Atlanta Braves Minor League Recap: Touki Dominates In First Start Back in Triple-A

(62-42) Gwinnett Stripers 12, (59-44) Columbus Clippers 2

Box Score

• Travis Demeritte, LF: 2-4, BB, RBI, .291/.390/.571
• Adam Duvall, RF: 1-4, 3B, RBI, .259/.349/.582
• Alex Jackson, C: 2-4, .239/.330/.547
• Touki Toussaint, SP: 4 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, 5.40 ERA

Touki Toussaint must not have liked his demotion much, because he was classic Touki and dominated the Clippers offense in one of his most masterful starts of his career. The offense was unbelievable late and scored eleven runs in the final three innings to seal this win. The first came off the bat off Adam Duvall, who mashed a triple high off of the right center field fence to score the first run and give Gwinnett the lead. The fireworks really got underway in the seventh with leadoff singles from Travis Demeritte and Alex Jackson on the first pitch of their at bats, and Sean Kazmar brought in some insurance with a double. A walk loaded the bases for Riley Unroe, and he came through with a two RBI single to make it 4-0. A sacrifice fly extended the lead further to 5-0 and the rout was officially underway. Demeritte and Jackson hooked up again in the eighth with a walk to Dem and a single from AJax, and then Kazmar brought in another with an RBI single. Pedro Florimon singled in the second run of the inning and a wild pitch brought in the third to make the score 8-0. Ryan LaMarre singled in another run, two walks loaded the bases, and then in his second plate appearances of the inning Travis Demeritte knocked an RBI single to make it an even 10-0. In a show of cruelty Gwinnett got two more runs in the ninth and sent it to the final half inning leading 12-0.

Touki Toussaint struck out the side in the first inning, and the message was sent that he was not messing around in this start. Touki allowed his first hit in the second inning, but struck out two more batters and got a weak ground out from Braves legend Ryan Flaherty to complete two scoreless. Touki perhaps slowed a bit in the third and only got one strike out and two ground outs, but in the fifth he answered a leadoff single with three straight strikeouts to give him nine strikeouts in four scoreless innings. Unfortunately we couldn’t see more of Touki as he will need to be stretched out, but he threw 36 of his 59 pitches for strikes and didn’t walk any batters. Patrick Weigel was phenomenal in his two innings of work, setting down all six batters he faced and striking out two of those. Corbin Clouse stayed on track with four strikeouts and no walks in his two scoreless innings of work. Since his return from the disabled list Clouse has put up staggering peripherals with twelve strikeouts and no walks in 8 ¹⁄₃ innings of work. Daniel Winkler allowed two runs on three walks and two hits without recording an out, but Thomas Burrows came in to clean up the mess and stranded the bases loaded with two strikeouts and a foul pop out to close out the game.

Next Game: 7/27 vs (59-44) Columbus Clippers @ 7:15 PM ET

Probable Starters

GWN: TBD

COL: Danny Salazar (0-0, 0.00 ERA)

(49-54) Mississippi Braves 4, (57-45) Jackson Generals 6

Box Score

• William Contreras, C: 2-3, HR, BB, RBI, .231/.314/.317
• Drew Waters, CF: 0-4, .330/.374/.497
• Jasseel De la Cruz, SP: 4 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 4.19 ERA

William Contreras kept his bat hot and hit a home run for the second consecutive game, but the Mississippi pitching staff struggled and lost 6-4. The Braves and Generals were trading runs early, with a Ryan Casteel RBI triple opening the gates in the top of the first to give Mississippi the lead. After Jackson tied the game up it was Contreras bringing the lumber and leading off the second inning with a solo home run to put the Braves back on top. Casteel brought in his second RBI in the third inning to put the Braves in the lead for the third time, but they could not keep pace with the Mobile offense and didn’t score another run until the ninth inning. A streak of fifteen consecutive Braves batters was set down following a two out walk to Contreras in that third inning, and it didn’t end until Casteel knocked a single with two outs in the eighth. Contreras led off the ninth with a double and scored the Braves fourth run when Ray-Patrick Didder doubled to bring him home, but the Braves were snuffed out there and could not bring the game any closer. Contreras has been unstoppable over his last ten games, posting a monster .353/.425/.588 slash line with two home runs and only five strikeouts to four walks in forty plate appearances. Contreras has not struck out in any of his past seven games, a streak of 29 plate appearances, and has walked four times and hit .478/.552/.826 in that span.

Jasseel De La Cruz has had a couple of rough starts in a row now and couldn’t keep the ball in the ballpark in this game. De La Cruz was staked to three separate leads but gave up each of them as Jackson slowly piled on runs against him. In the first inning they got a double and then a single to tie the game up, then in the second the leadoff hitter knocked a solo home run to make it 2-2. De La Cruz loaded the bases in that second inning, but was able to get a strikeout to end the inning keep it tied. Another two hits and a run tied the game in the third, and he recorded two strikeouts this time to keep the damage from getting any worse. Jackson took their first lead in the fourth inning with a two out home run that put them up 4-3. That was the last inning for De La Cruz, and he was replaced by Jason Hursh who allowed two runs in his one inning of work. Josh Graham did good work with four strikeouts and no hits over 1 ²⁄₃ innings, and Bradley Roney continued his comeback with two strikeouts of the four batters he faced.

Next Game: 7/27 vs (40-62) Mobile Baybears @ 8:05 PM ET

Probable Starters

MIS: Joey Wentz (5-7, 4.26 ERA)

MOB: Jeremy Beasley (5-5, 3.61 ERA)

(37-65) Florida Fire Frogs 1, (53-48) Lakeland Flying Tigers 1 GM 1

Box Score

• Brett Langhorne, 2B: 1-2, .205/.297/.281
• Tristian Beck, SP: 5.1 IP, 9 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 5.65 ERA

(38-65) Florida Fire Frogs 4, (53-49) Daytona Tortugas 3 GM2

Box Score

• Andrew Moritz, CF: 2-3, .290/.328/.315
• Kevin Josephina, DH: 2-3, 2B, RBI, .272/.332/.359
• Hayden Deal, SP: 5 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 3.13 ERA

Florida’s offense did jack in their first game, and the pitching staff was even worse and they took a bad opening loss by a score of 8-1. Florida actually had the lead in the game with the help of Brett Langhorne, who doubled to lead off the game, advanced on a ground out and then scored on a wild pitch for Florida’s only run of the game. The second batter of the next half inning took Tristan Beck for a two run home run and the Fire Frogs never threatened to come back in the game. Beck allowed four more hits and four more runs in the top of the fourth inning to bring it to six total runs which marks Beck’s worst start of the season. Beck was able to get through the next inning and a third but after allowing a double and a single in the sixth was pulled for Lukas Young. Young allowed a run over 1 ²⁄₃ innings and allowed one of the inherited runs to score off of him.

Florida played better across the board in game two of the double header and scored late runs to take a thrilling win over the Tortugas. Andrew Moritz led off the game with a hit and came in to score on a double play which gave Florida a lead in the first inning but they would not hold that. Hayden Deal had a strong start and completed five solid innings, but in the fourth he gave up his lead when he allowed a solo home run in the fourth inning. Florida got the lead back in the bottom of the fourth when Garrison Schwartz singled in Jefrey Ramos, but that lead was a short-lived one. Deal got two quick outs in the fifth inning, but after allowing two hits he was hurt by consecutive fielding errors that scored two runs and gave Daytona the lead. Ramos led off the sixth inning by drawing a walk, then a Drew Lugbauer single and a Kevin Josephina single brought him in to score to tie the game. Two batters late Garrison Schwartz singled and the Fire Frogs took the lead 4-3. Caleb Dirks closed out the final two innings by setting down all six batters he faced and the Fire Frogs worked a split of the double header.

Next Game: 7/27 vs (53-49) Daytona Tortugas @ 6:00 PM ET

Probable Starters

FLO: Nolan Kingham (4-8, 4.80 ERA)

DBT: Mac Sceroler (4-2, 4.40 ERA)

(48-56) Rome Braves 5, (53-52) West Virginia Power 4 F/10

Box Score

• Shea Langeliers, C: 3-4, HR, 3 RBI, .214/.282/.340
• Justin Dean, CF: 1-5, SB, .277/.386/.420
• Braden Shewmake, SS: 2-5, 3B, 2 RBI, .326/.373/.464
• Gabriel Noguera, SP: 6.1 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, 3.12 ERA

The Braves kept it tied through nine innings, then won it in the tenth with two runs to take a 5-4 win. West Virginia jumped out with an early run but in the fourth Rome had their answer when Shea Langeliers mashed a solo home run to lead off the inning and tie it up. Singles from Carlos Paraguate and Justin Dean put two runners on in the fifth, and then a fielding error on a Braden Shewmake grounder and a single from Shea Langeliers brought home two runs and gave Rome a nice two run cushion. West Virginia came back to tie it in the top of the seventh and Rome could not get anything going on offense for the final three turns at bat and the game went into extra innings. The Power pushed home a run in the top of the tenth, and the Braves came into the bottom of the inning with Justin Dean on second base. After a strikeout to lead off the inning Dean decided to steal third base, giving him the league lead with thirty stolen bases. That didn’t actually matter much as Braden Shewmake followed him with a tying triple and then scored on a Langeliers sac fly to walk the game off.

Gabriel Noguera came through with a good start for the Braves, but struggled late and ended up giving up his slim lead. Noguera had troubles in the first inning and allowed four hits, but that only brought in one run so the game stayed close. Noguera worked around a couple of hits and two Rome errors and through the sixth had not allowed another run and held tight to a 3-1 lead. Noguera got off to a poor start and allowed two hits and a walk to score a run in the top of the seventh and he was pulled for Tanner Lawson. A ground out brought in one more run to tie the game at three. Lawson pitched well and only allowed one hit over 3 ²⁄₃ innings, but that hit came in the tenth inning and scored the go ahead run in the game. Lawson kept the game at one run, with the help of Shea Langeliers throwing out a base stealer, and the Braves were able to take back two in the bottom of the inning and give Lawson a win.

Next Game: 7/27 vs (53-52) West Virginia Power @ 6:00 PM ET

Probable Starters

ROM: William Woods (0-3, 3.91 ERA)

WV: Ryne Inman (7-6, 4.41 ERA)

(15-22) Danville Braves 0, (18-18) Bluefield Blue Jays 2

Box Score

• Bryce Ball, 1B: 0-4, .310/.394/.681
• Connor Blair, RF: 2-3, 2B, .279/.318/.393
• Ricky DeVito, SP: 4 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 3.38 ERA

Danville’s offense couldn’t break through against the Blue Jays’s pitching staff, and two late runs sank the Braves in a loss. Danville was no hit through the first three innings, but Connor Blair played a solid game and led off the fourth inning with a base hit. The next batter grounded into a double play to erase Blair and a strikeout ended the inning to send it to the fifth still scoreless. A base hit and a wild pitch had Garrett Saunders at second base with one out in the fifth, but two easy fly balls capped off the inning and the Braves had their best scoring chance of the game slip away. A two out double in the sixth inning from Blair turned into nothing, and then in the seventh the Blue Jays got two runs and the Braves had three innings to play catch up. Their best chance came in the bottom of the eighth when Jose Palma led off the inning with a double, but Palma could not advance on a fly ball to center field, and then a ground out and a strikeout snuffed out the Braves chance to get a run back. Danville went down in order in the ninth and fell 2-0 in a good pitcher’s duel.

Ricky DeVito got the start and had a nice outing for Danville, completing four scoreless innings to drop his ERA to 3.38. DeVito had most of his troubles in the first inning, when he erased a leadoff error with a double play but then allowed a walk and a single to put two runners on with two outs. DeVito came back to get a strikeout on three pitches and end the inning. DeVito allowed a leadoff single in the second inning but then sat down the final nine batters he faced with four of those coming on strikeouts to round out his start. Deyvis Julian worked two scoreless innings and didn’t allow a hit, though he had his struggled as he walked two batters and only threw fifteen of his thirty pitches for strikes. The Braves brought on Peyton Williams in the seventh inning of a scoreless tie, and Williams allowed a go ahead two run home run that ended up as the winning hit in the game. Williams has struggled this season and allowed four home runs and fourteen runs in 10 ¹⁄₃ innings.

Next Game: 7/27 vs (18-18) Bluefield Blue Jays @ 6:30 PM ET

Probable Starters

DAN: Mitch Stallings (3-3, 2.23 ERA)

BLU: TBD

(10-13) GCL Braves 6, (12-13) GCL Rays 3

Box Score

• Vaughn Grissom, SS: 0-4, .241/.299/.380
• Stephen Paolini, LF: 2-4, .167/.282/.167
• Michael Harris, CF: 2-4, HR, 2 RBI, .375/.437/.516
• Jared Johnson, SP: 3 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 0.00 ERA

Michael Harris hit his first career home run to lead the GCL Braves in their 6-3 win. The Braves got four runs in the second inning to jump out to an early lead over the Rays and their pitching was lights out throughout much of the game. Jared Johnson pitched three scoreless innings and through two professional starts has not allowed a run in five innings. Matt Withrow had a dominating rehab start and threw three perfect innings with five strikeouts.