Rain continues to mar the week for the system, especially in Columbus where the Clingstones had both sides of the expected double header rained out. In the three games that remained the Atlanta Braves affiliates won zero, though that wasn’t due to a poor effort from Nathan Wiles in Gwinnett. He was terrific, but the offense and the bullpen didn’t give him the support he needed.
(21-33) Gwinnett Stripers 1, (33-21) Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp 3
Carlos Rodriguez, RF: 0-4, .279/.336/.324
James McCann, C: 2-4, 2B, .291/.330/.447
Nathan Wiles: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, 2.33 ERA
Rolddy Munoz, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 27.00 ERA
A masterpiece from Nathan Wiles carried a tight Stripers lead late into the night, before a collapse in the eighth spoiled the game and stuck Gwinnett with their seventh straight loss. Gwinnett came out swinging in this game behind Carlos Rodriguez, who muscled the first pitch of the bottom half of the first inning into right field for a single. Two pitches later Jose Devers split a big gap in right center field with a 101 mph single, putting the Stripers in a dangerous spot to get a big early lead. They would get only one run though. James McCann chased home Rodriguez with a base hit, but Eddys Leonard’s pop up didn’t get deep enough to score Devers and the Stripers had to settle. The Stripers next big chance came in the third inning when David Fletcher and Rodriguez drew walks to open the inning, but the bats couldn’t make the quality contact they hoped for in this game. After the first two hitters the Stripers had just one more hit on a blooper from McCann in the 6th inning.
Nathan Wiles was peak for six innings, carving through the Jumbo Shrimp lineup with little trouble. Wiles faced the minimum through four innings, and though Jacksonville was able to make a lot more contact the second time through the order they still failed to string together any solid contact. Wiles was once again particularly effective with his cutter, getting eight whiffs on 17 swings. This was some of his best work this season at keeping the ball on the glove-side half of the strike zone, though he sprayed his other pitches around the strike zone. The changeup in particular would be the one thing you could point to and say he didn’t locate well, leaving it in the upper two-thirds of the strike zone with concerning regularity, but it tunneled well off of his cutter thus he was able to avoid barrels and keep contact weak on the pitch.
Jackson Stephens had an uneventful seventh inning, and the Stripers followed with Rolddy Munoz for his Triple-A debut. Munoz has been fantastic of late in Columbus, with only one walk in his last six appearances, and the hopes were high he may be taking his leap forward this season. The first game in Triple-A was far from a success story in that department though as he frankly looked awful. The raw stuff was fantastic as always, but his location was awful and he really deserved to struggle the way he did. Munoz mostly either missed badly or left his pitches in the middle of the strike zone, and Jacksonville wasn’t missing their opportunities. They collected three runs in that eighth inning, taking the lead and not looking back. For Munoz it all comes down to the inconsistency in his delivery, as he needs to iron out a better release point to continue to throw strikes the way he was towards the end in Double-A.
Swing and Misses
Nathan Wiles – 14
Rolddy Munoz – 3
Wander Suero – 2
(21-23) Columbus Clingstones, (22-22) Chattanooga Lookouts PPD
(24-24) Rome Emperors 2, (21-27) Asheville Tourists 5
Lizandro Espinoza, CF: 2-5, .230/.275/.388
Ambioris Tavarez, SS: 2-4, .261/.370/.346
Riley Frey, SP: 5 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 4.50 ERA
Logan Samuels, RP: 4 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 3.75 ERA
It was a forgettable evening for Riley Frey, who despite some efficient strike-throwing didn’t do well to avoid barrels. Of Frey’s seven hits four went for extra bases, including a fourth inning home run that broke the game wide open making it 5-0. Frey has largely been terrific since the first couple of starts of the year, rattling off two especially strong starts in his last two. This was just not one of them and the Tourists were able to make a lot of contact and make hard contact as well. His replacement in the game came in the form of Logan Samuels, whose four scoreless innings mark by far his best performance since his promotion to Rome. Samuels had a very shaky first inning of action and looked like the could be in for another rough outing, with a single and a double leading off to put him in major damage. However he settled down to get two big outs, including a strikeout, working around a hitter batter to keep Asheville off of the board. From here he was much more settled in, locating well and avoiding barrels across the final three innings of the game. Samuels command hasn’t been the best over these first three High-A starts, and even though this was his best outing there is still some progress that needs to be made.
Rome’s offense took awhile to get going in this game, as they struggled to figure out Asheville starter Brett Gillis the first time through the order. Across four innings the only hit was an infield squeaker in the first inning from Patrick Clohisy, but at no point in the first five innings were the Emperors able to string together any rallies. Ambioris Tavarez did look fantastic at the plate, even hitting a hard, sinking liner in the first inning that was just within the tracking range of the center fielder. His single into right field was well-struck as well, and in the seventh inning he was able to hang on a slider and smash it into right field for his second hit of the game. This time Tavarez managed to come in to score, advancing on a wild pitch and balk before scoring on a ground out from Mac Gusette. Lizandro Espinoza also had a couple of late hits, the first of which set up the first scoring opportunity for the Emperors. He lasered a line drive into left field to lead off the sixth inning, and though the next two Rome batters struck out he was able to advance on a balk to get into scoring position. Will Verdung them blistered one into left-center field for his first of two hits, scoring Espinoza without a throw.
Swing and Misses
Logan Samuels – 9
Riley Frey – 8
(25-21) Augusta GreenJackets, (18-28) Myrtle Beach Pelicans PPD
(7-12) FCL Braves 8, (9-10) FCL Pirates 10
Juan Mateo, 3B: 3-5, 2B, RBI, .260/.316/.315
Jose Perdomo, SS: 1-4, BB, .261/.321/.319
Manuel Dos Passos, C: 2-2, HR, 2B, BB, HBP, 3 RBI, .240/.367/.480
The FCL Braves had a huge offensive day, but they unfortunately were worse on the pitching side and fell behind 12-0 after four innings. Outside of a leadoff double it was going well for Rudit Pena as he threw two scoreless innings, and then all of a sudden it was not. Before recording an out he allowed a walk, hit, and hit two batters, with an error from Juan Mateo (the first of two in the inning) sandwiched in between. A grand slam put a dent in the scoreboard, and Pena only retired one of the nine batters he faced though were it not for those Mateo errors he likely escapes with much less damage done. Of course for a team, walking 12 batters, hitting four, and only striking out five is not a recipe for success.
Fortunately Mateo did something of a job making up for it on the offensive end, with his first three-hit game since May 5th. Mateo has seen an uptick in strikeouts in the past week as the Braves are working on some things with his swing, but the hope is to see Mateo start to hit the ball hard more often. He has two doubles in his past seven games, with the one today driving in a run. Jose Perdomo broke up his spell of two straight days with no hits, getting a single and a walk in this game.