A couple of notable pitching performances highlights today’s Braves minor league recap.
The Atlanta Braves minor league affiliates had an up and down day. They went two and two combining to allow 26 runs in their two losses versus two combined runs in their wins.
(24-28) Gwinnett Stripers 4, (28-24) Norfolk Tides 2
- Forrest Wall 3-5, 1 R, 1 K
- Phillip Evans 4-5, 1 RBI
- Grant Holmes, SP, 5 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K
Wall and Evans came to play, going a combined 7 for 10. The rest of the Stripers offense was quiet going 5 for 28. Collectively as a team the Gwinnett went 6 for 18, but left 11 men on base. They were aggressive on the base paths with four stolen base attempts, three of which were successful. Yuli Gurriel picked up one of those stolen bases, his first of the season. Sandy Leon saw his struggles continue going 0 for 4 with three strikeouts.
Grant Holmes continued his dominant stretch to start the season. He has yet to allow multiple runs in an outing this year. Additionally, last night was his fourth consecutive appearance in which he has gone three or more frames. The five innings was his longest start of the year and his seven punch-outs were his season high. MLB veteran Ken Giles picked up the save throwing 1 ⅓ scoreless innings.
(18-27) Augusta GreenJackets 2, (22-24) Fayetteville Woodpeckers 14
- Jace Grady 2-4, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 R
- Drew Compton 1-4, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 K
- Didier Fuentes, SP, 3 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K
As awake as the Wall and Evans’ bats were for the Stripers, the GreenJackets bats were equally quiet. As a team they went a putrid 4 for 28 with 13 strikeouts compared to one free pass. Grady, the source of half the Augusta offense, was the only GreenJacket not to strike out.
The less said about the GreenJacket pitching from last night’s game the better. They allowed 12 hits, walked 11 batters and added a hit by pitch for good measure. Fuentes struggles were a bit surprising as he is coming off of arguably the best start of his career where he retired 11 batters via the K. Zack Austin, the team’s third reliever in the game, had one of the worst pitching lines you’ll ever see. He threw a third of an inning, allowed four earned runs and walked six, yes six batters.
(24-20) Rome Emperors 9, (20-26) Greenville Drive 0
- Sabin Ceballos 4-5, 3 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI
- Ambioris Tavarez 2-5, 1 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 1 SB
- Riley Frey, SP, 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 1 K
Ceballos is on fire at the moment. Over his last 7 games he is 12 for 28 (.428) with three walks, a double and homer. Prior to his hot streak he was batting .252, now it has ballooned up to .288. Tavarez, on the other hand, had been stuck in an ugly slump. Prior to last night’s game he was 1 for his last 21 (.047). Notably though, Tavarez has been able to cut down on his strikeouts. After striking out in one but all games from April 5th to May 15th, he has gone three consecutive games without one.
After last night’s outing, Frey has now allowed just one run across 25 innings pitched in the month of May. His K/BB ratio needs to improve if he wants to continue that dominance as it sits at 16/8 on the month. Notably as well his one punch out was the lowest he has had in eight outings this season.
(13-5) FCL Pirates 12, (4-14) FCL Braves 5
- Junior Garcia 1-3
- Noah Williams 3-3, 2 R, 2 RBI, 1 HR, 1 3B
- Blake Burkhalter, SP, ⅓ IP, 2 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 1 K
The Braves were able to do their part living up nine hits and going 4 for 7 with RISP. After a 1 for 14 start to the season, Williams had a massive game falling a double short of a cycle. John Gil picked up a single which now gives him hits in five or his last six games.
Burkhalter, Jhonly Taveras and Yorvi Pirela combined to allow 12 runs, 9 of which were earned across the first five frames. They recorded a combined eight punch-outs but offset them with eight combined walks.