The offenses were rolling at every level
Every level of the Atlanta Braves system featured a good offensive output on Thursday, but none did it quite as well as the Gwinnett Stripers. The Stripers dropped a season-high 20 runs as they won their fifth straight game.
(51-58) Gwinnett Stripers 20, (41-70) Charlotte Knights 4
- Vaughn Grissom, 2B: 1-5, HR, BB, 2 RBI, .323/.407/.482
- Chadwick Tromp, C: 4-5, 2 HR, BB, 6 RBI, .204/.342/.408
- Darius Vines, SP: 5.2 IP, 9 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 2.87 ERA
- Jackson Stephens, RP: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 6.52 ERA
The Stripers were unstoppable on Thursday evening, scoring runs in seven of their nine innings and dropping a 20 piece on the Knights. Charlotte took an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, but Gwinnett quickly ran away with the game starting with Chadwick Tromp’s three run home run in the top of the second inning. Gwinnett dropped another field goal in the third inning with a home run from Joe Dunand and Chadwick Tromp’s second home run of the day, then they broke the game wide open with a seven run fifth inning.
The first four batters of the fifth reached base, with Braden Shewmake driving in a run on a double. Tromp’s single scored the second run of the inning and a wild pitch the third before the Knights even recorded an out. After recording that out Gwinnett kept piling on, with an Hoy Park RBI single and Yolmer Sanchez home run extending the lead to 12-4. Vaughn Grissom capped off the scoring in the inning with a sacrifice fly. Gwinnett would add runs in each of the next three innings as well, including a home run from Vaughn Grissom in the seventh inning, before having another breakthrough inning in the ninth. Charlotte brought in catcher Xavier Fernandez to pitch, and while Gwinnett didn’t manage a hit in the inning he allowed six walks and hit a batter to force home four more runs. Fernandez threw only five of 33 pitches for strikes and only two actually tracked in the strike zone (lol).
via baseball savant, I present the greatest pitch chart in history.
Darius Vines had an ugly start for Gwinnett as he was hit pretty hard by the Knights including allowing two early home runs. Vines was able to force his share of whiffs especially early in the game, but allowed seven batted balls over 100 mph. The relievers behind Vines did a fantastic job, starting with a Jackson Stephens performance that saw him strike out four of the five batters he faced. Seth Elledge pitched a perfect eighth inning and struck out two batters, and Brian Moran capped off the evening with a scoreless ninth inning.
(47-56) Mississippi Braves 5, (48-56) Rocket City Trash Pandas 6
- Tyler Tolve, C: 2-4, RBI, .243/.311/.400
- Jesse Franklin V, LF: 3-4, HR, BB, .239/.316/.445
- Nick Margevicius, SP: 3.2 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 8.31 ERA
Jesse Franklin had a big day at the plate and Mississippi’s offense put up a good fight overall, but they came up short in a loss to the Trash Pandas. The bottom of the Mississippi order had a lot to do with their success in this game, and Hudson Potts provided a chunk of that. He led off the third inning with a single and after Mississippi loaded the bases would score the game’s first run on Luke Waddell’s RBI ground out. Unfortunately the middle of the order failed to add on in that bases loaded opportunity, and Rocket City put up four runs in the bottom of the third to take the lead. That grew to 5-1 in the next inning and Mississippi’s offense failed to put up a fight in the middle innings of the game. Finally in the eighth inning Jesse Franklin V hit a solo home run to get the Braves back in business. Arbitrary end point warning, but Franklin has been very good of late as he has a strikeout rate of only 15.3% over his past 18 games and has been walking over 10% of the time as well. Potts would add on later in the eighth with a two run home run, and in the ninth inning Tyler Tolve brought things back even with a solo shot.
It was not a day for Nick Margevicius to remember, as he got shelled in that third inning. The scoring primarily came on a two-out three-run home run, but it was Margevicius’s lack of control in the inning that really put him into trouble. He allowed two hits and a run in the fourth inning as well before he was pulled from the game. The bullpen for Mississippi was the star as they gave the offense time to make a comeback, starting with 1 1⁄3 scoreless innings from Peyton Williams. Trey Riley had a rough sixth inning as he loaded the bases on a hit and two walks, but he ended up working around that to keep it scoreless. Jake McSteen had the best night of the bunch as he struck out three batters and walked no one over two scoreless innings and he got the ball to Kyle Wilcox in the ninth inning with the game tied. Wilcox has been phenomenal for Mississippi, but it was not his night as he allowed a walk and two hits, including a walk off single.
(48-57) Rome Braves 8, (47-53) Winston-Salem Dash 7
- Ignacio Alvarez, SS: 3-4, 2 RBI, .300/.409/.414
- David McCabe, 3B: 1-2, 3 BB, RBI, .314/.418/.505
- Cedric De Grandpre, SP: 5 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 5.21 ERA
It was the night of strong offenses, and Rome managed to get the job done with Nacho Alvarez and David McCabe being the cornerstones of that output. Rome jumped out to a first inning lead on David McCabe’s RBI single, then in the second inning the lead quickly grew as it seemed they may run away with the game. Justin Janas had a hit to lead off the inning, then an error put Adam Zebrowski on as well. An injury then forced Winston-Salem’s starter from the game and Rome took advantage of the reliever. Two walks loaded the bases for the top of the order, where Kevin Kilpatrick and Nacho Alvarez each had clutch hits to score runs. Rome put up four runs in the inning to lead 5-0, but the Dash got those back fairly quickly. By the fourth inning the game was tied, and Kilpatrick and Alvarez got a rally started by wearing a couple of pitches. McCabe was walked with one out to load the bases, and a sac fly from Keshawn Ogans and infield single from Janas put Rome back on top 7-5.
Cedric De Grandpre mostly had a very good game. There were a few bumps in the road, like a couple of singles in the third inning, but he kept the game in control and held a 5-0 lead going into the fourth inning. De Grandpre allowed a hit and a walk in that fourth, but also got two strikeouts and was in a good position to get out of the inning. That is until he hit a batter to load the bases, then walked the next batter to force home the first run for the Dash. These struggles all came back to bit him hard as he allowed a game-tying grand slam to Caberea Weaver. De Grandpre pitched a clean fifth inning after getting the lead back, giving the ball over to Hunter Riggins in the sixth. Riggins worked around two hits in the sixth inning, but couldn’t do the same in the seventh and allowed two runs to again tie the game. Jonathan Hughes pitched two scoreless innings of relief, giving the offense a chance to take the lead in the eighth inning. Alvarez got the rally started with a one out single, and Rome would load the bases on a hit from Geraldo Quintero and another walk to McCabe. Ogans put Rome on top with a sacrifice fly and Hughes closed out the win in the top of the ninth inning.
(48-56) Augusta GreenJackets 8, (48-54) Salem Red Sox 9
- Ambioris Tavarez, SS: 1-4, BB, .190/.289/.324
- Drew Compton, 1B: 1-2, 2 BB, 2 RBI, .292/.469/.375
- Riley Frey, SP: 3 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 9.00 ERA
Augusta came up just short in this game, as despite a strong showing from the new-look offense their pitching could just not hold it down. Salem’s runs in this game came in bunches, with the first coming on a three-run second inning against recent call up Riley Frey. Frey showed good swing-and-miss stuff and netted five strikeouts over his three innings of work. Giomar Diaz came in for the fourth inning, and he coughed up a lead as Salem scored another three runs. Diaz would have success in the fifth inning and recent signee Shay Schanaman pitched two scoreless innings as Augusta once again took a lead. As happened the first two times that lead was immediately met by a three run from Salem, who got five hits off of Chad Bryant in the eighth inning.
Augusta’s offense has been on a tear lately, and they opened the scoring in this game with an RBI double from EJ Exposito. After Salem took a lead the GreenJackets quickly tied the game back up, with Drew Compton driving in Ambioris Tavarez and Cam Magee with a base hit. They would take the lead the next inning on a sacrifice fly from Exposito, but as we know this did not last long. Neither side did much through the middle innings, until a hit from Jacob Godman and an error brought up the top of the order in the seventh inning. Tavarez cut the deficit to just one run with a base hit, but a double play off of the bat of Magee ended the inning soon after. They would take a lead in the eighth inning, with Kade Kern driving in Jace Grady for the tying run. Once again, EJ Exposito gave them the lead with a sacrifice fly, and maybe we should stop letting him be the one to do that. Jair Casanova led off the ninth inning with a solo home run, but the top of the order went down with no fight as Augusta fell 9-8.
(24-22) FCL Braves 6, (20-26) FCL Orioles 2
- Diego Benitez, SS: 1-4, .243/.310/.349
- Isaiah Drake, CF: 3-5, 3B, 3 RBI, .128/.190/.231
We finally got a big performance from Isaiah Drake as he led the Braves to a win over the Orioles. Drake came into this game with only two hits in 34 at bats, but he dropped three hits and three RBIs at the top of the order. Diego Benitez had a double though he didn’t contribute to any scoring, with the bottom of the order being the main cogs to this game. The bottom four in the order each had two hits. Douglas Glod on the other hand struggled, striking out in all five plate appearances.
(13-30) DSL Braves 7, (24-19) DSL Brewers 6
- Luis Guanipa, CF: 1-5, 2B, .250/.371/.412
- Mario Baez, SS: 2-4, HR, BB, 3 RBI, .327/.410/.447
Even more offense was there to be had in the DSL, and Mario Baez was the MVP of this game for the DSL Braves. Baez had a two run home run in the fifth inning and drove in three of the Braves seven runs. John Gil didn’t have a hit in the game, but he drew three walks and scored three runs. Gil has a .407 OBP this season.