As the title says Julio Teheran was named the IL Pitcher of the Week (and Mike Minor did the same last week) but the Braves got two fantastic outings tonight from Chris Masters and Tim Gustafson. The Braves were also up against two of the top prospects in baseball in Jesus Montero (Gwinnett) and Bryce Harper (Rome). The went a combined 6-8 with a double and two walks.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees 3, Gwinnett Braves 1
- Jose Constanza RF - 2-5 K, .337 Avg
- Jordan Schafer CF 2-4 2B, K, .272 Avg
- Wilkin Ramirez DH-2-4 2B, .234 Avg
- Yohan Flande 2.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R(0ER), 2 BB, 5 K, 2.87 ERA
Gwinnett had men in scoring position in five different innings (including men on second and third with one out in the 7th) and could only produce one run. Jacob Thompson allowed eleven men to reach base in just 4.2 innings and, amazingly, gave up just two runs. Yohan Flande has been pretty impressive recently. He has struck out twelve in his last 6.2 innings of work. He is just 25 years old and was a decent prospect in the Phillies organization two seasons ago.
Huntsville Stars 0, Mississippi Braves 2
- C.J. Retherford 2-4 2B, RBI, K, .204 Avg
- Gerrardo Rodriguez 2-4 CS(1), .210 Avg
- Tim Gustafson 8 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, 5.02 ERA
A different pitcher puts up a fantastic start every night in the minors. Tim Gustafson - drafted in 2006 - put together a fantastic outing for Mississippi tonight. After his disastrous outing on April 27th Gustafson needed a game like this to get back in gear. The Braves scattered ten hits and fours walks throughout the game and just scored two, luckily that is all they needed tonight.
Lynchburg Hillcats 9, Wilmington Blue Rocks 1
- L.V. Ware LF - 2-4 HR(1), 3 RBI, 2 K, .290 Avg
- Philip Gosselin 2B - 2-5 2 2B, RBI, .247 Avg
- Joseph Terdoslavich 1B - 2-5 2B, RBI, K, .253 Avg
- Joe Leonard 3B - 1-4 2B, BB, K, .267 Avg
- Andrelton Simmons SS - 2-4 2B, RBI, K, .321 Avg
- Chris Masters 7 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 9 K, 1.11 ERA
The Hillcats get a nice win on the back of great pitching and great hitting. Chris Masters made his third start of the season and has posted a 1.06 ERA in those three outings. The offense really showed up in this one pounding out sixteen hits with seven of them going for extra bases. Andrelton Simmons is hitting .429 over his last ten games and he has even shown a little pop. For the season he has just five walks in 78 at bats. I'd love to see him taking some more free passes and really round out his offensive game. Likewise Joe Leonard has started to come around in his last ten as well. He has collected all of his extra base hits in that span and has an OPS just under 1.000 during that span.
Hagerstown Suns 5, Rome Braves 0
- Edward Salcedo SS - 1-4 2B, E(9), .286 Avg
- David Rohm RF - 2-4 .245 Avg
- Aaron Northcraft 4.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R(0ER), 1 BB, 2 K, 2 E(2), 1.13 ERA
Bryce Harper continues to do work against anyone and everyone. He went 3-3 with a double and two walks in the contest. The hype is justified folks. On the flip side the Braves offense mustered just four hits on the day with just the one extra base hit from Salcedo and just one walk. All in all this was just a poor showing from the Braves.