Caminiti dominated in his first game back in an Augusta uniform
While the results didn’t fall in their favor, it was quite a great day for pitching especially by JR Ritchie and Cam Caminiti. At every level at least one Atlanta Braves prospect did something notable, but Caminiti was clearly the highlight. After a two month wait to see him back in televised action he didn’t disappoint, striking out eighth batters over five one-run innings.
(24-37) Gwinnett Stripers 0, (36-24) Nashville Sounds 1
- Jarred Kelenic, CF: 1-2, 2B, BB, .228/.319/.339
- Jonathan Ornelas, SS: 1-2, BB, .188/.257/.188
- Davis Daniel, SP: 6 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, 3.08 ERA
(24-38) Gwinnett Stripers 0, (37-24) Nashville Sounds 4
- Jarred Kelenic, CF: 1-3, 2B, .228/.319/.339
- Eddys Leonard, LF: 2-3, .202/.283/.415
- Zach Thompson, SP: 3.2 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 3.00 ERA
It was a brutal day on the offensive end for the Stripers, resulting in a double-header sweep in which they got shut out despite solid pitching in both games. If there is one positive takeaway it would have to be Jarred Kelenic, who had a double in each game that can hopefully propel him towards righting the ship a bit. Kelenic started off strong in Gwinnett but over the prior couple of weeks has been in a brutal slump, with a -20 wRC+ in his 12 games between May 22nd and June 6th. This was quite easily his best day in a long time, with the first extra base hits since May 23rd and the first time since May 21st that he reached base multiple times in a game. He didn’t get cheap hits either, with the first of those doubles being a 106.8 mph missile that bounced off of the right field wall. His game two double came in at only 102.1 mph, a line drive that he blistered down the right field line and into the corner.
While Kelenic did his thing at the top of the order the Stripers never really strung together any hits, often striking out in key spots when they did have the rare runner in scoring position. The only reason they stayed in game one was the outstanding performance from Davis Daniel, who dominated the Sounds primarily by just clustering his fastball at the top of the strike zone. Daniel got nine whiffs on his fastball alone and on the occasions Nashville did make contact they had just one hard hit ball against the pitch. Unfortunately that one hard hit ball would be the difference in the game. Daniel left one fastball a bit too far over the plate, and Oliver Dunn was able to line one and just clear the right field wall for a solo home run. That would end up being one of only two hits Daniel allowed in the game, but it was also the only run either side let up.
Zach Thompson was near-equally able to get outs in game two. Although he missed fewer bats the Sounds made absolutely terrible contact, with the hardest-hit ball being a 97.8 mph ground out. Thompson did a terrific job on mixing his pitches and keeping the ball off of barrels, and he was helped by a Sounds lineup that was quite eager to chase his cutter off of the glove-side corner. Thompson did take the loss, but it was the fault of his defense which committed three errors in the game to let in two unearned runs. Thompson issued a walk in the fourth inning, but also got two critical strikeouts to put him an out away from sending it into the bullpen’s arms as a tie game. A lazy fly ball into the gap should have ended the inning easily, but perhaps spooked by Carlos Rodriguez drifting close to him from right field Kelenic just missed the catch, and that ball bouncing off of his glove allowed a run to score. Then on the throw in Eddy Alvarez sailed a throw over to third base, allowing Oliver Dunn to scoot home with a little-league home run. It was a comedy, and the bullpen did nothing to keep the game where it was. Both Kevin Herget and Domingo Gonzalez got hit hard, each allowing a run to push the Sounds to a comfortable margin.
Swing and Misses
Davis Daniel – 13
Zach Thompson – 6
Domingo Gonzalez – 2
(23-29) Columbus Clingstones 4, (28-28) Pensacola Blue Wahoos 5
- David McCabe, 3B: 3-4, 2B, .248/.377/.373
- Ethan Workinger, DH: 2-4, RBI, .247/.328/.469
- JR Ritchie, SP: 5 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 3.26 ERA
- Hayden Harris, RP: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 0.79 ERA
JR Ritchie had his best start in Double-A, and was backed by a solid offensive showing, but the bullpen let him down to lead to another Clingstones loss. Ritchie was able to clear five innings with seven strikeouts and only one hit allowed despite not having the best location of his changeup. Early in his outing he was particularly fastball-heavy as he also struggled to land his slider, but he avoided mistakes in the zone with those pitches and thus was able to limit hard contact. He touched as high as 97 on the broadcast radar into the third inning, and though he saw a dip later in the game was still sitting right around 93-94. He really just survived the first two innings off of getting weak contact and called strikes, then hit his stride in the third when he found the top of the strike zone with the fastball and was able to put his sweeper off of the plate to get whiffs. With those two pitches he cruised through the next couple of innings and Pensacola — the team with the lowest strikeout rate in the Southern League — had trouble making contact at all and especially making solid contact. He landed a couple of good changeups as well in that fourth inning, though largely he didn’t operate with that as one of his key weapons despite his good results. The fifth inning was the only time he really struggled with locating fastballs, and even then he was able to correct course after a couple of poor batters. Unfortunately those two batters were a walk and a home run allowed on a fastball left over the plate, and those two plate appearances would mar an otherwise terrific day. The real positive takeaway was Ritchie’s response. He shook off the mistakes and immediately went back to attacking the next two hitters, hitting the zone with his fastball and dropping in a few nice sliders to strike out the final two batters he faced. Ritchie has really started to lock in with his slider over his past few outings, and though we’re in a small sample size still his whiff numbers at Double-A have been fantastic. He really has taken the leap we had hoped to see this season, and if the changeup starts to follow suit with his slider he could be on the fast track.
Columbus had a tough matchup against Dax Fulton, but the offense was able to string together hits throughout his time on the mound, revolving around the performance of David McCabe. McCabe has always been better from the left side of the plate, so a matchup against a lefty with Fulton’s stuff doesn’t seem ideal for him yet he really put together some great swings. McCabe hooked a low fastball into left field in his first at bat, rolling it to the wall to set up the game’s first scoring rally. McCabe wasn’t able to get in on Ethan Workinger’s base hit, but an RBI ground out from Stephen Paolini did chase him home and the Clingstones held an early lead. Paolini would be involved in the next scoring play as well when he drew a leadoff walk in the fifth inning and came home to score on a double by Kevin Kilpatrick Jr. This lead was erased pretty quickly, but after Drew Compton reached on a strikeout and wild pitch, McCabe again kicked off a rally by shooting a hard grounder through the right side for a one-out base hit. Ethan Workinger singled to give Mississippi the lead right back, and with no one out the Clingstones loaded the bases on Adam Zebrowski’s base hit. Columbus had a chance to seize complete control of this game, but they would only come away with one run. Paolini grounded out to score McCabe again, but two critical strikeouts from reliever Jesse Bergin stranded the bases loaded and kept the game within reach for the Blue Wahoos. McCabe had a single in the seventh inning to wrap up a three-hit day, but after Fulton left that was the only hits Columbus would get and it was up to the bullpen to hold the lead.
Hayden Harris did his job in the sixth inning, working around a double and a walk by striking out the side to get Columbus a shutdown inning. LJ McDonough came in for the seventh inning and the game got quite hairy quite quickly. McDonough struggled to locate anything, and as a result of his two walks, a hit batter, and an RBI single the Blue Wahoos were able to fight back to tie the game. Austin Smith worked quickly in the eighth inning to get two outs, but lost a batter on a walk and then had some poor batted ball luck to let home a run. While neither of the batted balls he gave up were high-percentage, one found a gap and the other was too deep in the hole for Cal Conley to make a throw on, and Pensacola took the lead thanks to their work against the Mississippi bullpen.
Swing and Misses
JR Ritchie – 16
LJ McDonough – 3
(27-29) Rome Emperors 2, (29-27) Greenville Drive 5
- Will Verdung, 1B: 2-3, BB, .304/.389/.365
- EJ Exposito, 3B: 2-4, HR, 2 RBI, .254/.355/.454
- Adam Maier, SP: 3 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 4.85 ERA
While allowing two runs over three runs isn’t ideal, I can’t help but feel that the rain shortening this outing for Adam Maier took away what would have been his best outing of the season. To start with the two runs allowed, after a one out single Maier gave up a pretty cheap double. He had Freili Encarnacion completely off balance and gave up a deep, but normally routine fly ball that in any park that didn’t have a copy of the green monster in left field would have led to an out. Instead it was a double, and on a pretty solid sinker to the next hitter the batter was able to sneak a grounder down the third base line for a double. This isn’t to say I loved Maier’s execution this game, as he starts at bats with sinkers over the middle of the plate far too often, but he showed a lot of success when they were sequencing his pitches properly and working backwards off of his slider and changeup. He had some misses in the third inning that I’m going to chalk up to the rain, but prior to that this was some of his best work at landing that slider and changeup on the edges of the zone or just off the plate, and even when the Drive were able to make contact it was not quality contact. The biggest issue this game was the enigmatic nature of his command. He locates his secondaries better than his sinker, and this game went through a few stretches where he just could not make quality pitches with his sinker at all. Yet he also had a few stretches where he was getting the sinker on the edges of the zone better than he has most of the year, and especially seemed to be slowly improving as the outing went on. Maier hasn’t been great this season, but I’ve actually been encouraged in the past few outings with some of his sequences, just not his overall consistency.
EJ Exposito is on a heater so far in June, with hits in all seven of his games played and now five extra base hits. He put Rome on the board early with a home run to lead off the second inning, waiting out a changeup and raking it into the gap in right center field and just clearing the wall. Exposito then drove in the second run of the game for Rome in the ninth inning, smacking a high fastball right back up the middle for a base hit. Elsewhere the Emperors were not putting out the best swings. Will Verdung had a sharp single in the first inning and an infield hit in the ninth ahead of Exposito, but it was not a day the offense will want to remember for long. Patrick Clohisy was the team’s most consistent hitter for the first month and a half of the season, but in the past few weeks his numbers have taken a nose dive. His walks are down, strikeouts are up, and since May 15th he has just a 69 wRC+. That, combined with Lizandro Espinoza’s trouble in the leadoff spot (35 wRC+ in the same span) has led to issues for the entire team getting the offense moving.
Swing and Misses
Adam Maier – 6
Rob Griswold – 2
(29-25) Augusta GreenJackets 4, (31-25) Fayetteville Woodpeckers 5
- Owen Carey, RF: 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI, .280/.351/.390
- John Gil, SS: 1-4, BB, .247/.341/.312
- Cam Caminiti, SP: 5 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, 1.80 ERA
Welcome back Cam Caminiti. After two months split between the injured list and the FCL, the Braves first round pick from last season started his season with Augusta by putting up one of the best performances of the year. Caminiti got out to the races by striking out the first four batters he faced, and the first time through the order not a single Woodpecker was able to reach base. It was pure electricity, with Caminiti pounding the zone at 95-96 early and locating all of his pitches well. His second time through the order he had a bit of a poor stretch where after two deep battles he issued a hit and a walk which would ultimately lead to his only run allowed in the game. That stretch lasted exactly those two batters though, and he turned around to get a ground out and then two strikeouts to finish off the inning. He finished out the game with a 1-2-3 fifth inning, dropping in a slider on his final pitch for a swinging strikeout to finish out a marvelous day. Caminiti worked efficiently and only threw 62 pitches, and though that isn’t a deep pitch count he was able to hold his velocity which is always a great sign for a guy coming off of the injured list. We’ve only had two looks at Caminiti in an Augusta uniform but he has looked the part in both, showing an ability to locate his mid-90’s fastball that is rare for a player this age, and in this outing showing a slider with a tighter bite than what we saw last season.
It was an impressive day for Owen Carey, who tallied three of the GreenJackets five total hits, including a key one to keep them alive in the tenth inning. After a John Gil walk in the first inning Augusta had a chance to get on the board early, and Carey did his job by shooting a ball through the left side of the infield after the shortstop vacated to cover on a steal attempt. Carey smartly advanced to second on a throw home, but John Gil got aggressive and was cut down at the plate by a terrific defensive play. Augusta was able to score Carey, but in a tight game that run would loom large. Carey again found himself in the middle of the scoring in the third inning, driving home Luis Sanchez for the second run and then watching as Isaiah Drake followed with a sacrifice fly to score John Gil. Carey’s best swing came in the tenth inning, with the GreenJackets needing two runs to tie the game and Carey up with a runner on second and two outs. Carey crushed a ball the opposite way to burn the gap, with the ball rolling up against the wall for an RBI double. Augusta had a sliver of a chance with Isaiah Drake up, but he struck out ending the game.
Swing and Misses
Cam Caminiti – 13
Juan Sanchez – 4
Jackson Dannelley – 4
(10-15) FCL Braves 8, (14-10) FCL Rays 7
- Juan Mateo, SS: 4-5, 2 RBI, .274/.343/.316
- Jose Perdomo, DH: 0-5, .234/.288/.319
- Junior Garcia, LF: 1-4, HR, BB, 3 RBI,.236/.304/.431
The FCL Braves are starting to have guys get going at the plate, and Junior Garcia is unsurprisingly part of that group. Garcia is clearly advanced for this level as he showed last season, and he had a huge hit in this one to propel the Braves over the Rays. Garcia hit a three-run home run in the ninth inning, putting the Braves on top where they were able to hold on in a shaky ninth inning. Garcia may have been outshined by Juan Mateo, whose four hits by far led the way and help him to account for four of the Braves eight runs in the game. Mateo has yet again done a great job this year of making contact and now has a .343 on base percentage, but the hope that he would start hitting for a little power after bulking up this offseason hasn’t played out. Mateo has a .373 OBP since May 23rd, but is sitting at only a 99 wRC+ in that time due to having just one double.
(3-2) DSL Braves 8, (2-3) DSL Padres Gold 3
- Diego Tornes, CF: 1-5, .125/.300/.125
- Johan Rodriguez, C: 4-5, 2B, RBI, .412/.444/.471
The DSL squad is winning games now, and it was a complete team effort with eight of the nine hitters getting hits. Diego Tornes was one of those — a good addition as he has been off to a rough start in a really, really small sample. That said he has four walks and only two strikeouts despite going just 2-16, so there is no reason to be worried over four poor games. The team as a whole hasn’t had many offensive standouts, but catcher Johan Rodriguez had four hits in this game and is having a hot start to the year. He has seven hits in 17 at bats thus far and still hasn’t struck out. The key to this game was keeping the Padres off the board, and that comes thanks to returning arms Rafael Lasorsa and Lewis Sifontes. They combined to cover seven innings with only two runs allowed.