SF Giants Minor Lines 8/3/18: Luis Toribio hits 9th HR

We’ve teased this story a bit before here on Minor Lines, but @DaltonJ_Johnson does a great job with the long hard comeback of Ian Gardeck, another flame throwing reliever who’s hoped-for rise to the majors took a serious detour.

HIGHLIGHTS: Garrett Cave struck out 5 over 5 shutout innings; Ricardo Genoves doubled and homered; Keyberth Mejias hit the first two HRs of career.

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Sacramento lost at Memphis Redbirds (Cardinals), 7-3
losing their series, 1-2

Jordan Johnson allowed 4 earned runs in six innings — bringing his era down to 7.00. The PCL is a hard place for Pitchers, man! Since earning his promotion to AAA by posting a 3.63 ERA over 15 starts in the Eastern League, Johnson has struggled to keep his head above water in the PCL, allowing 21 earned runs so far in 27 IP. In his previous outing, JJ allowed just 1 run on 2 hits. But any thought of building on that outing vanished immediately last night in a 3-run first inning.

On top of the runs, his peripherals have really taken a hit in the step up. After striking out 77 and walking just 31 in 79 innings in AA, Johnson has walked 21 to just 22 Ks in 27 IP at the AA level. He has done a much better job this year of keeping the ball in the park — after surrendering 36 long balls in 2016-17, he’s allowed just 4 this year and only 1 so far in the PCL.

The offense scattered 10 hits among 9 players, with just one extra base hit. A two-out, two-run 9th inning single from Peter Bourjos produced most of the nights runs.

At 45-66, the RiverCats have the second worst record in the PCL. Though as I’ve noted before, the success of their season is all the productive players they’ve provided the Giants in 2018.

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Richmond’s game in Portland was rained out

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San Jose lost to Lake Elsinore Storm (Padres), 3-2

A return home did not improve the Giants’ fortunes any as they lost for the 13th time in their last 17 games.

DJ Myers has had a tough time of it in the Cal League this year, surrendering 43 earned runs in 67.2 IP. Last night was one of his better outings, with his only mistake coming on a two-run homer in the 2nd inning.

A Kelvin Beltre throwing error to open the 7th inning opened the door to Lake Elsinore’s winning run. The Giants’ offense scattered just six hits and two walks while striking out 13 times. They did have two extra base hits, both of which figured in the scoring. Gio Brusa’s drove in Jacob Heyward in the first with an RBI double. And Sandro Fabian started a game-tying rally with a double in the 4th.

That run came in to score on a perfectly placed two-out bunt single from Johneshwy Fargas.

That was all they could manage as the Giants didn’t collect a hit after the 5th inning.

Apropos of nothing, the Dodgers Cal league affiliate is 32-9 in the second half.

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Augusta lost at West Virginia Power (Pirates), 6-2

Garrett Cave had his first scoreless start since way back on June 27, throwing 5 strong innings. The power-armed right-hander allowed just two hits to the Power while striking out 5 in one of his finest efforts of the year. Cave had an excellent spring but he’s struggled in the summer months, with an ERA near 6.00 in June and July. He’s still working to find consistent mechanics and gain some command of his stuff. On the year he’s walked 57 in 87.2 IP while striking out 86. In July, he also was victimized by the long ball, giving up 4 of his 6 HRs allowed in the past month.

Relieving Cave, Tyler Schimpf found the 1-0 lead he was handed so distasteful he rid himself of it with the greatest alacrity possible. He allowed the first four batters he faced to reach base, and before his first inning of work was over 5 runs had come in in. Schimpf has now allowed 15 runs in 27.2 IP in Augusta.

As was true through much of the system last night, the bats mostly slumbered. Augusta collected six hits while striking out 10 times. Manny Geraldo’s double was their lone xbh.

Heliot Ramos took a hat trick on the night. He’s K’d 7 times in his last 19 At Bats. Jacob Gonzalez skipped his second consecutive game—possibly a day-to-day issue going there.

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Salem-Keizer won at Tri-City Dust Devils (Padres), 5-1

Not surprising: the Volcanoes starting Catcher homered.

Surprising!: it wasn’t Joey Bart.

As Bart got a day off — needs to rest up for Tuesday night’s HR derby festivities — it was Ricardo Genoves who provided the big boom with his first HR of the year. The glove minded 19 year old has struggled in the college-heavy NWL, hitting just .200/.310/.282. But he broke out last night. In addition to the solo HR, his leadoff double opened up a 4-run rally in the 3rd inning. The big blow in that rally was Aaron Bond’s two-run triple. The Volcanoes did all their damage against Tri-City All Star Pitcher, 19 year old Henry Henry.

Yes that is a great name.

LHP Sidney Duprey has allowed just 3 earned runs in 22.2 IP in relief with Salem-Keizer this year.

The Volcanoes are a game out of 1st in the very early going of the second half. They’ll finish up their five-game set in Tri-City and then hit the All Star Game break.

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AZL Giants were off

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DSL Giants lost to DSL Colorado, 11-8

The offensive stars of this game were two six-figure signings from the 2016 J2 class who have had precious little success so far in two years in the DSL. Keyberth Mejias, an 18 year-old Venezuelan Catcher, posted just a .536 OPS in 2017 and is hitting just .257 this year. Yesterday he hit his first professional HR in the 4th inning yesterday...and he enjoyed the trot so much that he hit his second HR in the 9th inning. Mejias added a Sac Fly to give him 4 RBIs for the day. That boosted his career total to 9!

Ghordy Santos signed for the Giants Fox-induced maximum bonus of $300,000 in 2016. But the quick-twitch SS has had trouble showing more than glimpses of his talents in the two seasons since, hitting just .205/.382/.304 over about 350 PA. He’s walked more (76) than he’s struck out (70), and showed flashes of power, with an Iso of .115 as a 17 year old. After scuffling for nearly two months, Santos has caught a little heat lately, going 12 for 34 with five doubles, a homer, and 5 SB over his last 10 games. That homer, along with one of the doubles came in yesterday’s game. That was Ghordy’s second career homer. Perhaps the 18 year old is finding something at the end of his second DSL season, but it’s a sign of how much he’s struggled this year, that even this hot stretch only has hit batting average up to .188.

Luis Toribio has just two hits in his last three games, but both have left the yard. That keeps him tied for the league lead (with DSL Dodgers’ Andy Pages) with 9 HRs. Toribio’s total is the most for a DSL Giant player since 19 year old Julio Pena hit 9 in his second DSL season. With one more, Toribio will become the first Giant with double digit HRs since 19 year old Rey Duran hit 11 in 2009 (in his third DSL season) and the well-remembered Sundrendy Windster (well, his name is well-remembered anyway) hit 10 in 2008. There’s no reliable info on the DSL prior to 2005 but its quite possible that Toribio could be nearing a team record.

Juan Sanchez was really knocked around in what was easily his worst effort of the year. The lefty has surrendered just 53 hits on the year (52.2 IP) and 11 of them came in less than 3 innings yesterday. Fight again another day, Juan!

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Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento: Casey Kelly vs. Chris Bassitt
Richmond: Jake McCasland and Chase Johnson vs. Dedgar Jimenez and Danile McGrath
San Jose: John Gavin vs. TBD
Augusta: Caleb Baragar vs. Domingo Robles
Salem-Keizer: Jake Wong vs. Adrian Martinez
AZL: TBD — Black plays a makeup DH, while Orange plays just one
DSL: Freddery Paulino

San Jose native John Gavin makes his San Jose debut in front of the home crowd in what must be the thrill of a lifetime. Hopefully his transition to A+ will be more Jason Bahr, and less Joey Marciano!

Speaking of the mound — mama don’t let your babies grow up to be pitchers!

And for those of you who are already casting an eye at the 2019 draft, showcase season is just kicking into high gear with the start of East Coast Pro tournament which will be quicky followed by the Area Code Games in Long Beach and Perfect Game’s All-American Classic in San Diego. Scouting never sleeps!