Atlanta Braves Minor League Recap: Austin Riley homers again because of course he did

(19-16) Gwinnett Stripers 8, (13-19) Pawtucket Red Sox 4

Box Score

• Austin Riley, LF: 2-5, HR, RBI, .308/.378/.677
• Alex Jackson, C: 0-2, BB, HBP, .250/.327/.545
• Travis Demeritte, DH: 1-3, HR, BB, 3 RBI, .297/.395/.545
• Bryse Wilson, RP: 6 IP, 9 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 5.74 ERA

Gwinnett rode a five home run outburst which produced all eight of their runs in an 8-4 win over Pawtucket. Austin Riley got the offense rolling in the bottom of the first inning, clubbing his 13th home run of the season to tie the game up at one apiece. Riley leads the International League in home runs, and already has hit eight of them in ten games in the month of May. Another home run from Ryan LaMarre in the bottom of the second inning gave them a short-lived lead of 2-1, before a big third inning gave Gwinnett a lead they would not relinquish. Alex Jackson was hit by a pitch with one out in the inning, and Pedro Florimon singled to bring up Travis Demeritte with a couple of runners on and two out. Demeritte crushed a ball over the fence in center field, putting Gwinnett’s lead up to 5-2. Pawtucket clawed back within a run of the Stripers in the top of the sixth inning, so when the bottom of that frame came the Stripers were looking to add some insurance. They did so quickly with a solo home run from Andres Blanco and then after a base hit from Austin Riley, a home run from Adam Duvall put the Stripers up 8-4. Only three players in the International League have hit ten or more home runs this season, and two of them play for Gwinnett in Duvall and Riley. Alex Jackson reached twice in the game but did not record a hit, snapping a five game hitting streak for him.

Bryse Wilson was knocked around a bit for nine hits in his six innings of work, but was able to do enough damage control to keep the Stripers in the lead and prevent any truly explosive innings from Pawtucket. Wilson allowed the first two batters of the game to reach on a double and a walk, then forced a double play before an infield hit brought in the first run of the game. Wilson was looking stronger and had retired his last 5 batters with two outs in the third inning, but a single and a triple broke that streak and brought in the second run against Wilson to tie up the game. Bryse worked around a couple of hits in the fourth inning, then set down the side in order in the fifth inning to protect a 5-2 lead. His start derailed in the sixth inning with back-to-back home runs to lead off the inning, but after that he was able to settle in and finish off the inning to keep the Stripers lead intact. Wilson had done well to limit home runs over his last three starts and the beginning of this game, and those two in the sixth broke a streak of 19 ¹⁄₃ innings pitched with only one home run allowed. Wes Parsons came in to fire two quick innings of scoreless relief, striking out two batters and walking one in the 8th and 9th. Grant Dayton came in to close out the game for the Stripers, and things got a bit shaky with a couple of one out hits but he was able to force a game-ending double play to give Gwinnett the win.

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Next Game: 5/11 vs (13-19) Pawtucket Red Sox @ 6:05 PM ET

Probable Starters

GWN: Kolby Allard (2-2, 4.20 ERA)

PAW: Matthew Kent

(17-16) Mississippi Braves 4, (23-12) Pensacola Blue Wahoos 1

Box Score

• Drew Waters, CF: 2-4, 2 SB, .343/.376/.530
• Connor Lien, LF: 1-4, HR, .216/.326/.514
• Andy Wilkins, 1B: 2-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI, .186/.297/.314
• Kyle Muller, SP: 7 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 2.45 ERA

Kyle Muller turned in a phenomenal start for Mississippi and the Braves pulled in some early runs thanks to three home runs to beat the Blue Wahoos 4-1. Drew Waters led off the game with the first of his two hits, and after stealing second base it seemed Tyler Neslony’s single would be enough to drive him in to give Mississippi the early lead. A good throw, however, hosed out Waters at home. Mississippi then had to settle for only two runs when Andy Wilkins crushed a home run to give them the lead. Drew had another hit and stolen base in the bottom of the third inning, but the Braves couldn’t do anything with it and the lead held fast at 2-0. Connor Lien was the man to add insurance runs in the sixth inning when he led the frame off with a solo home run, his fifth of the season. Despite being just May 10th Lien is already halfway to his career high of ten home runs. Two batters later Andy Wilkins slugged another home run that put Mississippi up by four runs in the game. Drew Waters added two more hits to his league leading hit total, and he now has six multi hit games out of ten in May. Waters hasn’t had a single hit game this month, either going 0-fer or knocking multiple hits in all ten of his games this month.

Kyle Muller was once again at his best in this game, firing seven innings and not allowing a batter to drive a run in against him. Muller had his highest percentage of strikes thrown this season, getting 63 of his 99 pitches in the zone. Muller was setting down the Pensacola offense with ease through the first three innings, with three strikeouts to his name and only one baserunner coming on a first inning walk. A base hit led off the fourth inning, but Muller bounced backed to strike out the next batter and then force an inning ending double play. Muller faced his first true jam in the sixth inning, with a double and a single to lead off the inning, but he worked out of it with no problems after a poor bunt and a double play ended the threat. A walk and a hit put runners on the corners with one out against Muller in the 7th inning, and after a strikeout the Blue Wahoos finally got a run on the board because Muller threw a wild pitch to score the runner from third. This snapped a streak of fourteen scoreless innings for Muller, and over his last two starts he has throw fourteen innings and allowed just one run. Jason Hursh pitched a scoreless inning of relief and then Josh Graham got the save with a perfect ninth inning.

Next Game: 5/11 vs (21-13) Montgomery Biscuits @ 7:05 PM ET

Probable Starters

MIS: TBD

MTG: TBD

(14-21) Florida Fire Frogs 9, (10-23) Jupiter Hammerheads 3

Box Score

• Greyson Jenista, RF: 2-5, RBI .230/.318/.345
• Jefrey Ramos, LF: 3-5, .246/.367/.385
• William Contreras, C: 1-5, 2B, .284/.346/.388
• Jasseel De La Cruz, SP: 7 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 2.84 ERA

Florida put up eight runs in a huge first inning and that was all they would need as they cruised to a 9-3 win. Florida wasted absolutely no time stepping on the throats of the Hammerheads, as each of the first eight batters in the game recorded hits and the only out came when Riley Unroe was thrown out at home on a William Contreras double. Unroe atoned for that mistake with his second at bat of the inning, crushing a two out grand slam that put the game out of reach early at 8-0. For fun the Fire Frogs added an extra run in the next inning after loading the bases with one out, then put the brakes on and held fast at nine runs for the next seven innings. For Unroe this was his first time driving in four runs in a game since June of 2016 and was his first grand slam since 2015. Jefrey Ramos led the way in the game with three hits, his second three hit performance of the season.

Jasseel De La Cruz was strong on the mound for Florida, with just the one poor inning to mar an otherwise sparkling start. De La Cruz walked the leadoff hitter in the game, but a couple of strikeouts brought that to no consequence. He allowed a leadoff single in the second inning before an inning ending double play erased that base runner. Jasseel began to struggle just a bit in the fourth inning with two base hits to lead off the inning and then a hard line drive out, but he bore down to force a strikeout and an infield pop up to escape with another scoreless inning. The lone inning of note against De La Cruz came in the fifth, when after quickly retiring the first two batters he hit a batter, then allowed three consecutive singles to score three runs. Jasseel finally ended the inning with a ground out, then allowed just one more base runner over the final 2 ¹⁄₃ innings. De La Cruz is the system leader with 44 strikeouts this season, and dominates in strikeout to walk rate with the second highest K% (29.5%, Ian Anderson leads with 29.6%) and the highest K%-BB% at 22.8%. His FIP is only bested by Jeremy Walker, and he’s second in the organization in innings pitched.

Next Game: 5/11 vs (10-23) Jupiter Hammerheads @ 5:30 PM ET

Probable Starters

FLO: Hayden Deal (2-2, 1.29 ERA)

JUP: Jordan Holloway (2-1, 2.29 ERA)

(15-18) Rome Braves 10, (13-20) Greenville 3

Box Score

• Trey Harris, DH: 0-3, 2 BB, RBI, .366/.455/.589
• Justin Dean, CF: 2-3, 3B, 2 BB, SB, .261/.371/.353
• Logan Brown, C: 2-5, 2 RBI, .300/.364/.388
• Jose Olague, SP: 5 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 4.02 ERA

Rome poured on the early runs in an offensive outburst that gave them a 10-3 win. Rome was the only team in the system to not record a home run, yet was the highest scoring team of the day in a system sweep. Justin Dean led off the game with a single, then stole second base and advanced to third on a throwing error before Andrew Moritz brought in the first run of the game. Another error in the second inning put Logan Brown on base, and a Jose Bermudez single with two outs pushed Rome’s lead up to 2-0. Greenville bounced back to tie the game up, but Rome was prepared with their big inning in the bottom of the fourth. Another error (this is the last one I promise) put Dean on base with one out, and a couple of two out walks loaded the bases. Logan Brown popped a go-ahead two RBI single to put Rome up 4-2, and then Griffin Benson cleared off the bases with a two run double to give Rome a commanding lead. Justin Dean tripled to lead off the fourth inning and came in on another Moritz sacrifice fly, and Rome’s lead had ballooned to 5 runs. Greenville couldn’t stop getting in their own way, and when Carlos Paraguate led off the 6th inning with a strikeout he still managed to get on thanks to a wild pitch. Two walks loaded the bases, then Trey Harris walked to push in the 8th run of the game before another wild pitch by a fresh pitcher made it 9-2. Rome finally produced a relatively normal run, with two singles and a walk loaded the bases before a four pitch walk to Greg Cullen brought in the tenth run of the game. Whatever gets you there. The Braves recorded only eight hits and struck out 11 times, but thanks to Greenville they walked eight times and took advantage of three errors and three wild pitches to score 10 runs.

Jose Olague did a job for Rome, allowing two runs over his five innings despite allowing seven hits and only striking out one batter. Olague worked around a couple of hits in the first two innings, but holding on to an early 2-0 lead he began to struggle in the third inning. A couple of hits led off the inning, and then issued a one out walk to load the bases before an RBI ground out and an infield hit tied the game at two. Olague allowed a hit each in the fourth and fifth but nothing came of it and he finished his start with a 7-2 lead. Jose Montilla had a strong relief outing, allowing only one base runner over two scoreless innings and recording two strikeouts. Kurt Hoekstra was brought in to take the last two innings, and as has been typical of him he dominated the Greenville lineup. Hoekstra walked the first batter he faced, but only allowed one hit to score an unearned run for the rest of his outing and struck out four more batters over his two innings of work. In 15 ¹⁄₃ innings this season Hoekstra has now struck out 26 batters and walked just five with a 0.59 ERA.

Next Game: 5/11 vs (10-23) Columbia Fireflies @ 6:05 PM ET

Probable Starters

ROM: Trey Riley (1-4, 5.02 ERA)

COL: Colin Holderman (2-0, 1.74 ERA)