Braves Minor League Recap: Michael Harris hits fifth homer of the season

Some strong offensive performances highlighted the action down in the Braves’ minor leagues.

There were some close games on Saturday, but Braves minor league affiliates emerged mostly victorious as they went 3-1 on the evening. Michael Harris connected for his fifth home run of the season, Braden Shewmake had a four hit game, and both Tanner Gordon and Andrew Hoffmann struck out a good number of guys. Lets get into the games.

Gwinnett Stripers 6, Memphis Redbirds 5

Box Score

• Drew Waters, CF: 1-2, 2 R, HBP, .790 OPS
• Braden Shewmake, SS: 4-4, 2B, RBI, .793 OPS
• Alex Dickerson, DH: 1-4, HR, 3 RBI, .664 OPS
• Touki Toussaint, SP: 6.1 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 5.00 ERA

Braden Shewmake had one of his best games of the season at the plate as the Stripers just held on to beat Memphis by the score of 6-5. Touki Toussaint got the start for Gwinnett and was pretty good as he pitched into the seventh inning while giving up three runs on four hits. In a weird coincidence, Touki has given up exactly three earned runs in each of this last three starts although the number of innings in each one varied significantly and this was easily the best of the trio.

On offense, it was a big third inning that propelled Gwinnett to victory on Saturday with Alex Dickerson’s three-run homer with two out being the big knock in the game. Braden Shewmake had quite the night at the plate as he went 4-4 with a double and an RBI. That was his second four hit game in the month of May, but it also also snapped a four game skid where Shewmake had failed to record a hit at all. Hernan Perez had a multi-hit game including a double and a RBI to help the cause as well. Drew Waters had a single and was also hit by a pitch in the game (presumably on his elbow). While he did stay in and run the bases and would last another inning in the field, he did end up getting replaced in center field by Delino DeShields, so that is a situation worth monitoring.

Mississippi Braves 5, Biloxi Shuckers 4

Box Score

• Michael Harris II, CF: 2-4, 2B. HR, 2 RBI, BB, .890 OPS
• Drew Lugbauer, 1B: 1-4, HR, RBI, .862 OPS
• Tanner Gordon, SP: 5 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 9.98 ERA

Thanks to some fine work both at the plate and in the field from Michael Harris and some clutch pitching late, the Mississippi Braves took the win over Biloxi by the score of 5-4. Tanner Gordon got the start for Mississippi and while he has certainly not been nearly as untouchable as he had been for Rome, he has been better since the dumpster fire that was his Double-A debut and he can clearly strike out opposing batters at a good clip. Justin Yeager’s second appearance at Double-A was a bit of an adventure, but he managed to escape a jam while only giving up one run thanks to a strong throw from Michael Harris to get a runner at home. Indigo Diaz added a scoreless frame, but it was far from clean with a pair of walks which he has done in three of his past four appearances.

This is the part of the recap where we just appreciate how good Michael Harris is at baseball. Harris had a pair of extra base hits in this game including his league-leading 15th double and his fifth home run of the season. He also drew a walk and gunned down a runner at home with a little help from said runner who missed home plate completely (if that runner had gone straight to home, he likely would have been tagged out anyways). Riley Delgado had a couple hits and every single other Mississippi hitter recorded a hit in the game including Drew Lugbauer, who slugged his ninth home run of the season. That was his first home run since 5/3.

Rome Braves 8, Aberdeen IronBirds 3

Box Score

• Javier Valdes, C: 2-5, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R, .876 OPS
• Cody Milligan, 2B: 2-4, BB, 2 R, .917 OPS
• Andrew Hoffmann, SP: 6 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, 3.15 ERA

Rome jumped all over Aberdeen early in this game as they had eight runs by the end of the fourth inning as they coasted to an 8-3 win over Aberdeen. Andrew Hoffmann got the start for Rome and while he did get into a bit of trouble in the fourth inning that resulted in him giving up a couple of runs, overall it was another strong start for him. Hoffmann has yet to give up more than three earned runs in a start this season and has 49 strikeouts in 40 innings of work which seems pretty good. Trey Riley had two innings of scoreless relief while Malcolm Van Buren closed the game out. Van Buren in eight of his nine appearances this year, Van Buren has not given up an earned run (don’t ask about the other one).

On offense, it was a team effort as four different players had RBI and three players (Cody Milligan, Drew Campbell, and Javier Valdes) had multi-hit games. Aberdeen helped Rome’s cause quite a bit with SIX errors in the game with three coming from IronBirds third baseman Coby Mayo. Javier Valdes connected for a two-run home run to give him four on the year. A weird wrinkle to this game is that other than Valdes’ home run, all the rest of Rome’s hits were singles which, along with five walks and six errors from the opposing, can usually get the job done. Something something put the ball in play something good things something.

Augusta GreenJackets 1, Charleston RiverDogs 5

Box Score

• Brandol Mezquita, CF: 2-4, 2 SB, .864 OPS
• Caleb Durbin, 3B: 1-2, BB, HBP, .816 OPS
• AJ Smith-Shawver, SP: 0.2 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 4.91 ERA

Rough night for the GreenJackets as they struggled on both sides of the ball with Charleston ultimately winning by the score of 5-1. AJ Smith-Shawver got the start on Saturday and he just didn’t have it as he threw 33 pitches while only recording a pair of outs. AJ had a start like this back in April and was able to bounce back nicely with four strong starts in a row after that, so there is probably no cause for alarm. Just part of the maturation process for a young pitcher. Things did not get better for the bullpen as they would give up three runs of their own over the next five innings of work to put the game out of reach.

On offense, Augusta scattered just five singles the entire game. Brandol Mezquita had two more hits to add to his impressive season so far. His line in 2022: .333/.407/.437 and while we would like to see him showcase power more frequently, it is hard to be upset with what he has turned into as a pro.