SF Giants Minor Lines 6/1/19: The Dominican Summer League Starts

There were a few moves across the minors, including one very, very big injury for Augusta.

Aaron Bond had been a big part of the offense this season for the Low-A level recently.

Highlights: The DSL Giants played their first game of the season. Mike Gerber hit a leadoff home run.

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Sacramento defeated Las Vegas (Athletics), 7-5

It seems first innings are becoming quite a thing up and down the system.

Yoanys Quiala was starting for the River Cats and he had a heck of a time in the first inning, giving up three runs in the top of the first inning to put the River Cats behind. It didn’t spell the end of Quiala’s game, as he stayed in long enough to give up five runs in 5.1 innings, but it was a season-high in runs for him.

The good news is that the offense was in form, and Mike Gerber set the tone with a leadoff home run, although that got just one of the runs back. It was Gerber’s 12th of the year, and extended his hitting streak to seven games.

The biggest inning was in the fifth for the River Cats. Ryan Howard hit his third double of the season, followed by Abiatal Avelino’s fourth home run of the season. After an out, Gerber walked and that was followed by Austin Slater’s 10th home run of the year.

For the trouble that Quiala had to start with, the bullpen did well. Sam Selman bounced back after giving up three runs in his last two games. Each of the last eight outs Selman has made have been by strikeout. Ray BLack had another scoreless outing, although he walked a pair. Since his return, he’s struck out six and walked three in four innings. Jandel Gustave had another scoreless outing, lowering his Sacramento ERA to 4.15

The River Cats offense is trending the right way. For Avelino, his fourth home run came as part of his third straight 2-hit game, and fifth in the last seven games. For Slater’s 10th home run, it was his first since hitting home runs in three straight games between May 17th and a double-header on May 19th. Levi Michael’s sixth home run of the season was his fourth in the last nine games. For Ryan Howard, it was his third double in 23 games at Sacramento. He had only one double for Richmond in 28 games.

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Richmond was swept in a double-header by Reading (Phillies)

Reading defeated Richmond 2-1, (7 Innings)

Reading defeated Richmond 7-5 (7 Innings)

It was a rough day for Richmond in this doubleheader. Garrett Williams was the Game 1 starter, and though he gave up just three hits and struck out a season-high seven, but a home run and five walks allowed were enough in a game in which Richmond had no offense. Game 2 had Brandon Beachy getting the start, his third of the season, giving up a pair of runs. In the bullpen, Raffi Vizcaino gave up his first runs as a part of Richmond, three runs on two hits and two walks. It was his eighth game at Double-A this season, and he has 14 strikeouts against four walks in 10.1 innings at the level.

The offense had two very different games. Game 1 only saw two hits and three walks from the Squirrels. In Game 2, they scored six runs on seven hits, but both ended up in a loss. Jalen Miller led the team in RBI in the second game, with three on a pair of hits, including his sixth double. Miller had been just 2-for-20 over his past six games. Jacob Heyward got his sixth double, but also collected two walks against a strikeout over the two games, which gives him 29 walks against 53 strikeouts.

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San Jose defeated Lake Elsinore (Padres), 7-5

One big inning highlighted this Giants win. In the second inning, the Giants got a pair of one-out hits from John Riley and Kyle McPherson, and then were helped by an error from Manuel Geraldo to score the first run. Bryce Johnson had an RBI double, and then Randy Norris hit a 2-RBI single, though he was caught at second base trying to stretch it. Heliot Ramos finished with a bases empty single, and that was followed by a Courtney Hawkins home run to round off the scoring at six.

That would end up being enough, although San Jose did give up some runs later. For Ramos, it was part of a 2-hit day, along with a walk. He did strike out twice, so he has 25 strikeouts against 15 walks, and has a hit in all five games since he came back from his injury. Courtney Hawkins’ home run was his first with San Jose in 10 games with the team. He’d previously had two in 15 games at Triple-A Louisville (Reds). Bryce Johnson had two doubles, giving him seven on the season. He has hits in nine of the last ten games, and has raised his batting average from .227 to .250.

Jake Wong was on the mound for San Jose. He gave up only three hits, but two of them were for extra bases, a double and a triple. That combined with three walks led to two runs. The three walks and six strikeouts each matched season highs, set initially with Augusta. Wong has a 3.94 ERA with San Jose after three starts, with a .224 average allowed, and a 1.13 WHIP. Solomon Bates had a difficult stint in the bullpen, giving up three runs in his third game at San Jose. He has six strikeouts and three walks in 5.2 San Jose innings, after having a 41:3 ratio in 26 innings at Augusta. Frank Rubio had another shutout inning as he collected his seventh save in the last eight games. He hasn’t given up a run since April 23rd.

Before we wrap up, we’ve got some video of Heliot Ramos going up against Mackenzie Gore on Thursday, and planting a home run over the left field wall (after a while).

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Augusta was defeated by Columbia (Mets), 3-2

A bit of a weak-hitting game from the GreenJackets in this one with Aaron Bond out. Out of eight hits, the only extra-base hits came from the ninth hitter in the lineup, Anyesber Sivira. He hit two doubles, his second and third of the season. Luckily, his second double was preceded by a Jose Layer bunt, and followed by singles by Ismael Munguia and Shane Matheny to score both of Augusta’s runs.

But without much support from the rest of the team, not much happened otherwise. But it was a nice line for Sivira, playing in his sixth game of the year. It’s his second straight with two hits.

One interesting batting line was left fielder Diego Rincones. Rincones only made one out, but walked three times, his first walks in a week. That upped his strikeout to walk ratio to 31:18 on the season.

Blake Rivera was on the mound and had a mixed day. On one hand, he struck out six and walked just one in five innings, now with 53 strikeouts against 25 walks in 43.2 innings of work. But he also gave up a season-high seven hits and three runs to take the loss, and also threw three wild pitches.

A nice relief appearance for JJ Santa Cruz, matching his season high of 3 innings (for the fifth time). He now has a 2.51 ERA in seven appearances in Augusta this year.

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The DSL Giants lost to DSL Colorado, 10-1

Wait, what? The DSL already? Ah, well, that’s June for you.

The DSL Giants got off to a rough start, so let’s start with the pitching. The Giants started off with 19-year old Rafael Martinez on the mound, making his first career start after three relief appearances last season. He struggled a bit in limited time, including giving up a home run. But the struggles really started with Aaron Peniche making his first career appearance. The 19-year old gave up three hits and two walks, and all five of them scored. Robinson Escober didn’t helping, coming in with the bases loaded of Peniche’s runners and let them all score.

As for the offense, it got off to a good start, and then it ended. 17-year old Alexander Suarez led off his pro career with a double, and then Luis Matos came up third and knocked him in with a sacrifice fly. The two young players are both from Valera, Venezuela. The latter was the Giants’ 3rd-highest international signing last July, for $725,000, and was the 27th ranked prospect by MLB and 37th by Baseball America in the class. The Giants’ two higher signed prospects, Marco Luciano and Jairo Pomares, are likely to be in the AZL this season.

It did not go smoothly from there. Matos was hit by a pitch in his next at-bat. He stayed in the game and stole a base, and played one more inning of defense, but then was replaced.

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Today’s Scheduled Starters

Sacramento (Ty Blach) vs. Las Vegas (Paul Blackburn)

Richmond (Brandon Lawson) vs. Reading (JoJo Romero)

San Jose (John Gavin) at Lake Elsinore (TBA)

Augusta (Seth Corry) at Columbia (Jose Butto)

Let’s wrap up with some hope of the future…the very very soon future, with the AZL coming soon. The DSL will be missing some of the top Giants from last year’s signing class, but that’s because they’re too damn good and are starting out higher.