Atlanta Braves Minor League Recap: Acuna extends hit streak, Austin Riley continues to sizzle

Gwinnett Braves 2, Durham Bulls 3

Box Score

• Ronald Acuna, CF: 1-5, .351/.404/.585
• Kade Scivicque, C: 2-4, 2 RBI, .241/.323/.276
• Max Fried, SP: 4 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 6 K

Despite an extremely strong start from a recently demoted Max Fried the Durham Bulls wrapped up the division with their incredible 79th win of the season in a close one against Gwinnett. The most amazing thing about this game is the fact that the Gwinnett staff gave up a total of ONE hit - by Max Fried (single) but managed to lose. Enrique Burgos and Philip Pfeifer walked three runs in with the bases loaded in the 8th inning to give the game to the Bulls after what was a dominating game by the pitching staff.

The Ronald Acuna hit streak was extended to 12 games, and he has hits in 21 of his last 22 games - including 14 multi-hit games. Xavier Avery was one of two Gwinnett players to have an extra-base hit as he doubled in the game and is now enjoying an .847 OPS on the season. Ever since putting on a Gwinnett jersey Xavier has put up career highs in OPS. Rio Ruiz extended his hit streak to five games with a single of his own and after struggling right after his demotion to Gwinnett the third baseman has turned things around a bit and now has a solid .790 OPS on the season. His splits are still a bit chaotic as he has an .849 OPS vs RHP, and an .625 OPS vs LHP.

Max Fried first start back in the minors was fantastic (4IP 1H 0R 2BB 6K - 64 gamescore) and Jason Hursh (1IP 0H 0R 0BB 1K), and David Peterson (2IP 0H 0R) were solid out of the pen for Gwinnett.

Mississippi Braves 6, Chattanooga Lookouts 2

Box Score

• Austin Riley, 3B: 2-3, 2B, BB, RBI, .305/.369/.468
• Travis Demeritte, 2B: 2-4, 2B, RBI, .221/.301/.393
• Touki Toussaint, SP: 5 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 7 BB, 4 K, 2.33 ERA

Wild Touki made an appearance last night as he walked seven over five innings of work but still only gave up two hits. The 2-run homerun he allowed in the fourth inning was the only extra-base hit he yielded. Even with his stuff missing he showed why he is such a highly thought of prospect as only gave up two hits over five innings. Corbin Clouse (3IP 2H 0R 0BB 2K), and Josh Graham (1IP 0H 0R 0BB 2K) shut the door over the last four innings to give Mississippi their 52nd win, and Touki his second win since being promoted to AA.

The suddenly surging Travis Demeritte went 2-for-4 which included his 18th double of the year. Austin “second-half” Riley went 2-for-3 with a walk and a double that knocked in Jared James in the 4th inning. Riley is now OPSing > 1.030 for the full month of August. Alex Jackson went 0-for-4 with 3 strikeouts, and Dylan Moore went 1-for-4 and is back hitting over .200 on a rather frustrating season for the utility player. Jonathan Morales went 1-for-4 - the catcher has struggling meeting the expectations set out for him this season as he is OPSing .428 since his promotion to AA.

Florida Fire Frogs 7, Dunedin Blue Jays 8

Box Score

• Brett Cumberland, C: 1-3, RBI, 2 BB, .269/.371/.371
• Carlos Castro, 1B: 3-5, 2B, RBI, run, .284/.307/.418
• Matt Withrow, SP: 5 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 1.76 ERA

In the most Florida Fire Frogs way possible - Florida stormed back from being down 6-1 in the 9th inning to actually take the lead at 7-6, but then lost the game 8-7. After 5 strong innings by Matt Withrow the trio of Kevin Matthews, Brandon S. White, and Chase Johnson-Mullins had a combined line of 3IP 9H 8R 5ER 4BB 3K. Brandon S. White faced 5 batters and failed to record an out.

Anfernee Seymour went 1-for-4 with a walk, double, and RBI and is hitting .282/.342/.362 in 80 games with Florida. The speed has not played out as he has 17SB and 17CS during that 80 game span as well. Carlos Castro continued his solid 2017 season with a 3-for-5 performance which included his 13th double on the season. After missing some time following getting hit in the head by a pitch - Castro has rebounded nicely after a slow start back and is back to having a .725 OPS on the season. Brett Cumberland got on base three more times with a very typical Brett Cumberland two walk outing. Even if the walk rate is way down in Florida Cumberland still has a 121 wRC+ in the 49 games there and is trending in the right direction. It seems like the Braves are getting almost exactly what they wanted from him - ~.260 hitter that hits for power. Remains to be seen what his walk rate will standardize at but if he continues to walk at a near 13% clip like he did in Rome - the Braves will be quite happy with that draft pick.

Rome Braves 0, Lexington Legends 4

Box Score

• Isranel Wilson, RF: 1-4, 2B, .252/.331/.319
• Leudys Baez, LF: 1-3, .289/.326/.489
• Bryse Wilson, SP: 5.2 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 2.52 ERA

In what is one of Bryse Wilson’s worst starts of the season (it was still good - that’s how good he has been this season) the Rome Braves offense was completely shut out unable to collect more than one extra-base hit - a double by Isranel Wilson. After Bryse’s 5.2 innings of work Walter Borkovich kept Rome in the game with 2.1 innings of hitless baseball, and Ryan Schlosser yielded one run in the 8th inning.

The duo of Anthony Bender and Arnaldo Hernandez were incredibly dynamic for Lexington - as the two gave up four hits, one walk, and struck out 12 Rome Braves hitters. Leuds Baez was one of the Rome batters to record a hit and he now has an .815 OPS in 22 games with Rome after recording an 1.000 OPS in 25 games with Danville. The 2-3-4 hitters (Mooney, Pache, Lugbauer) went 0-for-12 with 5 strikeouts. Lucas Herbert also picked up a single and is hitting .247/.312/.376 on the season. While his 2017 campaign hasn’t been amazing by any means it’s a nice bounce back season after a disastrous 2016.

Danville Braves 7, Pulaski 6 - F/10

Box Score

• Drew Waters, CF: 2-4, RBI, SB, 2 runs, .248/.329/.344
• Derian Cruz, 2B: 2-5, 2B, RBI, run, .246/.286/.328
• Odalvi Javier, SP: 3.1 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, 3.26 ERA

Danville rallied from being down 6-1 in the 8th inning to win 7-6 in 10 innings. With the comeback having started Danville turned to Cutter Dyals (1.1IP 0H 0R 1BB 1K) and Taylor Hyssong (2.0IP 0H 0R) to lock down the great come-from-behind win. The two relievers have enjoyed great seasons.

Drew waters enjoyed a fantastic gae going 2-for-4, scoring two runs, and collecting his fourth stolen base to set the table for Danville at the top of the lineup. Right underneath him Derian Cruz delivered - also with two hits. Kevin Maitan went 0-for-4 but had an RBI. The under-the-radar prospect Jean Carlos Encarnacion went 1-for-5 and is hitting .324 since being promoted from the GCL. The biggest hit of the game came from Griffin Benson who went 3-for-5 including a monstrous homer in the 9th inning - his first of the season. Raysheandall Michel, hitting ninth, went 2-for-5 with a double and is hitting .328/.385/.437 since being promoted from the GCL.

GCL Braves 4, GCL Blue Jays 3

Box Score

• Ricardo Rodriguez, C: 3-4, HR, RBI, .258/.280/.355
• Yunior Severino, 2B: 2-5, .272/.335/.420
• Guillermo Zuniga, SP: 3 IP, 5 H, 3 R (2 ER), 2 BB, 3 K, 3.32 ERA

GCL came from behind to win as they scored four unanswered runs to win their 27th game of the season. Hitters 2-8 all had hits - including a big performance by Ricardo Rodriguez who hit his first homer of the season. Jose Bermudez also hit his first homer of the season in the 7th inning which tied the game at 3-3. A double by Braulio Vasquez in the 8th to score Jeremy Fernandez was the fourth run of the game and gave us the final score of 4-3.

A rehabbing Ian Krol worked a perfect inning (1IP 0H 0R 0BB 1K). Filyer Sanchez made his stateside debut (3IP 0H 0R 0BB 1K).