Owen Murphy continues his tour of dominance through the South Atlantic League
It was an exciting evening of Atlanta Braves minor league baseball, as the system took a sweep behind some marvelous pitching performances. None of those exceeded Owen Murphy, who has gotten better in every start this season and produced one of the most impressive outings in recent memory.
(12-11) Gwinnett Stripers 2, (9-15) Norfolk Tides 1
- JP Martinez, LF: 0-4, .284/.370/.444
- Dylan Dodd, SP: 7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 3.49 ERA
- Ken Giles, RP: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 3.00 ERA
It’s been a bit of a rough time for Dylan Dodd since he made such a quick charge up the ladder in 2022, and 2024 wasn’t off to much better of a start than his previous season. This game however he showed some of the best markers we’ve seen from him in recent games dating back to last season, most notably spotting his fastball as well as he has over the past two seasons. Dodd allowed a leadoff home run to the first batter he faced, but even this wasn’t a bad pitch as he spotted a fastball right at the top of the zone and the batter just went and put it just over the short porch in right center field. Dodd was the beneficiary of some batted ball luck on the other end, like a 112 mph line drive that JP Martinez managed to track down in left center field. Overall though Dodd continued a trend of not allowing much in the way of solid contact, but in this outing combined it with a command of the strike zone and he forced 14 whiffs on his secondary offerings. This allowed Dodd to hold Norfolk to only two more hits and no runs after that home run and he needed to be that good for the Stripers.
Gwinnett faced off against Cade Povich, one of the top strikeout arms in the minor leagues, and through the first five hitters it seemed he would continue his trend of dominance to start this season. He struck out each of the first five batters, but as Gwinnett made contact they had plenty of luck in play as they managed three straight singles to put a two-out run on the board. Povich ended the inning with another strikeout, but although Gwinnett made much more contact the second time through the order they weren’t able to push through any runs. This trend followed against the bullpen. and it was on to extra innings before they found any success. Norfolk’s reliever uncorked two wild pitches in the tenth inning, chasing home Luke Waddell for the go ahead run that the Stripers ultimately needed to win the game. Ken Giles pitched two dominant innings to finish out the game, striking out four of the six batters he faced.
(6-12) Mississippi Braves 13, (9-9) Montgomery Biscuits 3
- Tyler Tolve, C: 3-5, 2 2B, HR, BB, 2 RBI, .244/.327/.356
- Cal Conley: 3-3, 2 BB, 4RBI, .319/.429/.340
- Drew Parrish, SP: 6 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 3.72 ERA
- Patrick Halligan, RP: 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 1.08 ERA
With no Nacho Alvarez or Drake Baldwin in the lineup you might expect a bit of a boring day for Mississippi, but they just casually dropped 13 on the Biscuits behind huge contributions in the bottom five. All 13 runs batted in came from the bottom five hitters in the order, including four RBI each from Justin Dean and Cal Conley. This game was tight for most of its run, with Drew Parrish needing every bit of the six innings he threw to keep the Braves on top in the game. The veteran starter had a fine outing, getting ticked for a two run home run in the second inning but otherwise maintaining what has been a solid start to the season. The game was tight through those six innings, with the major burst the Braves had coming in a three run third inning. Tyler Tolve added a solo home run to retake the lead for Mississippi, and this was a much-needed big game for Tolve. He has really struggled at the plate to start the year, as have most of the team’s bats, but Tolve tallied three extra base hits in this game to put a little respect on his season OPS. He also struck out in his other two plate appearances, so that ongoing 50% strikeout rate is certainly his biggest hurdle.
It sat at 4-3 going into the seventh, but Mississippi went crazy and piled on runs in the seventh and eighth innings. Mississippi took advantage of a Montgomery bullpen that could not find the strike zone to save their lives, and with four walks and a hit batter turned a one run lead into a four runs lead in the seventh. Mississippi tallied six runs in the eighth to really blow the game open, with the big blast coming from Justin Dean’s three run home run. This made him one of the four RBI players on the day, with the other being Cal Conley playing shortstop in place of Alvarez. Conley has himself struggled with strikeouts and put forth a poor start to the year, but he is now on a five game hitting streak with this obviously being his best game. Conley reached base five times on three hits and a walk, and raised his OBP 56 points in just this one game. Conley has only one strikeout and four walks in this short streak, and overall it’s hard to complain about him decreasing his strikeout rate and increasing his walk rate compared to last season.
(9-7) Rome Emperors 8, (7-11) Winston-Salem Dash 0
- Kevin Kilpatrick Jr., CF: 3-4, 3B, BB, 2 RBI, .348/.389/.545
- Sabin Ceballos, DH: 0-4, RBI, .207/.319/.259
- Ethan Workinger, RF: 4-5, 2 2B, .333/.455/.556
- Owen Murphy, SP: 7 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 10 K, 1.13 ERA
Owen Murphy is easily the headline performance of the night, and it’s becoming clearer with every start that he is ready to take the jump to Double-A. Murphy has been the most dominant pitcher in the South Atlantic League this season, but on Thursday evening he took it to new heights with near perfection in his outing. Before we jump into Murphy’s performance we’ll go ahead and recap an eight-run performance from the offense. It was the two names you would expect doing all the damage, as Kevin Kilpatrick Jr. and Ethan Workinger reached base four times apiece. Behind them Adam Zebrowski cleaned up the bases and drove in three runs, including opening the game’s scoring with an RBI single. Peyton Pallette provided a tough opponent for the Emperors, but he was struggling to find the zone and Rome took advantage of two walks in the second inning to extend their lead on Kilpatrick’s single. With Murphy cruising this was more than enough cushion for the lead to not even be threatened, and in the ninth inning the Emperors piled in five runs to put a bow on a win.
Owen Murphy was special again tonight
7IP 1H 0R 0BB 10K
61 strikes on 89 pitches pic.twitter.com/2sqJyWwYJc— Gaurav (@gvedak) April 26, 2024
Owen Murphy had one of the best outings I have ever seen from any Braves minor leaguer, as across seven innings he really allowed only one hard hit ball. Murphy was spotting his fastball where he wanted for most of the game, utilizing it as his primary weapon as he shut down the Dash. He notched a strikeout of the first four batters of the game before forcing a what would be a trend for him with a pop out to Ambioris Tavarez. Murphy’s 10 strikeouts of 22 batters is of course impressive, but it’s what the Dash were unable to do with the balls that did go into play that underscored his performance. Winston-Salem’s contact was a combination of infield pop ups, weak grounders, and lazy fly balls and Murphy went through six innings perfect. Finally Winston-Salem’s leadoff man made good contact and hit a fly ball to the deepest part of the park, banging one off of the top of the wall that would have been a home run probably anywhere else in the minor leagues. This proved Murphy was in fact fallible, but he responded by getting two strikeouts and an infield pop out to strand the runner at third base. Murphy has really come out and taken his game to a different level this season, showcasing command far ahead of his years and finding ways to have success with a low 90’s fastball. I really don’t think he is long for High-A at this point, as it’s around the time that AJ Smith-Shawver got the same promotion last season and while Murphy doesn’t have the same overwhelming pitch mix his development is significantly ahead of where Smith-Shawver’s was at the same time.
(8-10) Augusta GreenJackets 6, (11-6) Carolina Mudcats 1
- Drew Compton, DH: 2-3, 2B, BB, RBI, .396/.517/.583
- Jace Grady, RF: 2-5, 2 HR, 3 RBI, .242/.319/.468
- Diego Benitez, SS: 1-5, .172/.238/.224
- Didier Fuentes, SP: 5 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 2.77 ERA
- Mitch Farris, RP: 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 2.77 ERA
It’s been a battle in the first inning in every start for Didier Fuentes, and once again he came into this game with his command in the toilet. Fuentes allowed a walk and hit a batter in the first inning, but managed to escape thanks to a double play and once again settled in to have a good outing. Fuentes has allowed three runs, three walks, and only has one strikeout in the first inning this year, but in every other inning has allowed only one walk, one run, and struck out nine in ten innings. Getting a feel for his fastball command straight out of the gates is a step he needs to take, but it seems his pitch mix has taken a nice step forward this season as his slider is a bit tighter and able to whiffs more consistently. He ended up throwing 50 of his 74 pitches for strikes, with the only hit he allowed coming on a solo home run in the second inning.
Y’all… he did it AGAIN!
Grady’s second homer in as many innings makes it a 6-1 game in the 4th!#BEEaFan @grady_jace pic.twitter.com/9h2xI6y1uO
— Augusta GreenJackets (@GreenJackets) April 26, 2024
I had some level of disappointment in Jace Grady to start this season, as I thought he would likely end up as Augusta’s best bat and possibly force a promotion to Rome. Grady just didn’t make much hard contact to start the year and hit batted ball quality was poor, but he had quite the day on Thursday to get some relief. Grady absolutely smoked two balls in this game, getting two home runs to lead the GreenJackets offense in a big way. He was joined in success by Drew Compton, who at this point has long since proven that the Braves need to find some way of getting him at bats in High-A. Compton reached base three times in this game, and that’s the sixth time in his now 12 game hitting streak that he has reached base three times in a game. Compton added in his sixth double of the streak and he has been far and away the team’s best hitter through April.
Mitch Farris has been an interesting pitcher this season. He came into the system as a guy whose changeup we knew would do damage at the Single-A level, and so far it has, but his command hasn’t been as crisp as was expected and he has started to really pile on walks. He had three in this game, but he made up for it by striking out five batters and that has been his season in a nutshell. Farris has 25 strikeouts in 13 innings this season, and he shut down the Fireflies for three innings of scoreless relief.