Gwinnett Braves 10, Durham Bulls 0 - F/5
- Austin Riley, 3B: 3-3, 2 HR, 5 RBI, BB, 1.036 OPS
- Travis Demeritte, RF: 1-3, HR, RBI, .916 OPS
- Rafael Ortega, CF: 3-4, 2 2B, 2 R, 1.036 OPS
- Ben Rowen, SP: 4 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 0.00 ERA
While the weather did its absolute best to keep this one from finishing, Gwinnett used an offensive explosion lead by Austin Riley to win a rain-shortened game by the score of 10-0. With Sean Newcomb called back up to the majors on Saturday, Ben Rowen got the start on short notice and performed well tossing four shutout innings while striking out a pair of batters. The final inning thrown by the Stripers was by the much maligned Jesse Biddle who was quite good. He put up a scoreless frame while not allowing a baserunner and striking out one before the rain came in and washed this game out.
On offense....whew boy. Despite the the game only going five innings, the Stripers still managed to put up 10 runs thanks largely in part to four home runs. Pedro Florimon connected for a three-run shot and Travis Demeritte added a solo shot. As for the other two, well.....this is Austin Riley’s world and we are just living in it. He reached base all four times he came to the plate on Saturday including a pair of homers. This was his second multi-homer game in his last four games and eight of his past 18 hits have been of the “over the fence” variety. We have seen torrid stretches from Austin before (second half of 2016, his start to Double-A last year), but this is on another level right now.
Mississippi Braves 2, Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp 0
- Drew Waters, LF: 0-4, .912 OPS
- Cristian Pache, CF: 0-1, 2 BB, 2 CS, .934 OPS
- Ray-Patrick Didder, SS: 2-3, 2 RBI, .565 OPS
- Ian Anderson, SP: 6 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 11 K, 2.79 ERA
Ian Anderson was outstanding as he posted his second straight strong start as Mississippi took down the Jumbo Shrimp by the score of 2-0. It was going to be hard to top his last start where he threw six scoreless innings and struck out eight, but Anderson managed to pull it off with six scoreless frames while striking out 11 batters while giving up just two hits and three walks. In five of his first six starts in Double-A this year, Ian has given up two earned runs or less and he is currently tied for third in the league in strikeouts at the age of 21. Jason Hursh and Josh Graham combined to throw three scoreless innings of relief to close the game out.
On offense, the usual suspects of Drew Waters and Cristian Pache were surprisingly not the ones that did the damage. Waters had an off night that saw him go 0-for-4 and Cristian Pache drew a pair of walks (and was notably caught stealing both times) before getting taken out of the game after three at-bats (he was caught stealing the inning immediately before getting taken out, but it is currently unclear as to whether or not that play had anything to do with it). Ray-Patrick Didder, who has had a rough start to the 2019 season at the plate, was the big stick on this night as he had a pair of hits and drove in both of Mississippi’s runs. Alejandro Salazar had a multi-hit game for Mississippi as well.
Florida Fire Frogs 3, Tampa Tarpons 4 - F/7
- Riley Unroe, SS: 1-3, 2B, 3 RBI, .766 OPS
- William Contreras, C: 2-3, .796 OPS
- Freddy Tarnok, SP: 6 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, 6.92 ERA
The Fire Frogs lost a close, rain-shortened one on Saturday as they fell to the Tarpons by the score of 4-3. Freddy Tarnok got the start on Saturday and he did go the entire six innings for Florida while giving up four runs on six hits and three walks. Tarnok has tremendous raw stuff in particular with his fastball, but he has struggled with his command as 15 walks in 26 innings of work this year isn’t gonna do it. However, as a guy who is younger, rawer, and with that much talent, more and more reps should improve that.
On offense, William Contreras just keeps hitting down at Florida as he had a multi-hit game after a teeny two game hitless drought. He is batting .395 over his last 10 games and now has an OPS close to .800 on the season. Given that he has around 50 games of experience at high-A between this season and last, it would not be a shocker if he was pushed to Double-A relatively soon to give him experience calling games with some different, more experienced arms against more advanced competition since the bat does not appear to be a problem. The only RBIs in the game came from Riley Unroe as he had a bases-clearing double that got Florida right back in the game in the fourth inning. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate and ended the Fire Frogs’ comeback.
Rome Braves 2, Lakewood BlueClaws 1
- Griffin Benson, 1B: 1-3, 2B, BB, R, .679 OPS
- Brendan Venter, 3B: 1-3, 2B, 2 RBI, BB, .649 OPS
- Jose Olague, SP: 7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 4.10 ERA
Rome won a nailbiter as the pitching duel went the Braves way by the score of 2-1. Jose Olague, who has honestly looked fairly uneven at best to start this season, put together a really nice start for Rome in going seven innings and giving up just one earned run while striking out four batters. After that, Luis Mora and Lukas Young tossed a pair of scoreless innings of relief to close the door. Keep an eye on Lukas as he has made 10 appearances (13 IP in total) and has yet to give up an earned run this season.
On offense, the big hit came off the bat of Brendan Venter as he connected for a two-run double in the fifth inning which proved to be the game-winner. Griffin Benson had a nice game as well with a double and a walk and Trey Harris continues to be productive even when he doesn’t record a hit. He walked and was hit by a pitch while scoring one of Rome’s two runs on the evening.