(20-27) Mississippi Braves 3, (22-24) Jacksonville Suns 5
- Dustin Peterson, LF: 2-4 2B, RBI, .267/.340/.438
- Johan Camargo, 2B: 2-4 2B, R, .255/.311/.340
- Chris Ellis, SP: 7.0 IP, 5H, 3ER, 2BB, 5K, 3.00 ERA
Ellis pitched effectively by allowing just 3 over 7 innings, but picked up his second loss of the season. If you talk to him, he might be most upset about the 0-2 day at the plate that lowered his line to .294/.294/.412. The first run Ellis surrendered was the manufactured type -- he allowed a double, a sacrifice bunt, and a sacrifice fly to score that first run. Fast-forward to the sixth and Ellis allowed a pair of singles before a triple scored the remaining 2 runs allowed. He pitched one more inning and got through the order 1-2-3.
After a rather impressive start of the season by Roney that saw him being named by Mark Bowman as an arm to look out for in Atlanta, he's struggled a bit recently to put a pause on that. It's due in part mainly to the 11 walks he's allowed over his last 10 appearances. He now has 15 walks on the season, which fuels his now-inflated 1.57 WHIP. He was known for his splits against right-handed batters but that is also taking a hit because of the walks, as can be seen by his rather odd slash line: .136/.360(!!!)/.243. And while his K rate is outstanding (14K/9), he will be stuck in Mississippi for now because of his 6.52 BB/9.
Down 3-0 is when Mississippi started to get their offense together. Dansby Swanson extended his hitting streak to 12 games in the 6th on a 2 out single. He was brought home on a Dustin Peterson double shortly afterwards to make the score 3-1. Mississippi then scored another run in the 7th after Jordy Lara picked up his 2nd double of the season, and scored later in the inning on a Matt Lipka groundout to cut the deficit to 3-2. Unfortunately, Jacksonville tacked on 2 more runs in the 9th for a final score of 5-3.
Next Game: 5/27 vs Jacksonville Suns @ 7:00 PM CT
Pitching Probables
JAC: Brice, 3-2 1.99 ERA
MIS: Newcomb, 1-2 3.91 ERA
(18-27) Carolina Mudcats 10, (26-20) Myrtle Beach Pelicans 2
- Braxton Davidson, RF: 2-4 2R, 2B, 3RBI, .226/.314/.329
- Jordan Edgerton, 3B: 3-4 BB, RBI, 2R, .190/.239/.298
- Matt Withrow, SP: 6.0IP, 2H, 2ER, 3BB, 8K, 4.17 ERA
This was an old-fashioned butt whooping right here. It was a tie until the 6th, but then Carolina scored eight unanswered runs in the next two innings to effectively end the game. It was a much needed multi-hit game for Braxton, who is struggling mightily this year. He's still very young for A+ ball, but the next step in his progression hasn't come. He hasn't hit for much power (.099 ISO), his walk rate has dipped to 10%, and his strikeout rate is the highest of his career at 33.5%. All that said, he's a 19 year old in A+ ball so he has time to figure it out. The most encouraging part is that he's hitting .319/.421/.447 over his last 13 games with a rather nice 9 walks during that span -- again unfortunately, he has also struck out 17 times over those 13 games.
Pelicans starter Jeremy Null came into this game having allowed just 1 run and 7 hits over 3 appearances and was shelled for 10 hits and 4 earned runs. Every Carolina batter except for the DH, Tanner Murphy, collected a hit, and 5 had multi-hit games.
With his brother, Chris, back in Atlanta -- Matt Withrow had the best start of his year, striking out a season high 8 hitters. He was followed by A.J. Minter, who now has an impressive 0.00 ERA and 0.50 WHIP on the season (7 games). Minter is a fast riser who many thought would be in the majors last year had it not been for his elbow injury. Expect the Braves to be cautious with him in terms of innings and pitches -- but not with promotions. The most impressive part is that he's only allowed 3 walks since returning from TJ surgery. Taylor Lewis replaced Minter and had his first outing since being promoted from Rome -- allowing a pair of hits over 1.2 innings pitched.
Next Game: 5/27 vs Frederick Keys @ 7:00 PM ET
Pitching Probables
CAR: Povse, 3-2 2.66 ERA
FRE: Long, 2-2 3.41 ERA
(19-28) Rome Braves 7, (22-24) Greenville Drive 4
- Jonathan Morales, DH: 2-4 2B, RBI, .306/.341/.414
- Lucas Herbert, C: 2-4, 2RBI, .227/.288/.288
- Jim Johnson, SP: 1.0 IP, 1H, 0ER, 0BB, 2K, 0.00 ERA
Things got off to a promising start as relief pitcher Jim Johnson made his first rehab start. He only allowed just a single and most importantly, 57% of the pitches he threw were for strikes. Touki Toussaint came in to replace Jim and was, quite frankly, horrendous. Without allowing a hit, Touki allowed 3 earned runs thanks to 5 walks throwing 22 balls on 36 pitches. His final line ended up being 0.1 IP, 0H, 3ER, 5BB, and Greenville would have had five walks in a row had it not been for a fly out by Roldani Baldwin. Touki was not good and very bad, which is surprising because he had been effective over his last 5 starts. Hopefully he quickly forgets that this game ever happened. Matt Custred came in for relief of Touki in that disastrous second inning and allowed a run to score on a wild pitch before striking out the final two. Custred went on to go 3.2 IP and allowed just 2 hits and 1 earned run while striking out 6. Grayson Jones and Bladimir Matos both came out of the pen to pitch 2 innings themselves. The pen was outstanding and really was the reason Rome won after falling down early.
The bats came alive for Rome, who enjoyed multi-hit games from 5 players last night. Didder hit his second homer of the season, and Baez is beginning to make some good contact after struggling to start the season. While he has not hit for much power, Baez has made a massive jump in his walk rate. Baez has picked up 7 walks in 12 games this season after walking 6 times in 62 games last season.
Also of note: Lucas Herbert extended his hitting streak to 4 games and has reached base in 13 of his last 14 games hitting .296/.361/.389. Austin Riley went 0-5 picking up 3 strikeouts which is now 10 strikeouts in his last 3 games. Alejandro Salazar extended his hitting streak to 5 games after his impressive 3 hit night last night which has seen his batting average rise from .242 to .273.
Next Game: 5/27 vs Greenville Drive @ 7:00 PM ET
ROM: Soroka, 1-4 2.37 ERA
GRN: Almonte, 0-1 3.60 ERA