SF Giants Minor Lines 5/22/19: Short, rough starts

Culby ain’t lying — it was Fright Night out there last night.

HIGHLIGHTS: Abiatal Avelino and Ryan Howard had four hits; Tyler Cyr struck out five in 2 IP; Mikey Edie had three hits and scored three runs.

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Sacramento lost to Salt Lake Bees (Angels), 9-8

Salt Lake and Sacramento traded 2nd inning haymakers — with Salt Lake pounding Dereck Rodriguez for 7 runs, and Sacramento coming back with 5 of their own — and then settled down for a fairly mild mannered game by PCL standards, in which just 5 runs total were scored the rest of the way.

An inning opening error from 1b Aramis Garcia meant that six of the seven runs Dereck Rodriguez surrendered were officially unearned. But it’s hard to draw much solace from an inning in which DRod walked three batters, threw a wild pitch, and surrendered three hits including a two-out Grand Slam. Rodriguez’ early exit in the afternoon affair unfortunately created a template for most of the organization’s starts to follow, as getting out of the 2nd inning proved a tough bar to pass (all the way up to the big league level).

Down 7-0, the RiverCats quickly hit the comeback trail, and would ultimately tie the game up before falling in the late innings. The big blow in their comeback was a 3-run homer from infielder Levi Michael.

Levi, who was the player selected immediately after Joe Panik back in 2011, is still hoping for his major league debut. Maybe this is the year, Levi!

The infield was the main driver for the offense. Besides Michael’s big swing, Sacramento got a pair of 4-hit games from SS Abiatal Avelino and 3b Ryan Howard. Avelino was coming off a big two-triple night that helped boost him up to the 2nd spot in the lineup. Howard, who has had a slow start to his AAA career in 13 games, saw his batting average jump 70 points with the big day. All eight of the pair’s hits were singles, unfortunately.

Aramis’ throwing error contributed to the nightmare inning, but he did flash some leather to help temporarily preserve the tie later on in the game.

It was a momentary stay though — Salt Lake would push ahead the run and sneak out the 1-run victory.

Some of the best news for Sacramento came off the field in the last 24 hours. First this:

and then this:

Black has missed about a month with a forearm strain.

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Richmond lost to Reading Fightin’ Phils, 9-1

Unlike the sudden calamity that undid Dereck Rodriguez last night, Garrett Williams’ downfall was the drip drip drip of a pitch count elevating higher and higher. Long counts. Foul balls. Drip drip drip. He retired the first two batters of the 2nd inning, but could just never find that third out. By the time he reached 60 pitches, Willie Harris had to come get him. He only allowed 3 earned runs, but he struggled to put batters away, allowing 5 hits, walking two and hitting a batter. He retired just 5 of the 13 batters he faced.

Another struggling pitcher at AA is minor league free agent Kieran Lovegrove who returned to Richmond last week from a two-week stay on the IL. In his second game since, Lovegrove walked four of the seven batters he faced and retired just one. The live-armed reliever has surrendered multiple runs in five of his last seven appearances and his ERA has now pushed up to 9.64. He has an underwater K/BB ratio, with 11 BBs now to 10 Ks in 14 innings of work.

On the better side of the ledger, Tyler Cyr had a terrific outing yesterday, striking out 5 of the 7 batters he faced. After missing most of last year with injury, Cyr has been looking like a future major league reliever again in 2019. He’s allowed just 3 runs this year in 12 innings with 16 strikeouts against just 3 walks and nearly a 2 to 1 ground out/fly out ratio.

Chase Johnson, who has become Garrett Williams’ piggy back partner of late, bounced back from a very rough outing last time, giving up just 1 run while stretching out to 3.1 IP. Johnson’s fastball velocity was hitting 95-96 pretty regularly last night. There are some arms with real stuff in Richmond — the Giants’ development group needs to find a way to get these players to perform at the level of their talent a little more regularly.

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San Jose lost at Modesto Nuts (Mariners), 4-1

San Jose’s six-game win streak came to an end as Jake Wong allowed 4 earned runs in 4 innings of work in his Cal League debut — congrats Jake! You had the finest start of the night!

Wong actually featured his best swing and miss stuff of the year, matching a season high with 6 strikeouts, while having his shortest outing since going just 1.2 innings back on Opening Night. He did allow some hard contact in the game though, with four of the seven hits he allowed going for extra bases. That included a two-run double in the 3rd, and back-to-back triple and double to open his 4th and final inning.

The Giants got four innings of scoreless relief from Joey Marciano, Garrett Cave (albeit with two more walks) and Camilo Doval. But the offense couldn’t pick Wong up. David Villar’s two-hit night with a double was the best line of the night. And the team really struggled to win the battle of the zone, striking out 12 times without drawing a single walk. That doesn’t look so great on the scorecard.

In addition to starter Wong, San Jose continues to pick up more newcomers. Former White Sox 1st rounder Courtney Hawkins is now a member of the lineup (contributing the team’s only other XBH yesterday). And another member of the Augusta pitching staff tagged along with Wong and Hjelle.

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Augusta beat Rome Braves, 6-5

20 year old Seth Corry has had a pretty good run of starts through May, but he struggled mightily with his control last night, throwing just 25 of 54 pitches for strikes and walking 4, ending his night after just 2 innings. He mostly averted damage however. A full count leadoff HR to start the game was the only hit he’d surrender, and despite walking three batters in a very lengthy 2nd inning, he held the line at one, striking out two of the last three batters he faced to leave the bases loaded, ending the inning and his night on a positive note.

After falling behind 3-1, Augusta came back on the strength of back-to-back two out doubles from Mikey Edie and Shane Matheny. Edie has had a slow start as Augusta’s 4th OF this year, but it was a big day for him yesterday as he picked up three hits and scored half of the team’s runs.

Augusta would tack on three more runs in the 7th thanks in part to back-to-back run scoring wild pitches. Frankie Tostado’s RBI double ended the Greenjackets scoring for the night.

Despite things getting interesting in the 9th, when Franklin Van Gurp allowed a two-out, two-run HR, the bullpen was able to hang onto the lead. Van Gurp was mostly dominant with 5 Ks in his two innings of work, though he did allow the long ball. And Sandro Cabrera pitched in with 2.2 scoreless innings and 4 Ks. Cabrera is making the tour of the system, having already pitched for San Jose and Richmond. With all the lost arms, Augusta can certainly use his veteran presence on the staff as the battle for a first half title.

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Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento (Ty Blach) vs. Salt Lake (Jose Suarez)
Richmond (Brandon Lawson) vs. Reading (Bailey Falter)
San Jose (Aaron Phillips) @ Modesto (Ian McKinney)
Augusta (TBD) vs. Rome (Alan Rangel)

As we move closer to the opening of short-season ball, the anticipation for the pro debut of the third member of the Giants prospect trifecta grows and grows. Something to help you get excited...