Gwinnett Braves 6, Syracuse Chiefs 1
- Lane Adams, CF: 3-4, 2 2B, RBI, run, .297/.339/.508
- Dustin Peterson, LF: 1-4, 3 RBI, run, .258/.343/.323
- Sean Newcomb, SP: 5 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 9 K, 2.96 ERA
Gwinnett got yet another strong outing from Sean Newcomb as Gwinnett beat Syracuse 6-1. Newcomb has honestly put together a really strong first quarter of the season or so with now six starts in his first ten where he has given up 1 earned run or less while sporting a K/9 rate north of 11. Yes...he is still walking a lot of batters, but even that has seen improvement in the sense that even when he is missing his spots, more often than not it isn’t by nearly as much as he was last year and he is doing a much better job of pitching with runners on. Cutting down on the walks is likely priority #1 for his development, but the lack of big innings against him has been heartening to see.
On offense, the middle of the order did most of the heavy lifting with Mel Rojas Jr. and Lane Adams reaching base a total of five times. While Dustin Peterson only had one hit in the game, that does not mean he wasn’t impactful as he drove in three runs. He has 7 RBIs in his past three games and seems to be rounding into form in his return from injury. Anthony Recker did his part as well with a double and a solo shot. Nine of his 11 hits this season have been for extra-bases.
Mississippi Braves 3, Pensacola Blue Wahoos 2
- Ronald Acuna, CF: 2-4, .375/.439/.597 (AA)
- Kade Scivicque, C: 1-3, run, .302/.341/.397
- Michael Mader, SP: 4 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, 2.48 ERA
Michael Mader did well in his first start of the season and Mississippi took advantage of a defensive miscue (to put it mildly) to rally late in the game and win 3-2. Mississippi had to shuffle things around a bit with the injury to Luiz Gohara and the addition of Kris Medlen to the roster, so Mader stepped up to make a spot start and did well, although he did uncharacteristically walk a bunch of guys. Understandably, the M-Braves didn’t want to push Mader too deep into the game in his first start and the bullpen came up big with 5 scoreless innings which gave the offense a chance to rally.
On offense, it was a relatively quiet night. Predictably, the best performance came from Ronald Acuna who continues to reward the Braves’ faith after his promotion to AA. In addition to continuing to have an OPS over 1.000 in AA, this game was Acuna’s 19th multi-hit game this season (he has played in 47 games total). That said, there wasn’t much doing on offense on the rest of the team until the 7th inning. After the Braves loaded the bases with no outs, an RBI groundout scored their first run. After that, a wild pitch turned into a Benny Hill skit and ultimately scored two runners and give the Braves a lead they would not relinquish.
Florida Fire Frogs 4, Palm Beach Cardinals 12
- Anfernee Seymour, CF: 1-4, RBI, BB, 2 runs, .329/.382/.386
- Ray-Patrick Didder, 2B: 2-3, BB, run, .213/.324/.299
- Drew Harrington, SP: 4 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 3.38 ERA
The Fire Frogs continued their struggles as they got thumped by Palm Beach 12-4. Drew Harrington had a tough start as he found himself pitching with runners on more often than not. After a really strong start to the season, batters down in high-A have started to hit him harder and more often and his batting average against on the season now sits at .281. Also, nine of the 12 walks he has allowed this season have come in his last 4 games. Despite Harrington’s tough start, the Fire Frogs were still in the game when Andres Santiago and Corbin Clouse came on to relieve him. By the time they left, however, things had got ugly and a win was well out of reach.
Only four hitters recorded hits for the Fire Frogs with Ray-Patrick Didder and the newly re-promoted Tanner Murphy each having multi-hit days. Anfernee Seymour continues to hit as he has put up even better numbers than he had during his hot start to the season in Rome. Despite the lack of success on batted balls, the first four hitters still managed to add RBIs to their ledgers, but given the struggles of the bullpen it was for naught.
Rome Braves 9, Augusta GreenJackets 1
- Brett Cumberland, C: 2-4, HR, 3 RBI, 2 runs, .264/.450/.536
- Justin Ellison, LF: LF: 2-5, HR, 2 RBI, run, .265/.294/.469
- Jeremy Walker, SP: 7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 10 K, 5.40 ERA
Rome has now won 7 of their past 8 games in large part due to Brett Cumberland going beast mode yet again as the Braves beat Augusta 9-1. After struggling in his previous three starts, Jeremy Walker broke out of his funk in a big way in this game as he went 7 strong inning while striking out 10 batters. The start was easily the best one of his pro career and if he can continue to find ways to miss bats consistently, in particular with his offspeed offerings, he has the fastball to keep hitters honest and put up good results on the regular. Raymar Navarro came on and pitched two innings of scoreless relief to secure the win for Rome.
On offense, Randy Ventura just keeps hitting. After his hitting streak was broken up the game before, he got right back to it with a two-hit performance. Brett Cumberland is out of his mind right now as he is hitting .410 with 5 homers and 20 RBIs over his last 10 games. Kurt Hoekstra added two extra-base hits and Justin Ellison hit his first home run of the season. Rome continued to terrorize folks on the basepaths with three more stolen bases from Ellison, Cristian Pache, and Marcus Mooney. Surprisingly, Rome’s 78 stolen bases only ranks 2nd in the league behind Asheville.