SF Giants Minor Lines 4/4/19

Everything I know I learned from the movies, so I know that slow motion montages are THE best way to build suspense and anticipation...

It’s TIME FOR SOME MINOR LINES!

HIGHLIGHTS: Joey Bart drove in 2 on 2 hits and a walk; Sean Hjelle struck out 5 batters in 4 IP; Ramos brothers combined for 4 hits, 2 doubles and a SB; Jacob Gonzalez hit his first HR.

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Sacramento beat Tacoma Rainiers (Mariners), 5-4 in 11 innings

First walk off of the year thrills the Opening Night crowd at Raley Field as the RiverCats came back twice in the final three innings to take the win.

Sacramento doubled their way to victory in the late innings. Down 3-1 in the 9th, Mike Yastrzemski tied it up doubling in two runs in the 9th. Yaz’ double drove in Aramis Garcia and Breyvic Valera who would then team up on another comeback in the 11th.

After a scoreless 10th, Tacoma brought home the free extra innings runner in the 11th. But it took Sacramento just two pitches to end it in the bottom of the frame. Garcia lined a ball down the LF line to bring in freebie Henry Ramos and Valera immediately followed with the winner.

Sacramento used seven pitchers to get through the night, including a three strikeout performance from Williams Jerez who came over in the Chris Stratton deal. Jerez was one of an incredible EIGHT Rivercats who made their official organizational debut in the game.

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Richmond beat Hartford Yard Goats (Rockies), 1-0

Logan Webb had a complicated relationship with the strike zone in his 2019 debut. The big right hander issued five free passes and pitched out of the stretch all night. But he was hard to hit in the zone, and got four batters to go down swinging. He loaded the bases with two outs in the 1st but got out of trouble with a weak ground ball. Despite walking a batter in each of the next four frames he never again faced a batter with a runner in scoring position.

Richmond hitters, on the other hand would spend most of the night trying to come through with runners in scoring position, and mostly failing. The Squirrels went just 1 for 11 in RISP situations and that one hit didn’t drive in a run. The game’s lone run scored when Jalen Miller grounded into a double play, scoring Dylan Davis who had opened the 5th with a PH double.

Johneshwy Fargas had an excellent day, roping a double, bunting for a base hit and making a fine diving catch in support of Webb in the 3rd inning.

Hartford batters actually got some good swings off on Adon in his AA debut. But Tyler Nevin certainly didn’t seem to be enamored of the sight of his power stuff.

Melvin Adon worked through two base runners to protect the 1-0 lead in the 8th. And then Sam Wolff had a hair raising save, Wild Pitching the tying run to 3b with 1 out, before striking out the final two batters of the game to preserve the win.

It was Richmond’s fifth consecutive victory in a home opener and the Squirrels are now 8-2 all time in their openers. Try and keep the good times rolling this year!

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San Jose won at Visalia Rawhide (Diamondbacks) 7-3

San Jose got the prestige treatment as NBCSAuthentic sent a team down to Visalia to cover Joey Bart and Heliot Ramos in the opener. Perhaps it was all the press attention that helped turn San Jose’s private torture chamber — Visalia’s Recreation Park — into a festive atmosphere and a solid win.

San Jose pitchers struck out 16 Rawhide batters including 9 batters from the 5th through 8th innings from DJ Myers and winning pitcher Raffi Vizcaino.

But it was the power tandem of Joey Bart and Heliot Ramos that the people thronged to see and the pair had cameras on their every move all night.

Bart lined two RBI singles, bringing in Ramos with the second of those to start a four run uprising in the 5th inning.

Heliot was robbed of extra bases in the 3rd inning by a great catch in deep CF, but picked up his first RBI of the season on the Sac Fly. He would get his first hit (and extra base hit) later as well as his first SB of the season.

And perhaps most importantly for both of the young sluggers in our new era of Giants development, they each walked and collectively had just one strike out. Loud contact? Check! Disciplined approach? Check! Nice way to start the year for the Dynamic Duo!

Returning Giant Bryce Johnson also picked up two hits and a SB. And 2b Kyle McPherson, who had a quietly excellent year at Salem-Keizer last summer had two hits including a double. The 26th rounder out of James Madison U has a career .302/.357/.478 line over his first 100 games (nearly all in short season ball).

But you probably just came here for the Bart highlights, didn’t you?

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Augusta won at Asheville Tourists (Rockies), 9-5

As is tradition, the Greenjackets opened up on the road as their eponymous golf tournament chases them out of town for the first week of the year. (Yes this lede was devised solely to give me the chance to use the word “eponymous” in a sentence. Thank you very much.)

Sean Hjelle gave Augusta a solid 4 innings, striking out 5 and pounding the strike zone with his sinking fastball. He allowed six hits, though none were particularly hard hit. A bloop here, a bloop there. Andres Angulo’s catcher’s interference played a key role in the one run that Hjelle allowed. But he pitched from the stretch pretty consistently and after hitting 65 pitches his night was done. But not before inspiring many many more of these thoughts from our one time overlord:

Augusta went from the long end of the staff to the short when 5’10” former catcher Jesus Tona came on in relief, but he too was missing bats, striking out 4 over 2 innings.

Diego Rincones collected three hits in his full season debut, though none was blistered. The loudest at bat of the night came from Jacob Gonzalez. In the 2nd Gonzalez first turned on a 2-0 fastball and jerking it far into the trees behind the left field fence but well foul. But later in the at bat he found another offering to his liking and crushed a ball over the batter’s eye in CF for the first Giants prospect HR of the year. Gonzalez also walked twice in the game.

Gonzalez’ fellow returnee Shane Matheny also had a fine night with two doubles, including a bases loaded shot off the wall that keyed their three-run rally in the 3rd. Matheny added a walk.

In all, the Greenjackets benefitted from 7 walks which I’m just going to assume would have been a season high on last year’s team by a good stretch. They added 11 hits, including four for extra bases.

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Well that would be a clean slate, wouldn’t it? Four games, four victories. Nice way to start the year for our boys. A tip of the cap, er... caps!

Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento: Tyler Beede vs. Tommy Milone
Richmond: Conner Menez vs. TBD
San Jose: John Gavin vs. TBD
Augusta: Gregory Santos vs. Ryan Rolison

The Giants and Rockies #7 prospects (by Baseball America) go head to head in Asheville as 19 year old Gregory Santos gets his full season debut going up against 20 year old Rolison, the Rox 1st round pick last June. Should be a fun matchup. Meanwhile, Tyler Beede hopes to build on his strong spring and get that sour 2018 taste out of his mouth. While newly minted 40 man member Conner Menez would like to keep the 2018 vibes rolling (at least the strikeout parts, not so much the high ERAs).

Enjoy the 2019 season everybody. It looks fine from here.