SF Giants Minor Lines 5/6/19: Mac homers 3 times!

Mac Williamson went OFF last night, crushing three home runs including possibly the furthest shot we’ve ever seen:

WOWZA! Mr. Zaidi, I humbly request one Big Mac in Coors Field please.

HIGHLIGHTS: Mac!!!! Also Austin Slater went deep twice among three hits.

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Sacramento beat Reno Aces (Diamondbacks), 12-6
splitting their series 2-2

The low-laced, major league balls were flying out Raley Field last night, as the RiverCats pummeled Reno on the strength of seven home runs. That included one stretch of back-to-back-to-back when Yaz (7), Austin Slater (5) and Williamson went off in a row. Even light-hitting SS Brandon Van Horn got in on the act with his first HR of the year (Van Horn has played 12 games at three different levels).

Sacramento actually trailed this game 4-0 after the top of the 1st inning and 6-2 after the 2nd, but that was no match for the fusillade that was to follow. Want to see all 7 home runs in one place? Good friend GPT has us covered! (though his math skills need some work)

Time for some crowd sourcing! Mac’s feat was, I believe, the third time a Sacramento player had performed the trifecta (in the Giants’ affiliation with that franchise), following Adam Duvall in 2015 and Jarrett Parker in 2016. Current minor league coach Thomas Neal had a 3 HR game in I think Richmond’s inaugural season in the organization. Are there any others we can think of this decade? Might need to check with Joe Ritzo to see if any San Jose players have accomplished this. Nothing’s coming to mind quite this early in the morning!

Mac’s huge night nearly makes me forget to mention Austin Slater, who had 3 hits including his 4th and 5th HRs of the season.

What a night! Gimme some Mac!!! Admittedly, the PCL is clown-ball central this year and we’ve seen how fast that AAA helium can deflate with Mike Gerber’s weekend. But Mac is now up to 9 HRs with a cool 1.215 OPS and that’s got to be close to forcing the issue.

UPDATE: Alex Pavlovic is now reporting Mac will join the Giants in Denver.

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Richmond lost to Trenton Thunder (Yankees), 3-2

And now for the bummer news of the night — starter Garrett Williams summoned the trainer to the mound while warming up for the 2nd inning and left the game abruptly.

In an organization that was already stretched mighty thin just to cover minor league innings this is a real blow. No wonder they picked up Andrew Moore this week! Williams wasn’t having a particularly good year but with so few legitimate pitching prospects in the system, you hate to see another one go down, following Gregory Santos, Jose Marte, Andrew Suarez...

The unexpected absence of a starter left the Richmond pen scrambling. Minor league teams follow strict orders from above on who can pitch on any given night and how many innings they can go — this is the biggest reason why the extra innings rules were implemented in the minors. So after asking the pen to cover 7 innings on the night Richmond was reduced to sending Catcher Matt Winn to the mound in the 9th in a 2-2 game. Winn surrendered Trenton’s third solo HR of the night to send the Squirrels to defeat.

Prior to that, the suddenly red-hot Heath Quinn stretched his consecutive streak of games reaching base safely to 13. Quinn picked up two more hits including an RBI single to help keep the Squirrels in the game. He has hits in five straight games — including a PH HR appearance — and 9 of his last 10 games, boosting the ol’ OPS up to .639.

Jalen Miller picked up two more hits AND stole two more bases. That gives the 2b 9 SB for the year — could he be in the running for a 20/20 season? THAT would be an accomplishment we haven’t seen much in these parts!

And before we leave: Congrats to Jacob Heyward for being named Eastern League Player of the Week. And if you want a great read on the developments that have taken Heyward there, check out the following piece from Squirrels broadcaster Jake Eisenberg. Heyward is following a path that is very likely to result in success and catch the front office’s eye — he’s refusing to chase bad pitches.

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San Jose took the night off to think about what they’ve done

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Augusta lost to Hagerstown Suns (Nationals), 7-6
losing their series, 1-3

Augusta came back from a 4-run deficit with a 5-run 5th inning, but ultimately succumbed anyway when closer superb Jesus Tona allowed his first runs of the year — two in the 8th to tie the game, and one more in the 9th to lose it.

Seth Corry was once again mercurial, missing lots of bats but also getting himself into jams with walks and poor play on the field. Corry, who has admitted to issues with mound maturity, made a real mess for himself in the 3rd inning when he committed fielding errors on back to back sacrifice bunts, and then couldn’t get to a third bunt at all. That put him in a bases loaded jam which he came close to getting out of thanks to this nifty breaking ball that garnered him one of 7 Ks on the night.

But Suns slugging 1b Omar Meregildo came through with a booming 2-out double off the CF wall to clear the bases and put the Greenjackets in a hole. Meregildo wasn’t done with his damage for the night either, as his solo HR to lead off the 8th started Tona’s rough night.

The game was a sloppy one, as a total of 8 unearned runs were scored by the two teams. Hagerstown’s four errors on the night played a key role in the Augusta’s 5-run uprising, which was punctuated by two-run doubles from both Wander Franco and Nico Giarratano.

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Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento (Yoanys Quiala) vs. Fresno (Kyle McGowin)
Richmond (Brandon Lawson) vs. Trenton (Albert Abreu)
San Jose (Trent Toplikar) at Modesto (TBD)
Augusta: OFF

As noted above, the pitching prospects are getting fewer and further between for a system that is really bereft of arms right now. These kind of All Org Guy slates are going to be frustratingly common (especially when Augusta is off).

On the other side of the coin, Richmond is going to have their hands full the next two nights, as they’ll be going up against two of the better pitching prospects in the game.

Great opportunity for Heyward, Miller, Quinn at all to show something!

I’ll leave you with this little doozy of a play from the Texas League, which is definitely going to be in the running for Minor League Plays of the Year.