Gwinnett Stripers 6, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders 1
- Ronald Acuna, LF: 0-3, 2 BB, 2 K
- Johan Camargo, SS: 2-5, RBI
- Rio Ruiz, 3B: 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI
- Kolby Allard, SP: 5.2 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
Gwinnett got the scoring started early and pulled away late in the game as the Stripers beat the Railriders by the score of 6-1. In what will likely a daily update, Ronald Acuna went 0-3 with a pair of walks in a couple of good at-bats while also striking out a couple of times. Johan Camargo made his eighth rehab start and had a pair of hits as he looks to make up for the time he lost in spring training due to injury. The top of the order did a lot of getting on base with help from six walks to the 1-5 hitters and the bottom of the order did a great job of driving them home as Rio Ruiz, Rob Brantley, and Christian Colon combined to go 7-11 with 4 RBIs. A big eighth inning that saw the Stripers score three runs turned what had been a tight game into a convincing win.
On the pitching side, Kolby Allard had a much better start than his first of the year as he went 5 2/3 innings while only giving up one earned run on four hits while striking out five batters. Also of note, he went nearly six innings while throwing 85 pitches (53 of which were strikes). He was quite good. The bullpen crew of David Peterson, Jesse Biddle and Jason Hursh combined for 3 1⁄3 scoreless innings while only allowing one hit (and two walks fwiw) to secure the win for Gwinnett.
Mississippi Braves 3, Pensacola Blue Wahoos 8
- Austin Riley, 3B: 2-4, HR(3), RBI
- Tyler Neslony, RF: 1-3, BB
- Kyle Wright, SP: 1 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 1 K
Kyle Wright had arguably his worst outing as pro and Pensacola pulled away late as the Braves fell to the Blue Wahoos by the score of 8-3. One shouldn’t draw conclusions about Wright from just a single start (everyone has off nights), but this was not his finest effort. our friend Braves Prospects summed it up well.
Kyle Wright only went one inning tonight and it was rough.
— Prospects Braves (@ProspectsBraves) April 17, 2018
BB, 2B, HR, 2B, 2B, BB, K, GIDP
Mississippi decided that this just wasn’t Kyle’s game and hooked him after that tough 1st inning to live and fight another day. Andres Santiago filled in ably for the next five innings as he did not give up an earned run while allowing four hits and a walk against four strikeouts over that span. Job well done, sir. However, Enderson Franco was not so fortunate as he got shelled in the 8th inning for four runs and that put the game out of reach for Mississippi.
On offense, Austin Riley continues to rake early for Mississippi as he connected for his third home run ason and recorded the only multi-hit game for the Braves. Historically, Riley has been a slow starter before coming on strong in the second half of seasons, so his hot start to the year (.316/.366/.632 in 11 games) is a welcome sight to be sure. He has also been excellent defensively at the hot corner. Tyler Neslony continued to do good work as he reached base twice in the game and Tyler Marlette had a hit and an RBI in the game.
Rome Braves 9, Asheville Tourists 6
- Drew Waters, CF: 2-5, 2 RBI, SB, run
- Riley Delgado, SS: 3-5, 3 RBI, run
- Drew Lugbauer, DH: 3-5, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 3 runs
- Kyle Muller, SP: 5 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K
Drew Lugbauer was a man on a mission and the Rome offense backed Kyle Muller’s start in a big way as the Braves beat Asheville 9-6. Kyle Muller had another strong start for Rome as he reached five innings in a start for the first time in 2018 (not unusual given how early season innings are managed, but worth noting nonetheless) and only gave up two hits and a run while striking out four batters. Dilmer Mejia struggled in relief as he gave up four runs (three earned) in less than three innings of work and Walter Borkovich struggled as well in his inning and a third of work as he gave up three hits, allowed an inherited runner to score, and gave up a homer of his own in the ninth. Fortunately, the Rome offense had staked the team to enough of a lead to prevent the bullpen’s struggles from costing Rome a win.
Speaking of Rome’s offense...there was quite a bit of it. Drew Waters recorded his fourth multi-hit game of the season which is impressive when you consider he has ten games of baseball under his belt so far. He also stole his first base of the season. Riley Delgado has come out of nowhere to have one of the hotter starts offensively in the Braves’ system as he had a three-hit night. He isn’t going to be a power bat, but he has been good in the field and is batting .361 through his first nine games of the season so he is worth keeping an eye on. However, the star of the evening was Drew Lugbauer as he connected for two home runs (three hits total on the evening) as he looked to end a bit of a slump to start the season. Jean Carlos Encarnacion had a hit and an RBI in the game as well to bring his current hitting streak to seven games and he is batting .378/.410/.459 to start the year which seems pretty good.