Luis Guanipa has started to find some success in Rome, and started out his night with his third High-A home run and 14th of the year. He was unfortunately the only Emps batter who was awake, but the other levels provided some spark on the offensive end. In Triple-A Garrett Baumann is back with the Stripers, and he had a decent return by pitching into the sixth inning with seven strikeouts.
(65-63) Gwinnett Stripers 5, (57-70) Louisville Bats 3
Box Score
Statcast
- Jim Jarvis, SS: 2-5, 2B, .313/.406/.461
- David McCabe, 1B: 0-4, BB, .381/.375/.762
- Lizandro Espinoza, CF: 0-3, 2 BB, .280/.379/.560
- Garrett Baumann, SP: 5.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 9.26 ERA
Garrett Baumann had a terrific performance in the first inning and struck out the side, but
afterwards was a bit shaky and didn’t have the best control. He brought the heat early in this game and averaged 96.7 mph in the first inning, but after going with a heavy does of fastballs the first time through the order he slowed both in velocity and usage. By the second inning his velocity was already dipping and it continued that downward trend most of the outing. Baumann’s sinker and splitter produced terrific results, and he was fairly consistent with landing both of those pitches, but the trouble arose with the rest of the arsenal. Baumann had no real feel for his four seam fastball and was particularly struggling to repeat his release on that and the pitch got blown up for hard contact. Baumann’s fastball isn’t good on its own and he relies on getting that pitch to the top of the strike zone as a way to change the hitter’s eye level, but when it isn’t commanded it often becomes the weak point of his arsenal. His slider didn’t get hit much but he didn’t locate it well which led to hitters being able to foul it off and stay in at bats that Baumann finishes much better when he is on his game. The pitch was great for him at the Double-A level but he needs to find consistent success with it at Triple-A and he hasn’t done that yet this year.
Sadly after his scary-looking injury last night there was no sign of Patrick Clohisy in the lineup, but in good news he hasn’t been put on the injured list yet. Gwinnett had all of their real success in the second inning following a leadoff walk to Lizandro Espinoza, as despite some mediocre contact they strung together four hits and four runs. The highlight was a laser double from Luke Williams, though Jim Jarvis couldn’t stay out of the action and had a double of his own to drive in a run. Jose Azocar added on with a long home run in the ninth inning, but the offense mostly belonged to the veterans in the lineup. David McCabe had his first start at Gwinnett without an extra-base hit, and though he did draw a walk and have a hard hit ball he finished the night 0-4. He and Espinoza both had trouble making contact with a load of misses and a couple of strikeouts each on the register, which took away a lot of the production the Stripers have had lately in the middle of the lineup.
Swing and Misses
Garrett Baumann – 10
Duncan Davitt – 4
(57-61) Columbus Clingstones 3, (55-68) Chattanooga Lookouts 4
Box Score
- John Gil, 2B: 1-3, BB, .284/.385/.395
- Eric Hartman, LF: 0-3, BB, .235/.361/.346
- Alex Lodise, SS: 0-4, .250/.308/.361
- Owen Carey, RF: 0-4, .250/.319/.413
- Ian Mejia, SP: 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 9 K, 7.78 ERA
The Columbus lineup produced their quietest night in awhile with three hitless performances from the top spots, though they still had a chance to win this one late in the game. It should be no surprise that Jordan Groshans had another home run, bringing his total to nine over his past 15 games and five in his past six games. Groshans is now only two home runs short of his *entire career total* entering the year. And of course, while the top of the order was mostly quiet John Gil deserves his flowers for a solid game at the plate. Gil walked to lead off the game and then swiped second base, giving him 12 stolen bases already in 21 games. Gil also used his speed to beat out an infield ground ball in the seventh inning to drive in the go-ahead run, and early in the game hit a smash into the gap that got ran down on a great play by the left fielder. Gil has come alive since dropping his bat in his setup awhile back, and it’s showing up with a quicker path to the ball. During his times he struggled in Rome he often struggled to get his bat to his load point in time, but this change has really ironed out a lot of the awkwardness of his swing and he’s getting back to hitting for pull side power.
Occasionally Ian Mejia just has one of those games, and he was locked in with this one. When Mejia is dotting his slider and a team is willing to chase he can turn in some impressive performances, and Chattanooga’s eyes got a little too big for most of this game. As a collective they just could not figure out Mejia’s slider, and he kept throwing them until a hitter proved he could foul one off. He did allow one to back up on his in the third inning that got hit for a two-run home run, a pretty ugly mark on an otherwise dominant start, but it didn’t set him back very much. He kept pounding the slider and kept racking up whiffs in by far his best day of the year. Columbus took a lead into the bottom of the eighth inning, and turned to Samuel Strickland to try to get through the heart of the Lookouts order. Strickland has had an awful year overall with June as his low point, but lately he’d been significantly better with 12 strikeouts and only one walk and one home run over 12 1/3 innings. Strickland didn’t have a terrible inning, but the one bad pitch he made was the worst he could. He left a fastball right over the middle of the plate that got demolished for a go-ahead home run, and Columbus went down silently in the top of the ninth inning to lose the game.
Swing and Misses
Ian Mejia – 21
Tyler LaPorte – 5
(58-62) Rome Emperors 1, (54-66) Greenville Drive 7
Box Score
- Carter Beck, CF: 0-4, .206/.308/.324
- Conor Essenburg, RF: 0-4, .200/.374/.271
- Luis Guanipa, LF: 2-3, HR, BB, .224/.245/.398
- Cade Kuehler, SP: 4.1 IP, 6 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 6.36 ERA
Luis Guanipa had a good one out there, which sets him far apart from the remainder of Rome’s lineup. He started out his day with a home run in the second inning, and little did anyone know that would be the last run Rome scored in the game. Guanipa had a bad time the next go round when he struck out chasing a terrible pitch, but together quite the plate appearance in the seventh. He kept in the at bat by looking for something where he wanted in on the inner half of the plate, spit on a couple early in the count, and worked a walk. Guanipa also had the last of Rome’s three hits, and while it wasn’t great contact it’s still a pitch in zone Guanipa has shown himself capable of driving. Seeing Guanipa continue to swing for the fences whenever he gets something on the inner half is terrific, and he’s got a long way to go before we can say his approach is High-A ready but it’s not a bad start. Carter Beck had his worst day at the plate in awhile with nothing to show at the plate and not-so-great contact either, which broke a streak of five games in a row getting on base. Conor Essenburg had his second hitless day and has really started to slow up, which was expected to come at some point. With his contact issues pitchers were going figure him out and he was going to enter a slump, and with no extra base hits in over a week and the strikeouts piling up with no walks we seem to have hit that. Essenburg just needs to adjust and respond and we’ll have the next week and a half to see how he does that.
Cade Kuehler is going in the wrong direction, and after an early season span where he almost seemed like he could be hitting a boost it has faded to disappointment after disappointment. He’s coming off of Tommy John surgery and he’s so deep in the year that his stuff and command regressing significantly isn’t a huge surprise, but it is a problem for a guy who really never put together an overly convincing stretch. In the past three months Kuehler’s only time pitching into the sixth inning was the first outing of June, he has only 38 strikeouts and 46 walks in 57 1/3 innings, and he has allowed 13 home runs and hit 13 batters. Nothing is working, and I don’t really see the point of running him out there right now when he clearly does not have the ability to get hitters at this level out. He showed enough of a flash of light in May to hold on to hope going into next year, but he’s pretty much done for 2026 and I think rest would serve him better than anything he can learned getting shelled every six days. I want to see Kuehler succeed if there is anything left there at all, but I can’t help but wonder what exactly these recent starts have done to contribute to his success.
Swing and Misses
Tanner Baumann – 7
Cade Kuehler – 6
Carter Lovasz – 2
(66-56) Augusta GreenJackets 8, (46-74) Myrtle Beach Pelicans 4
Box Score
- Manuel Campos, SS: 2-4, 2B, RBI, .217/.239/.319
- Parker Brosius, RF: 1-4, HR, .246/.356/.443
- Landon Beidelschies, SP: 5 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 6.22 ERA
Landon Beidelschies is definitely on what I would call an interesting stretch of play here. His home runs have dropped significantly in the second half and his strikeouts have gone up, but the walks are still there and his command and pitch mix haven’t made significant strides. Beidelschies is a bit better at landing his changeup and that has produced some results, but overall the stuff hasn’t been good enough for him to get serious looks. Much of this could be a case of an older player staying in while the better players in the league get promoted out, as teams seem to be much less aggressive with assigning players from the complex to full season ball than they are at moving guys up once they’re in A-ball. Beidelschies had a solid game even if his command was poor throughout and didn’t allow much hard contact, though he ended up giving up three runs. He issued a walk and a single in the sixth inning and then got lifted, and both of those runs scored on a three run home run allowed by Logan Forsythe. It was an unfortunate way to get charged for two runs in what was one of his better performances this year.
There have been flashes of Manuel Campos since he came off of the injured list, and this was one of his best so far in Augusta. He started off a little rough but ended with two smashed baseballs — a hard hit single and a double off of the wall in right field. When Campos gets a ball inside he has the bat speed to get around on anything and the natural groove in his swing to lift the ball with some pop, it’s just most everything else that’s been a problem for him. He can struggle up or out away from his body and his ball-strike approach leaves much to be desired, however he is young enough to get some grace in those aspects. He was unplayable at first but has learned the pitching at this level fairly quickly and that aptitude for adjustments is a wonderful sign for any player. Parker Brosius was stinging the baseball this game, and came away with his first SRP Park home run and a couple of loud outs. Brosius is striking out more than I was expecting at this level, but it’s due to a ton of called strikes with few whiffs, and when he is putting the ball in play it’s a lot of hard contact. If he can make enough of that he is going to hit for power at the lower levels, it’s just a matter of whether the hit tool survives enough to give him success beyond that.
Swing and Misses
Landon Beidelschies – 13
Logan Forsythe – 5
