Atlanta Braves Minor Leaguers Teheran and Spruill Pitch Well But Get Different Results

Another tough offensive night for everyone but Rome (Gwinnett was ok as well). Zeke Spruill collected his sixth complete game of the year and has been impressive though not dominant this year. Julio Teheran put in a solid start to collect his 15th win and several hitters for Rome and Danville stayed hot.

Norfolk Tides 2, Gwinnett Braves 4

• Wilkin Ramirez, LF 3-4, 2 SB(17), K, .259 Avg
• Mauro Gomez, 1B 1-4, HR(20), 2 RBI, .282 Avg
• Julio Teheran 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 5 K, 2.22 ERA

Julio Teheran put together yet another solid start for Gwinnett and the Braves keep pace with Durham who also won tonight. Teheran also improved his record on the year to 15-2 and leads the International League in both ERA and wins, which are the best stats to use to see a pitcher's true talent level. Wilkin Ramirez led off tonight and of course an idea that crazy worked. He collected three hits and stole two bases. Maybe he has been used wrong all these years.

Birmingham Barons 1, Mississippi Braves 0

• Sean Henry, RF 2-3, 2B, .245 Avg
• Zeke Spruill 9 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 1 K, 3.46 ERA

I don't even remember if Zeke Spruill was on my prospect list last season but he has certainly put himself back on it for this offseason if only because he has shown he can be a workhorse starter. He threw just 105 pitches tonight though only 58 we for strikes. He didn't give up any extra base hits but still got the loss.

Lynchburg Hillcats @ Kinston Indians 

Postponed. 

Kannapolis Intimidators 7, Rome Braves 6 - 10 Innings

• Tommy La Stella, 2B 2-5, HR(8), 3 RBI, .325 Avg
• David Rohm, RF 3-5, 2B, K, .277 Avg
• Matt Weaver, 3B 4-5, 2B, RBI, SB(1), .287 Avg

It hasn't been brought up much (at least not by me), but the R-Braves are 14-5 in their last 19 games. They have scored four or more runs in 14 of those games which is a huge swing from earlier in the season when the offense was terrible. A big part of that has been the play of La Stella and Rohm this month. La Stella has an 1.100 OPS in August and Rohm is just over .900 after a rough first half of the year. Chris Garcia and Evan Gattis have both put up OPSs near 1.100 this month as well. 

Johnson City Cardinals 2, Danville Braves 5

• Nick Ahmed, SS 1-4, 2 RBI, BB, CS(6), .263 Avg
• Fernando De Los Santos, 2B 2-5, 2 2B, .326 Avg
• Chase Larsson, CF-RF 3-4, 2 2B, .249 Avg
• John Cornely 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K, 2.18 ERA

With their win tonight the D-Braves move into a tie for first place in their division. The offense got their work done tonight with the middle of their order (Drury, Beckwith and Sanchez) only collecting one hit and one walk. Chase Larsson has woken up in the last week with five extra base hits in his last six games. Fernando De Los Santos has been the real hot hand for the offense recently. Over his last ten games he is hitting .361 with seven doubles, a triple and two homers. 

GCL Braves 1, GCL Tigers 2 - 12 Innings

• Aris Alcantara, 1B 1-4, RBI, K, .258 Avg
• Frank Lafreniere 5 IP, 2 H, 1 R(0 ER), 1 BB, 3 K, 3.51 ERA

The most striking aspect of this boxscore for me is the Braves used six pitchers in this game. The Tigers used just two. MiLB doesn't have pitch counts below AA usually so I don't know what was going on there, but it just looks weird in the boxscore. This game also ended on a walkoff walk when Charlie Robertson couldn't record an out in the twelfth inning.