Gwinnett Braves 5, Rochester Red Wings 1
- Rio Ruiz, DH: 3-3, 2 HR, 3B, 4 RBI, .273/.359/.401
- Emilio Bonifacio, CF: 2-3, 2 3B, 1 run, .284/.349/.347
- Jed Bradley, SP: 6 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, 1.50 ERA
The newly promoted Jed Bradley was excellent in his first start for Gwinnett and Rio Ruiz backed him with arguably his best game of the season as Gwinnett won 5-1. Bradley’s development as a prospect for the Braves has been fascinating given his history. He was among the more highly regarded players in the 2011 draft that was supposed to be a polished college arm out of Georgia Tech that featured a four-pitch mix and he was drafted in the first round by the Brewers. Unfortunately for Jed, he struggled to live up to that expectation for Milwaukee, but since the Braves have acquired him he has been among the better pitchers in the system as he has seen spikes in his K rate (over 2 more Ks per 9 as a Brave) as well as his ability to induce weaker contact which has paid big dividends for him. With another strong start under his belt with 6 innings of 1-run ball, Bradley appears to be back on track and is a testament to how development as a player occurs at different speeds and at different times for everyone.
On offense. tonight was the Rio Ruiz show. We have seen Rio have good games this year and his success this season has been a very welcome development for an organization that is going to be in need of position player reinforcement in the majors in the near future. However, on Saturday night, Rio had the best game of his career with a triple, 2 home runs, and 4 RBIS in three at-bats before the game was called early due to rain. The 22-year old has slashed .268/.345/.439 in the second half this season and a strong end to the season would be a big boon to his chances to seeing significant time with the big league club in 2017. It wasn’t ALL Rio tonight, as Emilio Bonifacio had a pair of triples in the game and Brandon Snyder had a hit and an RBI as well to account for the crux of Gwinnett’s offense.
Mississippi Braves 2, Pensacola Blue Wahoos 1 - F/16
- Ozzie Albies, 2B: 1-6, 2B, BB, .325/.399/.448
- Dustin Peterson, LF: 1-6, BB, .290/.349/.445
- Max Povse, SP: 8 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 2.45 ERA
Much to the sadness of this writer, this one took a while to resolve but fortunately Dustin Peterson drew the walk-off walk in the bottom of the 16th inning to secure the win 2-1. Its hard to overstate how excellent a job the Mississippi pitching staff did in this game. The staff combined to not give up a run at all before the top of the 16th inning (off of Steve Kent) and Max Povse was a big part of that with 8 shutdown innings where he allowed just two hits and 1 walk. Povse has gone at least 6 innings in his past 7 starts and has adapted to life in AA very well since being promoted there from Carolina in early July. AJ Minter, to the surprise of exactly no one, got in on the fun with an inning of scoreless relief and Caleb Dirks and Akeel Morris would secure the next 6 innings with 9 strikeouts against 1 walk.
Predictably, when two teams combine for 30 shutout innings before a run is scored, there wasn’t much to talk about on offense this even. Ozzie Albies had a double and a walk to continue his emergence from an earlier slump and Dustin Peterson added a hit to go along with his game-winning walk as well. Mississippi would get on the board with a throwing error by the catcher on a bunt that allowed the tying run to score. Then, mercifully and after an intentional walk, two batters later Dustin Peterson would end the game after forcing in the winning run.
Carolina Mudcats 2, Wilmington Blue Rocks 3
- Erison Mendez, 1B-CF: 2-4, HR, RBI, 2 runs, .241/.283/.318
- Kade Scivicque, DH: 1-3, BB, .231/.333/.231
- Ryan Clark, SP: 5 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 5.99 ERA
Ryan Clark had a perfectly serviceable start but the offense struggled yet again as Carolina fell to Wilmington 3-2. Clark has certainly had his fair share of rough starts to help earn his 1-13 record this season, but its hard to pin this one on him as he did well over 5 innings. He will likely repeat at Carolina next season, but given the aggressive promotion that got him to Carolina in the first place...repeating a level is hardly a terrible thing. Ryan Lawlor and Chad Sobotka combined for 3 innings of scoreless relief with 5 strikeouts.
Braxton Davidson had the night off and there wasn’t a ton to talk about on offense. Erison Mendez, a player not exactly known for having a ton of power, went deep for the first home run of his career and scored both of Carolina’s runs on the inning. Luis Valenzuela went 3-4 but beyond that the Carolina offense was stymied as they left ten runners on base in the game.
Rome Braves 10, Asheville Tourists 4
- Austin Riley, 3B: 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI, BB, run, .261/.318/.450
- Ray-Patrick Didder, CF: 2-4, HR, 3 runs, BB, .275/.390/.384
- Carlos Castro, DH: 2-5, HR, 4 RBI, .255/.293/.478
- Touki Toussaint, SP: 5.2 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 8 K, 4.11 ERA
Rome has been doing work of late and used another offensive explosion to beat Asheville 10-4. Touki had himself a very Touki game with 5.2 innings of one run ball with 8 strikeouts, but he also had 4 walks as a reminder that he still has a ways to go in the control department. No player in the system has a higher ceiling than Touki and its likely that the Braves move him up next season to both make room for the gaggle of pitching prospects in rookie ball as well as to see if he can rise to the challenge. Josh Graham pitched 1.1 innings of scoreless relief before Jon Kennedy gave up two unearned runs thanks to Anfernee Seymour’s 37th error of the season and a passed ball on Jonathan Morales.
On offense, lots of good things are happening for Rome. 5 Rome players had multi-hit games and Austin Riley and Carlos Castro combined for 4 hits (including a Carlos Castro homer) and 6 RBIs to provide the sort of middle of the order production you would want. Ray-Patrick Didder has decided of late to preserve his body and avoid a few pitches which paid dividends in this game as he led the game off with his 5th homer of the season. With Ronald Acuna a likely candidate to repeat at Rome given the length of time his has missed due to injury, Didder will get a chance to excel in center field in the higher levels of the minors.
Danville Braves 7, Greeneville Astros 4
- Derian Cruz, SS: 3-4, 3B, 2 RBI, run, .214/.228/.321
- Cristian Pache, CF: 1-4, 2B, RBI, run, .323/.353/.446
- Jeremy Walker, SP: 5 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 1.72 ERA
Danville used a strong all-around offensive performance and some help from the 2016 draft class to secure a 7-4 win. Jeremy Walker, the Braves’ 5th round pick in 2016, pitched a strong 5 innings, giving up just one run and lowering his season ERA to 1.72 ERA. Derian Cruz and Brett Cumberland both drove in a pair of runs with Cruz having his best game since joining Danville. Cristian Pache hasn’t stopped hitting this season and continued to do good work with a double, RBI, and run scored and Ramon Osuna joined him with a double and RBI as well.
GCL Braves 0, GCL Phillies 2
- Alex Aquino, 3B: 3-4, 2B, .261/.323/.361
- Ricardo Rodriguez, C: 1-3, 2B, .254/.308/.310
- Ramon Taveras, SP: 4.1 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 4.05 ERA
Not much going on for the GCL Braves as they were shut out by the Phillies 2-0. Alex Aquino had a trio of hits and Ricardo Rodriguez, who joined the Braves in the Christian Bethancourt deal, added a double. Ramon Taveras had a good start down in the GCL with Brandon T. White giving up a run in 1.2 innings before Ryan Schlosser ended the game for the Braves with two scoreless innings.