Hey guys, welcome back. I’m sure that today has got to be better than yesterday, so how ab-

Oh, for f’s sake….

STOP HITTING OUR GUYS WITH PITCHES!!!!

Okay, so GPT says Marco “looks to be okay”, and it seems on this one that the catcher took that harder than Marco….but still. With no injury reports in the minors, it’s likely the only news will be if guys like GPT see him in the next few days. Let’s hope.

Highlights: Mac Williams hit another home run in a 3-hit day; Logan Baldwin homered to extend a hitting streak to nine games.

---

Sacramento defeated Tacoma (Mariners), 4-3

The day off was not a rally killer. #DidMacHomer? Boy, did he…

The 3-hit day was capped off by that huge home run, his fourth of the year, which ended up being the winning run in the game. Mac is legitimately white hot, now with a 10-game hitting streak, his fourth home run in six games, and a batting line that has reached .397/.419/.655. All this is coming as there are rumors the Giants are trying to trade for an outfielder. How much will Mac have to hit to cause Zaidi to give him a chance? Mac seems determined to find out.

Meanwhile, Carl Yastrzemski is doing his thing as well. Yaz is hitting just .255, but hit his fourth double and third home runs of the year, giving him a respectable .882 batting line. Yastrzemski’s line isn’t overwhelming on a Mac level, but what is notable is that he is doing say playing a majority of games in center field, and he’s looked pretty good out there. While the 28-year old left-handed hitter has been trying to make things happen at the Triple-A level for four seasons now, if you look hard enough, you might be seeing a bench outfielder in him.

Tyler Beede had another good start. Beede is not getting too deep into games, going five innings for the third straight game, but he dipped his ERA just under 2.00 and continues a good strikeout to walk ratio at 34:10. More notable, he is not giving up a lot of hits, as he has just a .179 batting average allowed.

The bullpen was not as strong, but it held up enough to preserve the win. Most notable was Fernando Abad, who gave up his first run of the season in his eighth appearance between Double-A and Triple-A.

---

Richmond defeated Altoona (Pirates), 8-5

Richmond has struggled with it’s offensive output this season, but a couple of the hot hitters continued to come alive in this game.

Jonah Arenado extended his hit streak to six games, with his second home run of the season. Arenado’s numbers are still riding high on the back of the 4-for-4 game he had a week-and-a-half ago, but he is doing more than treading water. He now has a line of .356/.406/.525 with four walks against 11 strikeouts in 18 games.

Behind him was Chris Shaw, whose second triple now means he has more triples than doubles (one). Notably, it was Shaw’s turn to be in the lineup spot for the Squirrels. With another pair of hits, Shaw is now batting .269/.356/.481. He’s not forcing the issue to get back to into Triple-A, but he’s one hot streak away from doing that.

Meanwhile, first baseman Brock Stassi led the team’s hitters with a 3-for-4 days and a walk, and his third triple of the season. Stassi’s plate appearances have been hard to come by, as he has gotten just five of them over the previous four games. He made the most of it on Saturday, collecting his first 3-hit game of the season and his first extra-base hit since a double-header on April 20th.

The hitting helped prop up the season debut of Brandon Lawson, a 24-year old free agent signed on April 23rd after being released by the Tampa Bay Rays organization, who filled in for Alfred Gutierrez. Lawson had a 4.25 ERA in 14 appearances, mostly relief, in Double-A last season, and has been a swingman for most of his career. He went only 3.2 innings, but didn’t hurt himself with walks. His probably has always been hits allowed, however, so we’ll see what the Giants can do with him.

Chase Johnson got his second appearance in Double-A, giving up another run. He now has given up three runs in 4.1 innings. Melvin Adon got the win in relief, with two scoreless innings without giving up a hit and just one walk. He now has 12 strikeouts against seven walks in 10.2 innings.

And hey, defensive highlights! Ryan Howard was looking very good at shortstop today!

Also, props to Richmond, for posting a bunch of video highlights! This is what MiLB should want!

---

San Jose lost to Stockton (Athletics), 5-3

A few 2-hit games were unable to save the little Giants, as their losing streak hit five.

Logan Baldwin continued to at the back of the San Jose lineup, with his 2-hit game culminating with his second home run of the season. Baldwin now has a 9-game hit streak going, although most of those are 1-hit games. His batting average has jumped from .143 to .232 during the nine games. He still suffers with walks and strikeouts, with just two walks against 24 strikeouts in 19 games. He was honored with his 2018 Gold Glove before the game, so perhaps that inspired him.

Higher in the lineup was Manuel Geraldo, whose 2-hit game breaks an eight-game hitless streak. During those eight-plus games, he was 0-for-29, though he did draw seven walks. His numbers basically went in the other direction from Baldwin, going from .222 to .141 during the hitless streak, but is back to .160. Brandon Van Horn got his first 2-hit game of the season, in his fifth of the year and second at San Jose, adding his second double.

Caleb Baragar gave up a pair of runs in three innings of work in the start. It wasn’t his shortest start of the season, but also not his longest. He has 22 strikeouts against eight walks in 16.2 innings. But many of the runs happened in relief, on the record of Trevor Horn. The three runs horn gave up doubled his total on the season, and were his first in six appearances.

---

Augusta split a doubleheader with Delmarva (Orioles)

Game 1 - Delmarva 5, Augusta 1

Game 2 - Augusta 6, Delmarva 3

Let’s start at the end. On the verge of getting swept in a doubleheader, Augusta came alive in the final (7th) inning of the second game. That happened with eight batters reaching in a row to start the inning, by way of three walks, three singles, a double by Jacob Gonzalez and Aaron Bond getting hit by a pitch. Within all those baserunners came six runs that shifted the lead and would give Augusta the win. Notably, that was Delmarva’s first loss at home all season, making them 12-1 at home.

Game 2 ended up being the only game where Augusta got some real offense going, and the only one with extra-base hits. The top hitter was Ismael Mungia, batting ninth in the lineup, who went 3-for-3 with his fifth double of the year. Ironically, in Game 1 of the DH, Munguia was batting at the top of the lineup, going 1-for-4. The combination gave him a 8-game hitting streak, in which he’s batting 15-for-32 (.469).

Jose Layer combined for a 3-for-8 day between the two games, breaking a 4-game hitless streak, and hitting his first triple of the season. Layer is now batting .194 on the season, and was the leadoff hitter for Game 2. Interesting symmetry there.

Two of the GreenJackets most talented starters were in these games, and the results were decidedly rough. For Game 1, Sean Hjelle had his shortest start with three innings, but still hit a season-high with two walks and a season-low with three strikeouts. His ERA jumped from 2.75 to 3.57 from the game. In the nightcap, Blake Rivera went four innings, giving up three earned runs, and a season-low two strikeouts, as his ERA also took a jump from 3.86 to 4.60.

One small highlight on the pitching staffs was Jesus Tona, who worked the bottom half of the seventh, and struck out all three batters he faced. Tona has only given up one hit all season, with a hit batter and four walks, but has struck out 16 in 10 innings.

---

Today’s Scheduled Starters

Sacramento (Shaun Anderson) at Tacoma (TBA), 1:35 pm PDT

Richmond (Alfred Gutierrez) at Altoona (Dario Agrazal), 2:00 pm EDT

San Jose (Matt Frisbee) vs. Stockton (Edwin Jackson), 1:00 pm PDT

Augusta (Jesus Ozoria) at Delmarva (Nick Vespi), 2:05 pm EDT

An interesting matchup in San Jose. Matt Frisbee takes the hill after getting promoted from Augusta. Frisbee had a 2.81 ERA in four starts for Augusta, and was probably not the first guy any of us were thinking would be the early promotion up from Augusta.

Meanwhile, Stockton throws out Edwin Jackson. Yes, that one, the former Major Leaguer that pitched with the A’s.

I’m just going to wrap this up to mention that MiLB finally updated their app (at least for iOS). Now, it brings you amazing features like being able to click to see a box score when you’re seeing the list of scores for a league! Also, properly being able to display information if a game is rained out, or a double-header happens! Yay?

So…the much-maligned MiLB app is now finally up to at least doing what it should do, if you want to follow games on your iPhone.

That said, it’s still a poorly designed app that’s more of a shell for the websites, and the way some things are displayed (particularly stats) are just pretty awful. Plus, the app looks weak on an iPhone, and is straight garbage on the iPad, unable to rotate into landscape mode and rendering poorly.