had his best game in more than a month, picking up three hits including a double. Pena had seven extra base hits in the first two weeks of the season and 10 in the month of June, but has just three since then. He hit just .150/.340/.225 in July.

Richgelon Juliana’s season has taken an opposite tack. He was hitting just .185 after two weeks of the season, but after three hits yesterday he’s up to his highest batting average (.291), OBP (.410) and OPS (.893) of the season as of today.

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Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento: Jordan Johnson vs. Austin Warner
Richmond: Jake McCasland vs. Dedgar Jimenez
San Jose: DJ Myers vs. TBD
Augusta: Garrett Cave vs. Max Kranick
Salem-Keizer: TBD vs. Henry Henry
AZL: OFF
DSL: Juan Sanchez vs. TBD

We’ve made it to Friday night! (well, almost). Time to slow down, relax, and enjoy the view.