Saturday belonged to the Atlanta Braves affiliates, as they came away with three wins and almost had a fourth if not for a late comeback. The pitching of Chris Sale and Owen Murphy were the highlights of the day, though some important hitters had their say as well. Home runs from Isaiah Drake and Cody Miller led the way for the offensive attack in Rome, while John Gil kept up a great stretch of play with a grand slam for the GreenJackets. It was one of the strongest days of the season across the levels, and the revamped Rome offense has made for a sweet scene at the lower levels
(53-71) Gwinnett Stripers 4, (65-58) Memphis Redbirds 2
David McCabe, 1B: 1-4, RBI, .300/.300/.500Jarred Kelenic, CF: 2-3, 2B, BB, RBI, .223/.295/.325Chris Sale, SP: 4.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 2.53 ERA
It was a great set of results for Chris Sale on Saturday, though his struggles with his velocity were less than optimal. Sale’s hardest recorded fastball in this game was 94.7 mph with an average of only 91.8 mph on his four seam fastball and 90.9 mph on his sinker. This doesn’t include a handful of pitches on the low end of the spectrum that were classified by Statcast as changeups despite being fastballs. Sale was still largely successful, throwing plenty of strikes and getting swing-and-miss, but that sort of velocity dip after he was relatively close to normal in his first two rehab outings is a significant concern. Sale is still reportedly expected to return to Atlanta for his next start and it will be interesting to see if the Braves reconsider that, though if this is somehow not a health-related issue he is still better than other options. His velocity was relatively consistent throughout his outing, only slightly trailing off in his final 2/3 of an inning, so if the early innings weren’t enough of a concern for him to be pulled from the game immediately they probably aren’t going to keep him out of Atlanta’s rotation.
With Sale and Redbirds starter Curtis Taylor cruising early this game stayed low-scoring with Memphis in the lead after scratching home a run in the first inning. Gwinnett needed all the help they could get, and in the seventh inning the door opened a crack when a throwing error allowed Jesus Bastidas to reach base to open up the inning. Jonathan Ornelas had a laser of a single to put Gwinnett in position to tie the game or take a lead, and with two outs they were able to come through. Jarred Kelenic had a ground out to tie the game and David McCabe hit a bloop single that scored Ornelas and put Gwinnett in the lead briefly. This wouldn’t last long as Memphis tied the game in the bottom of the inning, but the Stripers weren’t yet done for the evening. Gwinnett made two quick outs in the bottom of the inning, but Bastidas had the hardest hit ball of the day for a Striper and it turned into a double, sparking a brief rally to bring them back into the lead. Luke Waddell broke the tie with a hit, and Jonathan Ornelas kept it going by sneaking a soft one over the infield, scoring two total runs and giving Gwinnett a lead they held until the end.
(51-65) Columbus Clingstones 4, (60-58) Pensacola Blue Wahoos 1
Patrick Clohisy, RF: 2-4, 3B, BB, 3 RBI, .349/.393/.518Kevin Kilpatrick, Jr., CF: 1-2, 2 BB, .219/.302/.252Brian Moran, SP: 4 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 KRolddy Munoz, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 2.11 ERA
The theme of late comebacks after low-scoring starts carried over to Columbus, who despite not dominating the game held the Blue Wahoos to no earned runs. Brian Moran’s command and ability to force weak contact allowed him to control the early portions of this game, with only an unearned run on his register to put the Clingstones down. The rest of the pitching staff continued the trend with weak contact and zeroes on the scoreboard, as the bullpen combined to allow only two hits over the five final innings. Still, though, the offense didn’t come through until a breakout inning sparked a win.
Patrick Clohisy’s scorching hot stretch at the plate, and he played the biggest role of any player in the outcome of this game. Clohisy reached base three times and accounted for all four of the Clingstone’s runs, first starting the seventh inning. He was able to draw a walk to lead off the inning, then safely stole second base to put himself in scoring position with no outs. Clohisy has been incredible on the bases, already coming in 10 for 11 on stolen base attempts, and in total has 70 stolen bases across two levels. The Clingstones made two quick outs that threatened to end the inning, but Adam Zebrowski came in clutch to tie the game. He got a slider that stayed up and in on the first pitch of the bat and turned it around smashing a single into left field for an RBI single.
The eighth inning turned into their longest extended rally, and it started with success from the bottom of the batting order. Geraldo Quintero led off with a single, and a hot shot from David Fletcher created real danger with two runners on and still one out. Kevin Kilpatrick drew his second walk of the game, flipping the lineup over where Clohisy was waiting with damage on the brain. Clohisy got ahead in the count and jumped on a slider that stayed up in the zone, turning and hitting a hot shot down the first base line. It barely stayed fair and snuck past the first baseman into the corner, clearing the bases and giving Clohisy a triple. While he hit a bit of a power outage for a couple of weeks he is back to making an impact on the ball, with three extra base hits over his past six games. Clohisy has multiple hits in six of his past seven games and hasn’t struck out in his past five. The biggest improvement for Clohisy in comparison to Rome is his quality of contact. He was on the upswing in terms of hitting the ball hard towards the latter few weeks of his tenure there and that has carried over now to Columbus with him making a notable impact on his pull side.
(52-64) Rome Emperors 5, (49-67) Asheville Tourists 3
Isaiah Drake, CF: 1-3, HR, BB, .284/.338/.338Alex Lodise, SS: 2-5, .246/.292/.393Logan Braunschweig, LF: 1-2, BB, RBI, .375/.464/.458Cody Miller, DH: 1-4, HR, .313/.353/.500Owen Murphy, SP: 5.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 0.47 ERA
It was a big day for power in Asheville, with two Emperors hitting their first High-A home runs in a win for Rome. Isaiah Drake opened the scoring for both sides with a home run in second, a hopeful sign of things to come for him as power has been the missing link in his game since being promoted. He had a double on August 6th but didn’t have an extra base between then and now, so while his contact rates have jumped to above average levels and his overall numbers have been above average, his power numbers are still lagging behind significantly. In the 7th inning Cody Miller joined the club with a long ball, extending the Rome lead as they took command of the game late. On the pitching side of things Owen Murphy finally let up a run, giving up a third inning home run that broke a streak of 27 consecutive scoreless innings. Murphy has done a terrific job of maintaining his strike rates, whiff rates, and performance as his workload increased, crossing the 80 pitch mark and reaching his highest strikeout total since his first game at the level. So far he has only walked two batters in 22 innings this season and seems to be on a trajectory to get to Double-A before the end of the year.
(62-53) Augusta GreenJackets 6, (56-61) Columbia Fireflies 7
John Gil, SS: 3-4, HR, BB, 4 RBI, .253/.342/.369Owen Carey, CF: 1-5, .252/.323/.332Rayven Antonio, SP: 4 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 3.62 ERAKade Woods, RP: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 3.60 ERA
While the other three affiliates were able to scrap out late wins the GreenJackets fell just short, unable to overcome poor pitching. Rayven Antonio has kept on his recent streak of struggling to locate the ball and miss bats as effectively as he was when he was strong, and even though he was able to keep his walks down he got hit around quite a bit in the first couple of innings. Columbia pushed home two runs in each of those innings to take a commanding early lead, but Antonio was able to lock in and put up a few good innings late. He threw perfect frames in the third and fourth innings, but was pulled after 50 pitches and it seems like the Braves are going to limit his workload down the stretch. Given his recent struggles and how much his has pitched this season that could be a wise choice, especially with the influx of recent draftees to bolster the staff. 10th round pick Kade Woods was electric across two innings of work, locating his fastball well and getting four strikeouts while allowing only one baserunner. The trouble for Augusta came in the middle innings when Logan Forsythe had major command troubles and let up three runs. This wasted a big comeback from the offense and left them scraping to try to find another comeback late.
It’s been a long time coming, but the adjustments to John Gil’s swing have finally come into success of late and his absolute heater continued with his fourth home run this month. While his strikeouts over the past week has skyrocketed suddenly, he broke out of a short stretch of poor games early on in this one with the biggest swing of the game for Augusta. The GreenJackets took advantage of some poor pitching in the bottom of the fourth inning, with a leadoff single being followed up by two walks to load the bases with no outs in the inning. While they ended up getting to two outs with only one run in on a hit batter, Gil made sure they would have a chance in this game after a good battle at the plate. Gil finally got the pitch he wanted, a fastball that took a chunk out of the outer half on the plate that he sat and turned on, crushing a no-doubt grand slam to left field. This put the GreenJackets on top by a run, a lead they would hold until Forsythe’s appearance. Gil also had a walk in this game, and in the ninth inning would spark one last rally with a base hit up the middle. Dixon Williams has been hitting for solid power for the GreenJackets, saving his overall numbers from his struggles with contact, and he came through again in the ninth inning. Williams sent a shot to dead center field, clanging it off of the wall for a double that scored Gil but was unfortunately just a few feet short of being a game-tying dinger. Juan Mateo had a chance to tie the game, but chased an 0-2 slider out of the zone as he was overwhelmed in his final at bat, ending the game with Augusta two bases away from a chance.