It was…not a banner night in Braves country from top to bottom.
Well, it was not a great evening for the Braves organization as not only did they fall in extra innings to the Giants, but their minor league squads went a combined 1-3, At least Mississippi played well with strong performances from Spencer Strider, Shea Langeliers, and Braden Shewmake. Lets get into the games.
Gwinnett Stripers 0, Nashville Sounds 7
- Cristian Pache, CF: 2-4, .772 OPS
- Yolmer Sanchez, SS: 1-2, 2B, BB, .663 OPS
- Jose Rodriguez, SP: 3 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 4.93 ERA
Not much to get excited about with this game as the Stripers fell behind early and it just continued to get worse as they fell to Nashville by the score of 7-0. Jose Rodriguez got the start for Gwinnett and had a bit of a stinker of a start which was unfortunate given that he had a nice run of three straight appearances where he had given up one earned run or less. The rest of the damage against Gwinnett was done against Josh Tomlin who gave up three runs in three innings of work which, frankly, seemed somewhat familiar.
On offense, there was none really to speak of as the Stripers scattered five hits over the course of the game. Cristian Pache did have a multi-hit game which continued his strong run of play over the last couple of months. Yolmer Sanchez had the lone extra-base hit for Gwinnett with a double. Drew Waters has not looked good at the plate of late and that continued on Friday evening with an 0-for-5 night.
Mississippi Braves 5, Chattanooga Lookouts 4
- Shea Langeliers, C: 1-3, HR, 2 RBI, 2 BB, .836 OPS
- Braden Shewmake, SS: 3-5, 2 2B, .672 OPS
- Spencer Strider, SP: 4.2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 4.71 ERA
Mississippi was the lone bright spot for the Braves’ organization as they managed to win a back and forth game with Chattanooga by the final score of 5-4. Spencer Strider starts are always fun and last night was no exception as his fastball had a ton of life at the top of the zone while hitting 96-99 mph. It does seem like at the end of the minor league season here, the Braves are giving pitchers a pretty firm limit of around 80 pitches which is the only reason he was pulled from this game as he looked awesome striking out seven in 4 2/3 innings. Mississippi would have had this game won easily if not for a rough relief appearance for Emmanuel Ramirez as he gave up a three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh that actually put Chattanooga ahead and forced Mississippi to rally in the top of the ninth.
Fortunately, the offense did their jobs on Friday evening and that started with Shea Langeliers’ 22nd home run of the season. He has had quite the season in Double-A both at the plate as well as behind it. Braden Shewmake had a three hit night as did Jacob Pearson while Greyson Jenista (who has quietly been pretty awesome of late) and Jefry Ramos had multi-hit games of their own. Drew Lugbauer has turned back into a pumpkin for the month of September, unfortunately, as he has slashed .143/.265/.310 during the month.
Rome Braves 1, Hickory Crawdads 7
- Shean Michel, RF: 1-3, 3B, BB, .604 OPS
- Vaughn Grissom, SS: 1-2, BB, HBP, 1.114 OPS
- Jake McSteen, SP: 3.2 IP, 6 H, 6 R (1 ER), 0 BB, 4 K, 4.21 ERA
An unfortunate defensive miscue led to a five-run fourth inning off of Jake McSteen as the Rome Braves fell by the final score of 7-1. McSteen has been okay for Rome this season, but this night was not his night as he left his start with Rome trailing 6-0. A Garrett Saunder error in the fourth inning was very costly as led to a big inning capped off by a three-run triple. The Rome bullpen combined to give up just one earned run the rest of the way, but the damage was already done.
There was not much in the way of offense as the only run that was driven in was on a Michael Harris groundout. Vaughn Grissom did reach base three times with a single, walk, and HBP as he continues to impress after his promotion. Shean Michael had the lone extra base hit for the Braves on Friday as he connected for a triple that did end up leading to Rome’s only run of the game.
Augusta GreenJackets 4, Myrtle Beach Pelicans 11
- Cade Bunnell, 1B: 2-3, HR, 2 RBI, BB, .816 OPS
- Adam Zebrowski, C: 2-3, RBI, BB, .566 OPS
- Jared Johnson, SP: 3.1 IP, 6 H, 6 ER, 4 BB, 3 K, 7.11 ERA
Augusta actually played pretty well in this one except for one absolute disaster of an inning as the GreenJackets lost to Myrtle Beach by the score of 11-4. Jared Johnson was his usual self. He missed some bats, but he didn’t have much command and the fastball does not have a ton of movement even thought the velo looked pretty good. He avoided damage until the bottom of the fourth inning when EVERYTHING fell apart. He exited that inning with six runs on his ledger while recording just one out. Things did not improve when the bullpen got involved and after what seems like an eternity…the Pelicans had scored 11 runs in the fourth and that was that.
On the plus side, there were some decent offensive performances in this one. Cade Bunnell had a good night including his 17th home run of the season while Christian Robinson had his first home run as a GreenJacket as well. Bunnell, Justyn-Henry Malloy, and Adam Zebrowski all had multi-hit games as the 3-6 hitters for Augusta accounted for all of offense for Augusta on Friday. Get em’ tomorrow.
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