SF Giants Minor Lines 6/12/19: No no-no

Draft signings updates are starting to pour in. Mostly from the lower reaches but 3rd rounder Grant McCray is also among the early signings and should start play soon in the AZL. The full list so far:

Also, ICYMI, for your reading pleasure, an excellent story on a couple of players in the org with major league bloodlines:

HIGHLIGHTS: Zach Green reached base four times with two home runs; Blake Rivera threw 6 shutout innings with 7 Ks.

---

Sacramento beat Omaha Storm Chasers (Royals), 5-4

Zach Green slugged the RiverCats to a comeback victory, homering in consecutive innings to help Sacramento come back from a 4-0 deficit to take the opener of their series against the Storm Chasers. Green was perfect at the plate on the night, walking in his first two plate appearances before launching a solo homer in the 7th.

That broke up a shutout bid by the StormChasers, but Sacramento still trailed 4-1 heading into the bottom of the 8th. A walk and back to back singles then set up Green for some real hero work:

That’s 11 homers in just 36 games played now for Green, who has seen time on the IL this season. Depending on how the roster games shake out over the next six weeks he could see some big league time this year. Power plays!

Of course, Green’s heroics wouldn’t have been possible without more stalwart work from the bullpen. Travis Bergen — whose rehab assignment has moved up from San Jose — Ray Black, Sam Selman, and Jandale Gustave were near perfect over 4 innings, facing just two batters over the minimum from the 6th inning on (walks from Bergen and Selman). The Sacramento bullpen has been a strength of this team all season, and a source of potential power for the Giants relief corp before season’s end:

Of course, even power pitchers can still use a little help from their friends:

Having gone 7-3 over their last 10 games the RiverCats have surged into 1st place in their division — a view of the standings they have had for many a year (perhaps many enough to go back to their A’s heritage). Can they keep it up, even as their talent keeps heading westward on I-80? AAA is the last bastion of a full season schedule that isn’t broken up into halves, so there’s still a long way to go to answer that question.

---

Richmond beat Harrisburg Senators (Nationals), 1-0 10 inn

When Johneshwy Fargas grounded out to end the bottom of the 9th, the Squirrels ended 9 innings of baseball without managing a single hit. Nationals #20 prospect Ben Braymer had been nearly perfect over 8 innings, allowing just a single baserunner on a walk, while striking out 7, and and reliever Bryan Bonnel kept things rolling with a hitless 9th. Such an ignominious feat is normally known by the sobriquet: “No Hitter.” But Richmond pitchers Garrett Williams, Tyler Cyr, and Melvin Adon had allowed just two hits of their own, and despite 7 free passes in the game, they had held the Senators scoreless as well.

So on to the 10th they went, giving Richmond an extra chance to gain their first hist. And as it turned out, one hit was all they would need.

Garrett Williams had his second consecutive scoreless outing, and he’s allowed just 2 runs 16.1 innings while striking out 18. He’s continued to struggle with his control in that time — walking 13 over that time — but he’s shown a better feel for his signature curve which he’s been able to go to pretty consistently in his last two starts to escape trouble.

Fine tune that fastball command, Garrett!

And, speaking of fine tuning the fastball command...

Walk-offs are always delirious fun, though it must be said this team now has just four hits in it’s last two games — three of them from Jalen Miller. This is probably not a sustainable model of success, so perhaps more offense in the future! Still for one night, the non-no-no left everybody satisfied (well, everyone on the Richmond side anyway)

---

San Jose lost to Visalia Rawhide (Diamondsbacks), 9-8 in Gm 1

San Jose lost to Visalia Rawhide, 1-0 in Gm 2 (7 inn)

San Jose vs. Visalia always seems to be a recipe for disaster for San Jose and 2019 isn’t shaping up to be any different. The Giants and Rawhide played an odd double header, with Visalia being the “home team” in Game 1, a resumption of a suspended affair back on May 26. In an odd twist, the starter on May 26 was Matt Frisbee whose spot in the rotation was up again yesterday. Consequently, Frisbee managed an 8 inning complete game yesterday, despite throwing just 6 innings.

With San Jose needing to absorb a lot of innings, the first game seemed to be Frisbee’s to handle no matter what. He pitched through a 6 inning rally in the 4th that tied the game at 6-6 — all six runs were unearned after catcher Fabian Peña committed an error on a throw to 1b on a strikeout. And after all that, Frisbee was still on the mound trying to protect a 1-run lead in the 8th. Anfernee Grier, who had hit a 2-run homer against Frisbee in the 6-run 4th, tormented him again with an RBI double that scored the ultimate winning run.

So there you have it — your garden variety 8 inning CG surrendering 9 runs accomplished over three weeks time. Oh and Frisbee also matched his career high in strikeouts with 10. Was this a good game for Matt, or a bad game? I’m confused.

After the fireworks of game 1, the two teams seemed to be all drama’d out, and they played a rather desultory game 2. San Jose managed just two hits — one of them a Joey Bart infield single — in dropping the nightcap, 1-0.

Peter Maris had three hits on the day to lead San Jose, while David Villar stroked his 3rd HR in the opener.

---

Augusta won at Lexington Legends (Royals), 3-0

Blake Rivera’s full season debut seems to be shifting into a new gear. Throughout April and May he was piling up some impressive strikeout numbers, but as the calendar hit June he’s paired the swing and miss with some new and improved run prevention and is starting to go a little Beast Mode on the Sally:

Rivera is coming off a week in which he hopped high up on Baseball America’s Hot Sheet for the first time, and seems like he’s starting to catch some eyes with the quality of his stuff.

Using a fastball that was sitting around 92 on the stadium gun and a hard downward breaker that consistently fooled the Legends’ hitters, Rivera held the fort while the offense was trying to find it’s footing yesterday. They finally broke through with a bases-loaded HBP in the 5th inning to break the scoreless tie. Reserve OF Mikey Edie provided the rest of the runs — hitting his first HR of the year in the 6th and singling in Anyesber Sivira in the 8th.

With All Star representative Jesus Tona shutting things down in the 9th (4 Ks in 2 IP) all of that was enough to push Augusta to a road sweep and a 5-game winning streak. Combined with another Charleston loss that put Augusta in a tie for first place heading into the final weekend of play in the first half.

It’s frankly amazing what the Greenjackets have been able to do despite an offense that is at its best “functional” and having suffered the loss of the 1 and 2 starters in the rotation several weeks back. A successful weekend and they have the opportunity to punch their tickets to the post-season (when, who knows, they could have some help from say a Bishop or the like).

---

DSL Giants beat DSL Tigers2, 17-9

Luis Matos had his fourth consecutive multi-hit game and picked up his 5th double of the season — he has four doubles and a triple in those four games as he’s boosted his OPS up to .993.

But Matos was far from the only batter who’s numbers bulked up in yesterday’s beat down. Seventeen year old OF Alexander Suarez doubled and homered. Sixteen year old Catcher Rayner Santana had three hits. Sixteen year old infielder Jose Peralta pushed his hitting streak to 8 games, hitting a triple while also working a couple of walks. And the seventeen year old Victor Bericoto pushed his average up to .333 and his OPS to 1.076 with a two hit/two walk day.

The offensively inclined Giants have now scored 52 runs in their past 4 games! For those of you used to following the SF version of the Giants — that really IS a lot of runs! Tigers’ pitching certainly contributed by walking an amazing 17 batters (and hitting two more), but the Giants hitters certainly fended for themselves as well, bashing out 12 hits including five for extra bases.

It’s somewhat difficult to enthuse much about the pitching when the batters are Bugs Bunnying around the base paths, and in truth, there aren’t many members of the pitching staff who have really distinguished themselves early on in the season.

---

Traditionally, yesterday should have been media day for the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, but it doesn’t appear that they’re following tradition this year. Which possibly means that today is media day and they’ve nixed the annual exhibition game vs. local college players? I suppose so. (I really am confused today!)

Anyway, if you’re interested, you can read about the man who brought the Volcanoes to Keizer way back in the 90s, beginning one of the best affiliate relationships in the organization. Former Keizer Mayor Dennis Koho passed away this week at the age of 69.

---

Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento (Yoanys Quiala) vs. Omaha (Arnaldo Hernandez)
Richmond (Brandon Lawson) vs. Harrisburg (Wil Crowe)
San Jose (Jose Marte) vs. Visalia (TBD)
Augusta (Seth Corry) vs. Rome (Trey Riley)
DSL Giants (TBD) vs DSL Colorado (TBD)

Sally League All Star Seth Corry takes the mound in the opener to a crucial four-game set against the Rome Braves. Corry has really been searching for his control lately, having walked 15 batters in his past 12.2 innings over 4 starts. High pitch counts have ended most of those starts in the early innings. Still he’s got a 2.58 ERA and has allowed 2 or fewer earned runs in 11 of his 12 starts and just 3 earned in the other one. Set the tone, Seth!