Acuna had a hit in a shortened game, and down in Rome Ambioris Tavarez has hit a home run in two straight games.
It was a full day of action on the Atlanta Braves farm system, with a handful of wins and some key pieces of news. Of course the eyes all fall on Ronald Acuna Jr. in Gwinnett, who had to kept out of right field due to the weather but once again looked solid at the plate. At the lower levels two comebacks led to wins, but injuries in Augusta have the attention moving forward. Then in Rome Ambioris Tavarez continues what has been a career year for him, hitting a home run for the second straight game while leading the team to a win.
(20-26) Gwinnett Stripers 0, (20-25) Louisville Bats 5
- Ronald Acuna Jr, DH: 1-2, .500/.714/1.000
- Jarred Kelenic, CF: 0-2, .278/.381/.389
- Eddys Leonard, LF: 1-1, BB, .216/.287/.463
- Bryce Elder, SP: 4 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 12.15 ERA
With radar trouble looming the Stripers and Bats were barely able to sneak in an official game on Tuesday, with wet weather sweeping in during the middle innings to cut the game off at 4 1⁄2 innings. This danger of rain was a minor hiccup in the rehab plans for Ronald Acuna Jr, with the Braves opting to have him at designated hitter after he was originally scheduled to play right field. Acuna got his day started off right by ripping a single to lead the game off, but he was promptly picked off by Wade Miley. In his second and final at bat he jumped on a hittable first pitch, but rolled it over to the right side for an out. That was largely the news for the Stripers offensively, as they only managed two hits in the game off of Miley. Miley was serving up strikes and the Stripers were hacking, but they failed to come up with any solid contact and Miley was able to cover his five scoreless innings on only 47 pitches. Nine of Gwinnett’s 16 at-bats ending on either the first or the second pitch.
On the other side of things Bryce Elder had a rough day out there, needing 89 pitches just to get through his four innings. The first was smooth, with two called strike outs and a weak grounder back to the mound capping a smooth frame. Unfortunately though things wouldn’t go as planned when Edwin Rios hit the first pitch of the second inning off of the left field wall for a double. Elder would allow a couple of hard hit singles across the rest of the inning, though he did a solid job of escaping a bases-loaded jam with consecutive strikeouts to end the inning. It created hope for Gwinnett to get back into the game, but that was dashed in the third inning when Rios once again crushed a ball. This time with two runners on Rios didn’t miss, bombing one dead center for a three-run home run to break the game open.
Swing and Misses
Bryce Elder – 10
(17-21) Columbus Clingstones 6, (21-18) Montgomery Biscuits 5
- Drew Compton, 1B: 2-5, .252/.323/.304
- David McCabe, 3B: 2-4, 2B, BB, .261/.397/.400
- Lucas Braun, SP: 6 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 4.40 ERA
- Hayden Harris, RP: 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 0.53 ERA
Lucas Braun allowed five runs and three home runs in this game, though that line isn’t totally fair to how well he pitched this game. Braun was pounding the strike zone with his fastball and doing quite well commanding them, sitting on top of the zone where he was able to get some swing and miss on the pitch. Unfortunately on those three home runs Braun got ahead in the count easily, but failed to end the at-bat until a mistake cost him a long. The first two he just didn’t get his fastball quite elevated enough on the particular pitch that was hit out, and on the third a slider got away from him and stayed on the inside corner where it was ripped for a line drive home run. Braun quite frequently worked ahead of the hitters he faced and set down the first ten batters he faced, finally losing that on a base hit in the fourth inning. Braun’s biggest problem was that he wasn’t as inconsistent with finishing his slider down and away from hitters and they were able to either foul them off or take them, but many of the hits he did give up other than the home runs weren’t hard hit. Certainly the goal in future starts would be to limit the mistakes and have better fortunes with the slider, but it felt like in this one that Braun was just inches off from a shut down outing.
It was a big night at the plate for David McCabe who had a couple of hits and a walk in what is his best game of the past couple of series. Both of McCabe’s hits were line drives towards center/right-center field, and they were great looking swings. McCabe has been tending to pull off and roll over pitches at the bottom of the zone, but this time he was able to stay solid and on the pitches and drive them for hits. The latter single capped off a two-run inning in the seventh inning, helping to set up the late comeback for Mississippi to win this game. Geraldo Quintero led off with a single in the bottom of the eighth inning and after two walks the Clingstones would have three opportunities to force one run home and tie the game up. While they probably came away disappointed with only one run, a Cal Conley sacrifice fly tied the game headed into the ninth inning. After another fantastic performance from Hayden Harris it was McCabe who led off in the ninth, but he was struck out on a high fastball for the first out. Columbus ultimately was able to get some luck on the next batter when Drew Compton broke his bat but powered a bloop just over the shortstop into left field for a single. Compton advanced on a wild pitch and a ground out, but a ground ball to second base from Geraldo Quintero seemed destined to send the game to extra inning. Shockingly, the hop ate up second baseman Cooper Kinney, rolling just far enough away that the throw couldn’t get Quintero streaking down the line and Columbus won on a walk-off error.
Swing and Misses
Lucas Braun – 14
Hayden Harris – 4
(22-18) Rome Emperors 6, (20-20) Hub City Spartanburgers 3
- Patrick Clohisy, RF: 2-5, 2 2B, RBI, .268/.393/.391
- Ambioris Tavarez, SS: 2-3, HR, BB, 3 RBI, .262/.369/.357
- Adam Maier, SP: 5 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 4.83 ERA
It’s yet another one of those tough-to-judge starts from Adam Maier, but ultimately it was successful enough for him to get through five innings with only two hits and one run allowed. Maier wasn’t particularly sharp with his pitches in the first inning, walking the first two batters of the game, and he was probably fortunate to escape that inning with only one run of damage. With the runners both in scoring position Maier gave up a deep drive into the left-center field gap, but Lizandro Espinoza took a fantastic route and ran it down, preventing a potential early game-changer. From that point forward he was able to work the ball in the zone with much more frequency, and the Spartanburgers could not find the barrel. Maier had them rolling over basically everything, getting nine ground ball outs. The biggest red flag was the Maier only forced two swing-and-misses in this game, and yet again his whiff rates remain well below the league average. Maier’s ability to move pitches across the bottom of the zone and the wild movement on his slider and changeup make him hard to square up, but he’s struggling to show the command and/or power necessary to get consistent swing and miss and this is likely going to become more of an issue as he advances through the system.
EJ Exposito has lost a lot of his playing time this season, but he has made the most at the time at the dish as he keeps coming up with big hits. In the second inning Exposito got a pitch to hit on the inner half and turned on it, driving a solo home run to tie the game up early at 1-1. Exposito didn’t do any more damage in the game, but despite only having 23 games he is second on the team with his four home runs and has an OPS 99 points better than Patrick Clohisy in second place. Speaking of Clohisy, he helped the Emperors sneak ahead in the third inning. Espinoza had a two out hit to keep the game alive, bringing up Clohisy. He got beat by a fastball and was well behind, but managed to line one softly down the left field line where it fell for a double. Espinoza streaked around the bases to score the run, and that 2-1 lead stayed put until Rome blew the game open in the eighth inning. The big hit came from Ambioris Tavarez, who got a fat pitch on a 1-2 count and absolutely obliterated a three-run home run for his third long ball of the season. That’s now back-to-back games with a home run for Tavarez, and the expectation that he would start lifting the ball more in the coming weeks is seeming to come to fruition.
Swing and Misses
Ryan Bourassa – 3
Adam Maier – 2
(20-19) Augusta GreenJackets 6, (19-21) Charleston RiverDogs
- John Gil, SS: 1-1, SB, .237/.329/.304
- Isaiah Drake, CF: 1-3, BB, SB, .266/.340/.383
- Eric Hartman, 2B: 1-4, 2 RBI, .210/.331/.355
- Luis Arestigueta, SP: 4 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 3.48 ERA
- Seth Keller, RP: 3.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 8.74 ERA
It’s hard to feel bad about a win, but the concern for John Gil outweighs the positive result of this game for the GreenJackets. Gil has really started to put it together despite the power not being quite there yet, putting up better at bats and taking to his swing changes this month as he has posted a .722 OPS. Unfortunately after a leadoff single and coming around to score in the first inning he was involved in a scary play in the second. After an errant throw from Colby Jones at third base, Gil ventured in the way of the runner trying to advance past second and over to third base where he was involved in a collision and immediately went down in pain. Gil left the game after a long meeting with the training staff, and the game got even worse the next inning. Nick Montgomery left the game after his first at bat as well, though there was no immediately obvious injury for him.
After a few great starts to open the season Luis Arestigueta has run into trouble in his past two, with his command creating issues for him. Arestigueta has not been locating his slider well at all, tending to have his front half fly open and either skip the ball or sail it up glove side. Without the pitch he uses to get most of his strikeouts he’s been more fastball-heavy in the zone and hitters have been able to see him better. That said, Arestigueta also had some batted ball luck go against him in this game and his only really awful inning was the fourth. After two quick hits, one on a badly-hung slider, Arestigueta seemed to lose focus a bit and walked the next batter in a non-competitive plate appearances. He seemed to be overthrowing and actually dialed back to throw a few sliders in a row, a couple of which were some of the best he had on the day as he kept his front side closed and landed them in decent locations. Unfortunately though he did still walk this hitter, but was able to regain his composure and finish out the inning with relatively low damage.
Seth Keller then had the task of trying to cover multiple innings in relief, and despite some mediocre command he showed solid signs. He was sharper earlier in his start with both his splitter and slider having success at getting weak contact, though he didn’t really get much swing-and-miss this outing. This was Keller’s longest outing of the season by innings pitched and he held his stuff well throughout the start even if his control got a bit shakier in the latter innings.
After that first inning run the GreenJackets had trouble getting things started on offense, but suddenly exploded in the fifth inning. Charleston starter Jayden Voelker started to get tired as the game wore on and even had a visit with the trainer in the fifth, and the GreenJackets were able to take advantage of his trouble. Colby Jones drew a leadoff walk, then with one out in the inning Augusta was able to get three straight hits to bring home two runs and put the tying run on third base. After a walk to Owen Carey the GreenJackets had the middle of their lineup up with still only one out, and Eric Hartman tied the game with an RBI ground out. Then Isaiah Drake re-loaded the bases with a walk, and Montgomery’s replacement, Alan Pineda, had a chance with the biggest at-bat of the game. Pineda worked ahead in the count 3-1, and when Enbert Garcia gave him a hittable fastball Pineda was sitting on it and drove it up the middle for the two-run, go-ahead single.
Reibyn Corona finished out the game with 1 2⁄3 solid innings of work, though it did get a bit hairy in the ninth inning. Corona’s wildness and a walk put two runners on base in the ninth inning, but Corona came through with a big pitch when he needed it. Facing a 2-2 count Corona dropped in a beauty of a slider, getting a whiff to strike out Brailer Guerrero for the second out of the inning. Corona got the next hitter to roll one over slowly to the right side, which Eric Hartman was able to scoop up and fire to first to end the game.
Swing and Misses
Luis Arestigueta – 6
Reibyn Corona – 6
Seth Keller – 2
(6-6) FCL Braves 4, (7-5) FCL Twins 5
- Juan Mateo, 3B: 1-3, .244/.306/.289
- Jose Perdomo, SS: 1-3, .283/.327/.348
- Cayman Goode, SP: 5 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 2.13 ERA
We have another Acuna sighting, as the FCL Braves faced off against the FCL Twins and another Acuna brother in Bryan Acuna. The FCL Braves would take an early lead in the game, and it was the big prospects on the roster who made that difference. Jose Perdomo and Juan Mateo both had first inning singles, and Junior Garcia drew a walk to load the bases for Carlos Monteverde. Monteverde stayed hot and drove in a run on a base hit, but the Braves weren’t done yet. A hit from Mario Baez and a two-run, two-out single from Diego Benitez gave them a comfortable cushion early. Cayman Goode then went to work, and yet again had a marvelous outing. In his past two Goode has only given up one run while striking out nine batters and walking two, this time going five innings for the first time in his career. Goode’s slider has reportedly looked fantastic so far this season, and with a few more starts like this he may earn a call up to full season ball. As soon as Goode left the game the Braves absolutely cooked it, allowing four runs in the sixth inning to lose the game.