SF Giants Minor Lines 4/30/19: Hey, Look, Mac Is Crushing AAA

News! Someone’s getting called up from Sacramento!

Not who you were thinking, huh?

Highlights: Mac Williamson is giving Farhan Zaidi and KNBR Sportstalk hosts headaches; Ryan Howard had a 3-hit game; Jake Wong gave up no hits in six innings of work.

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Sacramento pounded Albuquerque (Rockies), 17-7

So, Mac Williamson…

In Albuquerque, at an altitude similar to Denver, Mac Williamson prompted a lot of talk with yet another big day. Two home runs, and even rarer, two walks, and his first stolen base of the season. Williamson took two walks on a day that the River Cats only drew five walks…and two came from a pitcher who came in after Mac left. The two walks doubled Williamson’s walk total, and now has 19 strikeouts against four walks.

Williamson was 0-for-5 over his last two games (one he did not start), but he continues to tear through the Pacific Coast League. He is batting .379/.417/.697 with six home runs and three doubles. Williamson’s 1.114 OPS is 9th in the PCL, and though his 6 home runs are tied for 17th in the league (shared by 11 players), he has played significantly less games than many of those who have more home runs. With the Giants losing big to the Dodgers, you could find tweets asking why the Giants aren’t bringing him up.

Yeah, like anyone’s going to subscribe to logic, GPT...come on, it’s Twitter.

Of course, in a huge win, it’s not just one player who contributed. Stephen Vogt hit his second home run in three games, and now has four on the season. He’s batting .241 on the season now, which gets him the chance to get back to the majors. Mike Gerber also hit his second home run in as many games, giving him five on the season. Gerber has a .324/.378/.608 batting line over 19 games. Aramis Garcia didn’t didn’t get a home run, but picked up his first multi-hit game since April 11th with his first double since April 16th. He’s batting .222 with a .333 OBP and a .476 slugging percentage. Abiatal Avelino got his second triple of the season, and now is 5-for-9 over the last two games.

Taking the start in Colorado-like conditions was Enderson Franco. Predictably, it wasn’t a great start for Franco, with most of the damage coming in one inning. Franco now has a 6.20 ERA after the rough start. The only reliever to not be scored upon was Olbis Parra, making his Triple-A debut. Parra had a 5.54 ERA in eight relief appearances in San Jose, although last season he had a 2.12 ERA mostly in Augusta (with two scoreless appearances in Richmond). Parra struck out four in two innings, though he also had two walks.

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Richmond lost to Bowie (Orioles), 6-4

Ryan Howard led the day for the Squirrels, and hopefully that means he’ll be waking up offensively.

Howard collected his first 3-hit game of the season, breaking a bit an extended cool streak. He was 3-for-30 over a 9-game streak. His batting line sits at a sub-career .217/.353/.319, which has cooled a lot of the spring talk about his future. Hopefully he’s going to wake up offensively after this game.

Meanwhile, Jonah Arenado picked up a 2-hit game himself, and got his third double of the season. Arenado is batting .348/.400/.507 on the season now, with three doubles, a triple and two home runs, well above his career averages on all those numbers. Chris Shaw also added to his home run total, with a leadoff home run as he returned to the leadoff spot.

Conner Menez had his first really subpar start of the season, giving up season-highs in hits and walks and a low in strikeouts. Menez still has a 31-to-9 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and only a .200 batting average allowed. However, all seven of the runs he’s given up this season have come over his last three starts, so he’s trending in the wrong direction.

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San Jose was defeated by Inland Empire (Angels), 3-2

You might be surprised to find out that the San Jose Giants were one-hit in this game, and even drew just one walk. But hey, both runners scored, so I can compliment the efficiency here.

The one walk was by catcher-playing-first base John Riley, coming in the fifth inning. Meanwhile, catcher Ronnie Freeman got the team’s one hit, a home run to score both runs. It was Freeman’s second home run in as many games played. Freeman has only played four games for San Jose, coming in to play after Joey Bart got injured. The 28-year old has a hit in each of his games, and has a batting line of .357/.357/.857.

On the mound, DJ Myers led a gaggle of San Jose pitchers who got on the mound. Myers threw three innings, as he did four of his last five appearances (the other he went 3.2). He gave up two earned runs for the third straight time, though he did walk a season-high four, and struck out two.

Cooper Casad made his second appearance of the season, keeping the 66ers off the board. Frank Rubio also put in another outing without allowing anyone to score. He now has 22 strikeouts to four walks in 16.1 innings. Trevor Horn gave up the game-winning run at the end of the game, and has given up four runs over his last two seasons.

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Augusta beat Lexington (Royals), 5-1

The top story of this game definitely is Jake Wong’s best start of the young season.

Wong didn’t give up a single hit after giving up a season-high nine hits in his last start. He matched that with a season-high strikeouts. Right now, only his strikeout rate is not looking good. He has 22 in 22.2 innings of work, against six walks. But he also has only 17 hits allowed, which comes out to a .207 average allowed and a 1.01 WHIP. After a rough first start of the season, Wong has been looking better in almost every start.

At the plate, Jacob Gonzalez led the way with a pair of extra-base hits. He hit his sixth double and first triple of the season, collecting two RBI in the GreenJackets win. He also added his ninth error of the season, so wasn’t all great. But Gonzalez is still showing improvement in one big area. He has 14 walks and 12 strikeouts on the season, and has a .393 OBP above his .246 batting average.

Ismael Munguia extended his hit-streak to ten games, and his third multi-hit game in a row. He has seven multi-hit games in the streak, raising his batting average from .237 to .354. Jose Layer added his third double of the season as he inches back up to the Mendoza Line.

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Today’s Scheduled Starters

Sacramento (Yoanys Quiala) at Albuquerque (Nelson Gonzalez)

Richmond (Garrett Williams) at Bowie (Hunter Harvey)

San Jose (Trenton Toplikar) at Inland Empire (Oliver Ortega)

Augusta (Seth Corry) vs. Lexington (Austin Cox)

Let’s wrap this up with some nice thoughts about how the young Giants’ pitching is doing.

Not bad at all!.