Adam Duvall continued his phenomenal 2019 campaign with another homer and is now OPSing .938 on the season.

(48-36) Gwinnett Braves 8, (33-52) Norfolk Tide 2

• Travis Demeritte, DH: 1-for-4, R, .989 OPS
• Adam Duvall, RF: 1-for-4, HR, 3 RBI, .938 OPS
• Alex Jackson, C: 1-for-3, 2B, 2 RBI
• Kyle Wright, SP: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 8 K

Box Score

If you like games involving potential 2019 Atlanta Braves impact players you have struck the motherlode. Kyle Wright was absolutely magnificent yesterday – going six scoreless innings but more importantly walkless innings. It was not the perfect outing as he did have two wild pitches but as Matt Powers has said numerous times – it’s strictly mental for Kyle and it appears as though he’s starting to get over that hurdle as he’s put together four straight solid appearances with this one taking the cake. Kyle was able to dance around five hits without really facing too many high leverage situations and showed what he was absolutely capable of on an every start basis because like Ian Anderson his pure stuff is absolutely filthy.

Kyle was able to blank the Tide offense all six innings, but the Gwinnett team ran into some trouble in the seventh when he was replaced by Jonathan Aro who allowed two earned runs in 0.2 innings pitched. Thomas Burrows, another Atlanta hopeful, came in and slammed the door shut to end the threat in the seventh, then worked an additional 1.1 innings of one hit ball where he gave up just one double while striking out two. Burrows has struggled a bit this year but is on a hot streak right now as he’s given up just one earned run over his last nine appearances and as a result has seen his Gwinnett ERA drop from 9.00 all the way down to 4.79. After absolutely dominating in Mississippi, Burrows is beginning to find his home in Gwinnett and could be one of the next ones up in the Gwinnett to Atlanta Express Shuttle in the second half of the season.

After 1.2 masterful innings of work for Burrows, Jason Creasy – of Spring Training notoriety, came in and slammed the door shut while working an easy ninth inning to insure Gwinnett captured the victory. Creasy has begun to show good form himself as the righty has given up just two earned runs over his last nine innings with both coming in a single game. But more importantly – let’s talk about this Gwinnett offense. Not a single player on the Gwinnett team had a multi-hit game and they collected only seven hits as a team but were able to tally up eight runs thanks to some really, really clutch hitting. The team went 3-for-7 with runners in scoring position and only left three on base the entire game. The biggest offensive highlight was of course by Adam Duvall who connected on his twenty-fifth homer of the season! There’s been a ton of talk about Ender potentially coming back to Atlanta and if that were to happen Adam needs to force his way out of Gwinnett into another organization because this man does not deserve to be in the minor leagues right now.

The scoring actually got started in the first inning as an Andres Blanco double allowed Jack Lopez to score to put Gwinnett up 1-0. They held onto to that slim lead until the sixth inning when Duvall opened it up with that three run bomb. After Norfolk tried to make it interesting by scoring a pair of runs to bring the deficit to 4-2, the Gwinnett offense decided they had, had enough and piled on four more runs in the ninth inning to put the game out of reach for Norfolk. Alex Jackson got in on the fun with a two-run double to push the lead to 6-2, and then Pedro Florimon connected on his fourth homer of the season to push it to the final score of 8-2.

(39-44) Mississippi Braves 13, (47-37) Pensacola Blue Wahoos 14

• Cristian Pache, LF: 3-for-6, 2 R, 2 2B, .886 OPS
• Drew Waters, CF: 2-for-5, 2 RBI, 2 R, BB, .879 OPS
• Ryan Casteel, 1B: 4-for-5, 4 R, 5 RBI, .907 OPS
• Ian Anderson, SP: 1.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K

Box Score

Ian Anderson lasted just one inning as they are preserving him for the upcoming Futures Game so there is no worries here. The only worry is the rest of the pitching staff that combined to give up fourteen runs in eight innings of work. Andres Santiago, Bradley Roney, Jordan Harrison, Connor Johnstone, and Jeremy Walker combined to give up 14 runs on 18 hits, eight walks, and just four strikeouts. To say the least – if you like pitching you wanted to avoid this game.

Offensively, the Mississippi offense did all that they could do to try and get this win. Thirteen runs on fifteen hits and zero errors for the position players. The top four of the lineup: Cristian Pache, Drew Waters, Tyler Neslony, Ryan Casteel went a combined 12-for-16, with six extra-base hits. Ryan Casteel, the man with a plan, hit a pair of homers and is now OPSing .907 on the season – he’s turned out to be an incredibly valuable MiLB signing. Tyler Neslony continued his resurgence with a homer for himself and is now OPSing .791 on the season – a solid year for someone who needed to have one. Neslony has improved his stock significantly this season and could find himself just out of our top 30 rankings that are coming out very soon.

Mississippi was actually in a good spot – up 12-6 in the seventh inning before an absolutely disastrous inning that saw Pensacola plate seven runs with the absolutely lowlight of a bases loaded walk – it was just that kind of game. But the great thing about baseball is you put it in the back of your mind and play again the next day so here’s to hoping that with Kyle Muller can right the ship today and get Mississippi back in the win column.

(29-53) Florida Fire Frogs 11, (52-28) Dunedin Blue Jays 12

• Ender Inciarte, CF: 0-for-3, .453 OPS
• Andrew Moritz, RF: 3-for-5, RBI, 3 R, BB, .755 OPS
• Drew Lugbauer, 1B: 2-for-5, 5 RBI, 2 R, .550 OPS
• Trey Harris, LF: 1-for-4, R, RBI, .866 OPS
• Nolan Kingham, SP: 4.0 IP, 8 H, 9 R, 6 ER, 4 BB, 2 K

Box Score

I’ve spent a lot of this year sort of mocking this Fire Frogs team because it really seems like the organization cares too much about it to be honest – often having their top prospects just skip this level. It’s a very weird dynamic and none of us believe they are going to be the High-A affiliate for much longer once it’s complete. That said, Florida showed up last night in an absolute heart breaker – combining for 11 runs but still losing and picking up their 53rd loss of the season against an extremely talented Dunedin team. Andrew Moritz is beginning to establish him as one of the top players on the team – going 3-for-5 with a walk and is now OPS’ing .755 on the season. Trey Harris went 1-for-4 with a single and because it’s Trey Harris you’re wondering “IS HE HURT?!” because that’s just how good Trey has been this season. Five of the 11 runs scored were driven in by Drew Lugbauer who desperately needed it. The clock is ticking on Drew as he has yet to live up to his billing as a potential impact bat when he was drafted. Drew collected five RBI, hit his 15th double of the season but is still just OPSing .550 on the season.

Nolan Kingham got the start and was hit hard – giving up nine runs, six earned, in just four innings of work. Lukas Young came in to stop the bleeding and he did just that – going 2.2 innings of scoreless work to keep Florida in the game. Unfortunately, it was a rough one for Troy Bacon as they tried to squeeze three innings out of him but he ultimately fell in that tenth inning as Dunedin was able to walk it off.

(38-45) Rome Braves 13, (36-46) Kannapolis Intimidators 11

• Justin Dean, CF: 2-for-3, 3 R, 2 BB, .840 OPS
• Greg Cullen, 2B: 4-for-5, 2 RBI, 4 R, BB, 2B, .781 OPS
• Braden Shewmake, DH: 3-for-5, 2 RBI, 2 R, BB, 1.093 OPS
• Kasey Kalich, RP: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K

Box Score

The bats were active once again in this game as Rome combined for 13 runs on 17 hits in a fun, but extremely unnerving game against Kannapolis. Greg Cullen got things started in the first inning with a run scoring double and kind of set the tone for not only himself, but for the Rome offense. Cullen went on to explode for a 4-for-5 night and is now OPSing .781 on the season and is trending upwards. Jeremy Fernandez followed up the Cullen double, with a double of his own to put Rome up 2-0 in the first. The lead didn’t last long as Alan Rangel gave up four in the first inning and Rome found themselves down 4-2. But, as stated, it was a very calculated approach for the Rome offense who got on base a ton, had some very timely hitting (9-for-18 with runners in scoring position!!!), and just churned their way through their lineup and to 13 runs. First round draft pick Braden Shewmake continues to show why he was worth a first round pick, or mainly to try and prove Matt Powers wrong, as he went 3-for-5 and is now OPSing 1.093 in Rome and hitting an absurd .463 so far. Griffin Benson got in on the fun as well as the first baseman went 2-for-5 with two RBI and now has a .701 OPS on the season. There was nothing really sexy to highlight from the Rome offense last night as it was just really solid baseball involving timely hitting – which involves a ton of luck and is exactly what they got.

It was another tough night on the mound for a Braves affiliate as the Rome staff gave up 11 runs on 12 hits, but that was enough to get the win. Alan Rangel, Luis Mora, and Victor Cavalieri were lit up for all eleven runs – with Cavalieri unable to record a single out while giving up four earned runs himself. Kasey Kalich worked a scoreless inning himself and while he hasn’t pitched too much – he has yet to yield an earned run. Kalich should be rapidly rising prospect that finds himself in Atlanta sooner than anyone else in this draft due to his role and age so being dominant at this level, despite having pitched an entire college season already, is pretty important. Jake Higginbotham rounded it out and picked up the save in a good inning of work where he gave up a walk but struck out two.

(8-7) Bluefield Blue Jays 14, (8-7) Danville Braves 5

• Cody Birdsong, 2B: 1-for-4, .475 OPS
• Beau Philip, SS: 2-for-4, BB, R, .611 OPS
• Bryce Ball, 1B: 1-for-3, 3 RBI, 1.175 OPS

Box Score