SF Giants Minor Lines 5/27/19: Heliot’s Back!!!

Like the Balm of Gilead, word came to salve our wounds and slake our flagging desires:

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! Bring us our Heliot ‘ighlights now!

Oh yeah...that’s the stuff!

HIGHLIGHTS: Anthony Garcia had four hits and two RBI; Aramis Garcia homered for third straight game; Jake Wong allowed one run on three hits over 6 IP;

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Sacramento beat Albuquerque Isotopes (Rockies), 12-5

Goodness! What to even say about what’s been going on in Albuquerque, where the RiverCats have thrown a beat down over first three games — winning by a combined 39-18 score? The Isotopes team ERA of 6.34 is, perhaps not surprisingly, the second worst in the run-soaked PCL (Reno, also not terribly surprisingly, is the only team that “bests” them with a 6.82 team ERA). And Sacramento has lapped up ‘Topes pitching like Mother’s Milk.

Mike Gerber has hit a preposterous 6 of his 10 HRs on the year IN Albuquerque — where the team has played just six games. Gerber had an off day yesterday with just two doubles in three at bats.

But the Garcia boys — Anthony and Aramis — have laid waste to the ‘Topes so far this series. Aramis has gone 6 for 16 with a home run in each of the three games (plus a double). And after a four hit game yesterday (Aramis also has a four-hit game in the series) Anthony has gone 8 for 13 with 3 BBs, though he’s slacked a bit by only going deep twice.

Lord have mercy this is going to be a long summer in New Mexico.

Yup, you’re right Oprah — you get a homer, and you get a homer, and you get a homer! That’s now 12 homers in the series for Sacramento, which seems to be on just an extended BP session.

That just does not look like a place anybody wants to be pitching (and if you are, don’t throw it there, good sir).

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Richmond lost at Akron RubberDucks (Indians), 5-2
splitting their series, 2-2

Garrett Williams had a dazzling, snapping breaking ball working for him yesterday — far superior to his start last Wednesday night — helping him match a season high 6 Ks.

But while he had a better feel for the strike zone in this game than in some recent starts, he still battled his command enough to hurt him. Williams allowed a 3rd inning run when he issued a one-out walk and then wild pitched the batter all the way around to 3b, from whence he would score on a Sac Fly. In the 5th, a lead off walk would ultimately prove Williams’ downfall when he issued a two-out, two-run homer that would give Akron the lead for good. Williams had fallen behind three consecutive hitters 2-0 before finally giving up the blow that hurt. You just can’t put yourself in hitters counts regularly and expect to live to tell the tale.

And yet, look at the beauty he breaks off versus rehabbing Tyler Naquin, and then the lively fastball to finish him off.

The Squirrels, attempting to take three of four on the road, just couldn’t get much started with the bats in this Memorial Day afternoon affair. Their first two hitters, Jacob Heyward and Chris Shaw each took a hat trick, and along with Jalen Miller’s 0 for 4 they failed to have a single one of their 1-2-3 hitters reach base on the day. Tough way to compete.

Only Gio Brusa was really swinging it, as the switch-hitting slugger picked up two hits including his 3rd homer in just 18 games with Richmond (and 6th overall this year).

Brusa did add a couple of strikeouts, however, and now has a 20 K to 4 BB ratio in the Eastern League in just 50 AB. The Giants have struggled to find a defensive position for Brusa and the strikeouts remain an issue, but he can put some juice into the ball when he makes contact.

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San Jose beat Lancaster JetHawks (Rockies), 2-1

In a doubly odd bit of scheduling, San Jose came home on Memorial Day to face Lancaster for the first time all year in what is just a three-game homestand before they hit the road again. They put on a nice show for the home crowd, however, particularly 2018 3rd round pick Jake Wong who was making his San Jose home debut.

Wong isn’t piling up flashy strikeout totals for sure, but he is cruising through a lot of easy outs with his hard sinking fastball and occasional breaker.

Though Lancaster started to get some better swings off of him through the middle innings, he surrendered just a solo HR and as Joe notes above, he finished strong.

All of San Jose’s scoring came in the bottom of the 5th. After Kyle McPherson led off with his 2nd homer of the season, Randy Norris would come through with a two-out double to score Bryce Johnson with the ultimate winning run.

That hit could have brought home two runs, however, Zander Clarke had been thrown out earlier in the inning trying to stretch a single. That continued an unfortunate theme for the Giants in the game, as they were YOLOing away outs on the basepaths with reckless abandon. They ran their way into inning-ending double plays in two consecutive innings, including this extraordinary piece of TOOTBLANery

Ramos went 1 for 4 in his return with a single and made several running grabs in CF moving pretty well.

And, in other post-injury news:

After losing eight consecutive games at Excite earlier this month, San Jose now has a seven game winning streak going at home. Overall, the Giants have won 12 of their past 18 games.

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Augusta lost to Greenville Drive (Red Sox), 6-4

20 year old LHP Seth Corry had a run of encouraging starts over the last month where he looked to be getting in better sync and finding the strike zone more often. But in his last two efforts he’s back into a funk. After hitting the 82 pitch mark yesterday he was pulled at just 3.1 innings having walked 5 and allowed 3 runs on 3 hits. Corry has pitched just 5.1 IP in his last two starts and walked 9 batters (against 6 Ks) while throwing strikes with just 69 of his 136 offerings.

It’s a long slow climb for the Utah prepster: two steps forward, one step back. Though a tremendous athlete, so far in his (still quite short) pro career he hasn’t found the key to translate his athleticism into control of mechanics. But he’s still growing into his body and still finding out what he’s capable of. Get ‘em next time, Seth.

Augusta managed just four hits in the game, but they got a lot of bang for their bucks by knocking a couple of them over the fence. Frankie Tostado broke up a perfect game leading off the 5th inning with his team leading 7th HR (and first since May 14), a high fly ball to the opposite field. According to play by play man Rylan Kobre, Tostado is hitting the ball the opposite way just over 45% of the time this year.

Tostado would also single home the Greenjackets final run. In between they got a two-run shot from veteran Shane Matheny to help keep them close. The game was ultimately decided when Boston’s #5 prospect Triston Casas (conceivably an excellent trade chip come July) took Preston White deep for a two-run shot in the top of the 8th.

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Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento (Ty Blach) @ Albuquerque (Peter Lambert)
Richmond (Brandon Lawson) vs. Binghamton (Harol Gonzalez)
San Jose (John Gavin) vs. Lancaster (Will Gaddis)
Augusta (Keith Weisenberg) vs. Greenville (Chris Machemer)

Sacramento tries to continue their assault on Albuquerque pitching by taking on Colorado’s #3 prospect Lambert while the rest of the system enjoys the comforts of home.

Heliot Ramos is back on the field. Soon Joey Bart will be too. In a week they’ll have another top 10 draftee to become acquainted with, and in less than a month Marco Luciano will make his pro debut. Hope awakens. Memory mixed with desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.

And, of course, before we go: Congratulations to the 4th (Mike Yastrzemski) and 5th (Sam Coonrod) Giants’ major league debuts of 2019. All the years of sweat and effort has led you to this. I hope it was sweet sweet satisfaction for you both!