It was a lighter slate of games on Friday evening for Braves minor league affiliates with Mississippi getting rained out. However, what games that DID happen went pretty well as the Braves’ farm squads went 2-1 with strong performances from Johan Camargo, Yolmer Sanchez, and Jesse Franklin V (much to Brad’s enjoyment). Lets get into the games.
Gwinnett Stripers 8, Memphis Redbirds 7
- Cristian Pache, CF: 1-5, RBI, .701 OPS
- Drew Waters, LF: 0-4, BB, R, .780 OPS
- Johan Camargo, 3B: 2-4, 2B, HR, 4 RBI, .928 OPS
- Yolmer Sanchez, SS: 2-3, 2 HR, 2 RBI, BB, 3 R, .597 OPS
- Nolan Kingham, SP: 5 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 8.44 ERA
This game wasn’t exactly a banner performance from Nolan Kingham, but the Gwinnett offense rallied late to overcome that early deficit and beat Memphis by the score of 8-7. After looking absolutely stellar for Double-A Mississippi with a 2.29 ERA in 55 innings, the five starts that Kingham has had since being promoted to Triple-A have gone quite poorly. Kingham pitches to a lot of contact which has not played well thus far in Triple-A and that combined with a significant jump in his walk rate, has led to him having a rough time. Tanner Roark was not much better in allowing a pair of runs in his two innings of relief work, but Yoan Lopez and AJ Minter did a good job out of the bullpen to shut things down and allow the Stripers to come back.
On offense, Travis d’Arnaud did, in fact, have his rehab start and went 0-for-1 with a walk in his two plate appearances before giving way to William Contreras for the rest of the game. It was a night for the veteran quad-A type players to shine as Yolmer Sanchez connected for a pair of homers and drove in a couple runs while Johan Camargo had a homer and four RBI of his own. The top prospect duo of Cristian Pache and Drew Waters had a rougher time as they combined to go 1-for-9 at the plate, although Pache did drive in a run.
Mississippi Braves, Pensacola Blue Wahoos
Postponed - Rain sucks
Rome Braves 2, Asheville Tourists 8
- Jesse Franklin V, CF: 1-3, HR, BB, .895 OPS
- Michael Harris, DH: 1-3, BB, .777 OPS
- Jake McSteen, SP: 3 IP, 10 H, 6 R (5 ER), 0 BB, 2 K, 5.97 ERA
- Coleman Huntley, RP: 5 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 10 K, 4.32 ERA
Jesse Franklin homered, but that is pretty much where the good news stopped as Rome got thumped by Asheville by the final score of 8-2. Jake McSteen was pressed into service as the starter for this game and...well, things did not go well. McSteen has seen time at Rome and Augusta this year and seems to be in a weird spot currently as he seems too advanced for Low-A, but doesn’t seem to be missing enough bats in High-A. His 6.63 ERA in the month of July has obviously not been great. Coleman Huntley then came in and was quite good with a five inning relief performance with 10 strikeouts. Even with giving up a couple of runs, you take that 10 times out of 10. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done.
On offense, it was a relatively quiet night for the Braves with the notable exception of Jesse Franklin’s 19th homer of the season. After posting a .481 OPS in the first month of the season, Franklin has now posted an 1.169 OPS in June and .999 OPS (so far) in the month of July. What a turnaround for him. Michael Harris reached base a couple times with a hit and walk, but beyond that there wasn’t much going on for Rome offensively as they managed just five hits in the game. When you are down big early, you are gonna have to do more than that.
Augusta GreenJackets 10, Myrtle Beach Pelicans 3
- Vaughn Grissom, DH: 1-3. HR, 3 BB, 2 R, .840 OPS
- Landon Stephens, RF: 3-5, HR, 2 RBI, .744 OPS
- Cade Bunnell, 3B: 1-2, HR, 4 BB, 3 R, .834 OPS
- Jared Johnson, SP: 4.2 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 7.27 ERA
Augusta broke out offensive as they took down the Pelicans by the final score of 10-3. Jared Johnson got the start on Friday evening and it was a fairly typical start for him. He was able to blow his upper 90’s fastball by some lesser hitters, but the pitch is flat and it seems like hitters get a really good look at his stuff out of his hand which means he gives up a good bit of hard contact. Hard to know what to make of him going forward unless he makes some adjustments to get his stuff to play up. Rolddy Munoz then piggybacked on Johnson’s start with a very decent 3 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. The Munoz clan down in Augusta may be raw, but there is some real talent with both Rolddy and Roddery.
On offense, Vaughn Grissom’s breakout continues as he connected for his fourth homer of the season while walking three times. He 13 hits in his last eight games including a couple of home runs. Landon Stephens had three hits including a homer of his own and Cade Bunnell reached base five times out of the leadoff spot. All told, six different GreenJackets drove in runs on Friday evening. Other notes include Braulio Vasquez stealing his 34th base of the season and Stephen Paolini being unable to get in on the offensive fun as he went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts.