(70-49) Gwinnett Stripers 3, (67-52) Columbus Clippers 2
- Cristian Pache, CF: 1-4, .231/.333/.231
- Drew Waters, LF: 2-4, .333/.355/.500
- Alex Jackson, C: 1-3, .230/.317/.518
- Kyle Wright, SP: 5 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 5 K, 4.29 ERA
It was a comeback win for the Stripers, who got big hits from uh, **checks notes** Pedro Florimon to take a big win over the Clippers and keep 2.5 games up in the division. The Stripers offense struggled to do much against Columbus starter Michael Peoples and went into the third inning trailing 2-0. Drew Waters knocked a base hit up the middle with one out to get the team going, and Pedro Florimon laced a line drive into left field to score Waters and cut the deficit to one run. Gwinnett got hits from Alex Jackson and Luis Marte to get a rally started with on out in the fifth inning, but Waters grounded into a double play and that ended the inning. They went to the eighth still trailing by a run, but with the top of the order coming up they had a key opportunity to make some noise and get on the board once again. Waters led the inning off with a single on an 0-2 pitch, and then Pedro Florimon, Braves legend and hero to the masses, crushed a two run home run to give Gwinnett the lead. Some other stuff happened and long story short they probably should have had more but three strikeouts are not good. Doesn’t matter, got the win anyway.
There were good things that happened for Kyle Wright. He struck out five batters, only allowed two hits, and was able to dance around some trouble to keep the Stripers in the game early. He also couldn’t throw the ball straight to save his life. Wright walked five batters over five innings on the mound, and in the inning he gave up two runs he walked the first two batters of the inning. Wright also hit a batter with a pitch and only threw 51 of his 90 pitches for strikes, making this overall a very forgettable outing for Wright. He has done a lot of good lately and his command has been making some important strides, so hopefully we’ll see this as more of a bump in the road and can expect better things his next time out. Jeremy Walker did pitch very well, retiring all six batters he faced and striking out three. Patrick Weigel came on to relieve in the eighth inning and struck out two batters in a perfect frame. Weigel has been pitching in relief since his first callup to Atlanta and has done well, going eight innings over five appearances, with two hits and two walks allowed while striking out eight batters. Please, if you are listening to this let the man throw a pitch in Atlanta. We’re all ready. AJ Minter yeeted out there for the ninth inning after the Stripers took a lead, and he threw eleven of his sixteen pitches for strikes and earned the save with a scoreless and walkless inning.
Next Game: 8/14 vs (67-52) Columbus Clippers @ 7:05 PM ET
Probable Starters
GWN: Touki Toussaint (1-3, 6.93 ERA)
COL: Logan Allen (0-0, 8.53 ERA)
(56-63) Mississippi Braves 1, (53-64) Birmingham Barons 8
- Trey Harris, RF: 1-3, .311/.346/.459
- Greyson Jenista, LF: 1-4, .246/.342/.345
- CJ Alexander, 3B: 0-4, .098/.200/.213
- Connor Johnstone, SP: 5 IP, 11 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 4.23 ERA
This was not very much fun for the Braves, who lost their fifth straight game and fell to 2-6 since the promotions. The Barons jumped out to a five run lead after four innings before the Braves finally managed to put a number on the board. Singles from Trey Harris and Greyson Jenista along with a walk to Ryan Casteel loaded the bases with no outs, and it seemed Mississippi was primed to take a chunk out of the lead. They got one on a sacrifice fly from Jonathan Morales, but a line out to the shortstop and a fly out ended the inning with minimal damage done. The Braves didn’t get another hit until Alejandro Salazar doubled with two outs in the bottom of the seventh and was stranded there. Ray-Patrick Didder snapped a four game hitless streak, and over his past 49 games has a .387 on base percentage and has gone 18/19 on stolen bases. Trey Harris is getting hot at the plate as well and hasn’t had a strikeout since he last struck out.
Connor Johnstone allowed four hits and three runs before he was able to get the second out of the game, and the rest of his start wasn’t all that much better. He allowed eleven hits and six runs over five innings. Jordan Harrison saved some bullpen arms with a nice relief outing, going three scoreless innings with no walks, three strikeouts, and only one hit allowed. Ben Rowen allowed a couple of runs in his only inning on the mound.
Next Game: 8/14 vs (53-64) Birmingham Barons @ 2:05 PM ET
Probable Starters
MIS: Jasseel De La Cruz (3-7, 4.41 ERA)
BIR: Bernando Flores (3-5, 3.09 ERA)
(46-73) Florida Fire Frogs 6, (63-55) Bradenton Marauders 0 - GM 1
- Logan Brown, C: 2-3, 2B, RBI, .246/.282/.289
- Jefrey Ramos, LF: 1-3, .241/.289/.360
- Brooks Wilson, SP: 6.1 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, 2.08 ERA
(47-73) Florida Fire Frogs 2, (63-56) Bradenton Marauders 1 GM 2
- Riley Delgado, SS: 3-4, RBI, .283/.329/.325
- Jefrey Ramos, LF: 1-3, .241/.289/.360
- Matt Withrow, SP: 2.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 3.66 ERA
The Fire Frogs actually swept a double header with the Bradenton Marauders, riding a dominant staff that allowed only one unearned run in fifteen innings. Florida jumped out in game one with a two run home run by Andy Wilkins and left the game in the hands of starter Brooks Wilson. Wilson has one of the best games of his career, tying a season high with nine strikeouts over 6 1⁄3 scoreless innings. Doubles from Logan Brown and Kevin Josephina helped the Fire Frogs add on four more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to take a 6-0 lead. Wilson couldn’t quite complete the shutout and left the game with 109 pitches after allowing a hit in the seventh, but Sean McLaughlin was up to the task and got two ground outs to end the game.
Game two was the tighter of the contests, as the Fire Frogs couldn’t come through with any runs through the first seven innings and it went into extra innings scoreless. The Fire Frogs loaded the bases in the bottom of the first inning, but with two outs all it took was one strikeout for the Marauders to escape. The offense didn’t advance another runner past second through the next six innings, but the pitching was up to the task to match that. Matt Withrow was not averse to baserunners in his 2 2⁄3 innings, but he recorded six of his eight outs via strikeout and that was enough for him to keep Bradenton off of the scoreboard. Lukas Young came in as relief and retired the first eight batters he faced before hitting a batter with a pitch then ending his day with a strikeout. Caleb Dirks finished off the sixth inning with a strikeout then worked around to seventh inning singles to send the game to the eighth. The Marauders immediately got a hit from Travis Swaggerty to score the runner at second base and take a lead, but he was caught attempting to steal and Dirks was able to hold Bradenton to only one run. Jordan Rodgers singled to lead off the bottom of the inning and put runners at the corners, and then a Brett Langhorne walk loaded the bases with no outs for Riley Delgado. Delgado tied the game with a bloop base hit, and then Andy Wilkins walked it off with a ground ball through the hole into right field.
Next Game: 8/14 vs (63-56) Bradenton Marauders @ 4:00 PM ET
Probable Starters
FLO: Odalvi Javier (0-1, 6.00 ERA)
BRD: Aaron Shortridge (7-4, 3.26 ERA)
(56-64) Rome Braves 13, (57-64) Asheville Tourists 8
- Bryce Ball, 1B: 2-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI, .500/.500/.800
- Justin Dean, CF: 2-5, RBI, .288/.399/.451
- Braden Shewmake, SS: 2-4, 3 RBI, .326/.396/.487
- Jose Olague, SP: 6 IP, 9 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 4.02 ERA
Rome gathered runs in chunks, racking up thirteen of them with the help of a seven run second inning and a six run sixth. Shea Langeliers had the Braves first hit, and newcomers Bryce Ball and Michael Harris each followed with one to to score Langeliers and tie the game at one. Then things got fun with one out, as Ricardo Rodriguez singled to give the Braves the lead and a walk to Braulio Vazquez loaded the bases for the top of the order. Justin Dean knocked a run scoring single up the middle and then Greg Cullen brought in two runs with a double into left field. Braden Shewmake followed with a double of his own, pushing the lead to 7-1 before the Braves were finally retired in the inning. Asheville then retired eleven of the next twelve batters, with only Vasquez’s second walk to break that streak, and the game went into the sixth at 7-2. Walks to Rodriguez and Vasquez brought it to the top of the order again, and after Dean singled to load the bases it was Cullen to draw a walk and open the scoring. Braden Shewmake singled in his third run of the game, and then Langeliers and Ball each drove in two runs to grow the lead to 13-2. Braden Shewmake has proven himself worthy of that first round pick, and while the results of college players in Low A should mostly be discarded it is still impressive to see him sitting in the top ten in the league in OPS and wOBA, and second in batting average in his professional debut. Over his past fourteen games Shewmake has slashed .340/.466/.574 with a 17.2% walk rate and a 10.3% strikeout rate.
Jose Olague looked decent early in his start, and as the team cruised with the early output he allowed only one run over his first four innings. Olague allowed the Tourists to tack on another run in the fifth inning, then in the sixth allowed a two run home run that put a damper on his final line. Victor Vodnik was uncharacteristically rough in his relief outing, allowing walks to two of the first three batters he faced and then consecutive first pitch singles that scored a couple of runs. Vodnik allowed another single later in the inning to score the third run off of him, then in the eighth allowed yet another run on a couple of base hits. Vodnik was able to finish strong, setting down the final five batters he faced and striking out the last two of the game.
Next Game: 8/14 vs (57-64) Asheville Tourists @ 7:05 PM ET
Probable Starters
ROM: William Woods (1-4, 3.34 ERA)
ASH: Ryan Feltner (6-9, 5.55 ERA)
(20-33) Danville Braves 1, (25-28) Kingsport Mets 3
- Cody Milligan, 2B: 0-3, BB, .259/.401/.313
- Beau Philip, SS: 1-4, .174/.297/.258
- Mitch Stallings, SP: 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, 2.25 ERA
Danville scored one run in the game to take an early lead, but the bullpen coughed that up once Mitch Stallings was removed from the game and they lost 3-1. The Braves jumped out first with two hits in the game in the second inning. Connor Blair led off the inning with a base hit into right field, then with one out and Blair on third base Ray Hernandez doubled into left field to score him. Blair and Brandon Parker each singled to lead off the fourth inning, but the Braves couldn’t push either runner any further and lost out on a chance to add some insurance runs. That hit from Blair was the last baserunner Danville would have in the game, as the final eighteen batters Danville sent to the plate were sent back to the dugout.
I’m not even sure why Mitch Stallings is actually still in the Appalachian League, but since he is he did the one thing he’s best at and shut out the Mets over his five innings. Stallings started them out with two strikeouts in a scoreless first inning, throwing all nine pitches for strikes and getting four swings and misses. Stallings added two more strikeouts in the second inning to get around a one out single. Through two innings he had thrown 19 strikes on 21 pitches. His effeciency continued and over his final three innings he allowed one more hit and recorded three more strikeouts before departing after only 65 pitches. Stallings has had a nice season, racking up a rookie ball leading 69 strikeouts while walking only eleven batters. He also has the lowest FIP of all qualified pitchers in rookie ball. Alger Hodgson came in for the sixth inning and immediately allowed a run to tie the game, then in the seventh inning he allowed three hits and a walk that scored another two runs to give the Mets a lead. Hodgson finished off that inning by striking out the next three batters, then allowed one hit and got a strikeout in the eighth inning.
Next Game: 8/14 vs (25-28) Kingsport Mets @ 6:30 PM ET
Probable Starters
DAN: TBD
KNG: Andres German (0-1, 4.95 ERA)
(13-27) GCL Braves 8, (14-23) GCL Rays 7
- Vaughn Grissom, SS: 2-4, 2B, BB, .281/.355/.421
- Stephen Paoilini, LF: 1-1, 2B, 3 BB, .181/.317/.205
- Mahki Backstrom, 1B: 2-4, BB, RBI, .350/.422/.500
- Chad Bryant, SP: 1.2 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 10.71 ERA
The GCL Braves scored three runs in the eighth inning to complete a comeback win over the Pirates. Starting pitcher Chad Bryant struggled in the game and allowed five runs over the first two innings, leading to the Braves playing catch up for much of the contest. They got one run back in the bottom of the first inning when Vaughn Grissom walked to reach base, advanced to third on a single from Mahki Backstrom, and then scored on a wild pitch. Stephen Paolini doubled and scored the second run of the game for the Braves, but after three they trailed 6-2. The teams traded runs to get it to 7-3, and the Braves comeback really began in the bottom of the sixth. After a leadoff single to Joel Reyes and a walk to Paolini a throwing error brought in a run. This was followed by a ground out to score Paolini and push the game to 7-5. A single from Cade Bunnell and walks to Backstrom and Paolini loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh inning, but Wiston Cerrato couldn’t come through with a big hit to potentially tie the game. After quickly going down to two outs in the eighth inning a hit batter and another walk put runners on for Grissom, and Grissom crushed a two run double that tied the game at 7-7. Backstrom followed with another hit to score Grissom and give the Braves a win. Grissom has been particularly outstanding of late, and in this game he struck out for the first time in August. In eight games he’s hitting .370 with five walks and only one strikeout.