It’s been a year and a half since Carter Holton last pitched in a GreenJackets uniform, and the long wait for Braves fans was rewarded with a terrific first outing. Holton led the team with his five scoreless innings. Adam Zebrowski had a monster day for Gwinnett by driving in six of their seven runs, and in Augusta it was Luis Guanipa who led the offensive charge with two separate go-ahead RBIs.
(33-31) Gwinnett Stripers 7, (35-29) Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp 2
- Jim Jarvis, SS: 2-5, 2B, .296/.390/.426
- Adam Zebrowski: 2-4, HR, 6 RBI, .222/.364/.611
- Anthony Molina, SP: 5 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 4.05 ERA
- Elieser Hernandez, RP: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 4.88 ERA
The Gwinnett Stripers may have ended this game comfortably out in front, but for most
of the evening this played out like a nail-biter led by Anthony Molina and the pitching staff. Molina has been on a nice little stretch run here over his past few starts, and trouble for him in this one was quite scattered with the Jumbo Shrimp only managing to scratch out a run late. Molina had a smidge of trouble throwing strikes in the early innings and walked a couple of batters, but didn’t allow any hard contact and managed to make it through the fourth inning with no trouble at all. To that point Molina had yet to allow a hit, though that and his shutout all came to a crashing halt on the first pitch of the the fifth inning. Molina left a fastball right over the middle of the plate that got smacked for a solo home run, cutting down the lead for the Stripers to 2-1. Molina didn’t waver and retired the next three batters in order, closing out a day that save for the single home run was impeccable. Elieser Hernandez had an outstanding relief appearance and didn’t allow a baserunner over two scoreless innings of work, and it was under his watch that Gwinnett ballooned their lead to 7-1. That made the job easy for Hunter Stratton to close it out, and though he would allow a ninth inning run there was never any real threat to the Stripers margin.
Gwinnett managed seven runs in this game but only had six hits, getting their runs as they were able to take advantage of the mistakes made by the Jumbo Shrimp with timely hitting. Enter: Adam Zebrowski – the man in the middle of the biggest moments of this game. Dax Fulton issued all three of his walks to the Stripers in the fourth inning, and Zebrowski had his first big opportunity of the game with the bases loaded and two outs. Zebrowski didn’t make good contact at all, but his nestled into a gap behind second base for a hit, driving home the first two runs of the game for the Stripers and giving them the lead they would hold throughout the rest of the game. Zebrowski’s next chance came in the eighth inning of this game, when once again he found himself staring down a bases loaded opportunity. Jacksonville reliever Josh Hejka had a terrible time of it prior to this, hitting a batter, seeing one reach on error, and then walking another as the first three he would face, and it got much, much worse with Zebrowski at the dish. Zebrowski got ahead in the count 3-1, and knowing Hejka wouldn’t want to walk a runner home was able to sit on a fastball. He hit a rocket at a 106.3 mph the other way, and even though he didn’t get it in the air much it still had enough carry to get out for a grand slam that broke the game wide open.
Swing and Misses
Anthony Molina – 12
Elieser Hernandez – 6
(26-28) Columbus Clingstones, (28-29) Pensacola Blue Wahoos POSTPONED
(30-27) Rome Emperors 0, (42-15) Bowling Green Hot Rods 11
- Tate Southisene, 2B: 1-3, BB, .333/.556/.500
- John Gil, SS: 2-4, .255/.360/.402
- Isaiah Drake, LF: 1-4, .257/.331/.412
- Jeremy Reyes, SP: 2.1 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 4 BB, 2 K, 5.44 ERA
- Blake Burkhalter, RP: 1 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 2.25 ERA
This was a bad one all around, though the hitting prospects for the Emperors were good enough to give this one a positive spin even with the blowout results. Tate Southisene hasn’t had much trouble adjusting to High-A pitching over his first couple of games, as he reached base twice in this one including a first inning walk. His contact wasn’t that great in his three at bats with his hit being a ball he rolled over and beat out to first, but even with that the process of the at-bats has looked solid and he is comfortable out there. John Gil had the best day of the crew as the only player on the Rome side with multiple hits, and even his outs were hard hit balls. Gil ended last week on an ugly stretch of games so it’s nice to see a quick bounce back with great results in this one. Isaiah Drake added a single to his total as well, though with another strikeout the results of late continue to underwhelm. over his past eight games he has no walks and 16 strikeouts, and after a first month and a half of him being a serious tough out the strikeouts and whiffs have piled up quickly. It was a tough matchup for Eric Hartman facing a left-handed starter and he went 0-4 with two strikeouts. Hartman’s power has kept his numbers against left handed pitching looking good this season, but there is still a clear drop off in his performance against breaking balls against lefties. That’s really to be expected for him or any player at this level, and it’s actually a positive that he has kept his swing-and-miss numbers respectable and still hit for power.
Pitching is not a whole lot of good to run through. Jeremy Reyes had poor command again, actually probably one of his worst performances on that front all season, and against a team that hits as well as Bowling Green he could not get away with those problems. Reyes only last 2 1/3 innings and gave up runs every time he came out of the dugout, building up a huge early deficit for Rome. The bullpen did a rather fine job of holding it together until Blake Burkhalter appeared in the eighth inning, at which point everything quickly spiraled out of control. Burkhalter had trouble keeping his fastballs down in the strike zone which led to loads of trouble, starting with two quick hits to open the inning. He then threw a comebacker into center field for an error before allowing another hit, though he thankfully did settle down to get a couple of outs as he made much better pitches. That was until he threw a pitch right over the plate that got smashed for a grand slam, putting a stamp on a terrible outing for him. He bounced back with a strikeout to end the inning, but that did little to dull the sting of a poor outing.
Swing and Misses
Jeremy Reyes – 7
Mathieu Curtis – 5
Jacob Kroeger – 5
Blake Burkhalter – 5
(31-27) Augusta GreenJackets 5, (21-35) Myrtle Beach Pelicans 2
- Conor Essenburg, RF: 0-2, .239/.365/.437
- Alex Lodise, SS: 2-5, 3B, RBI, .247/.331/.392
- Luis Guanipa, CF: 3-4, 2 RBI, .313/.357/.502
- Carter Holton, SP: 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 0.00 ERA
- Aiven Cabral, RP: 4 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 2.54 ERA
This was a pretty fun game, but started out with some early drama. Conor Essenburg was rung up on a borderline pitch in the third inning, and did not like the call very much. He was quickly ejected from the game, leaving Augusta without one of their top options for most of the night. Augusta got on the board quickly in the next inning. Alex Lodise went down and got a slider out of the zone but hit it hard, carrying it all the way to the right field wall where it bounced off and skipped away from the defender allowing Lodise to stand in with a leadoff triple. He took the next ninety feet quickly on a Luis Guanipa sacrifice fly, but that was all of the run scoring for Augusta for quite awhile in this game. Guanipa had a good game out there but the GreenJackets still trailed going into the ninth inning, and with two quick outs by the bottom of the order it seemed they may go quietly despite the great pitching they received all night. When the lineup flipped so too did the switch for the GreenJackets with Cody Miller starting a two out rally on a base hit. Michael Martinez, the replacement for Essenburg, shot one the other way for a base hit to put the go-ahead run on, and Lodise came to the plate with another chance to make an impact in the game. Lodise hit a shot out into center field for a base hit, and Miller was able to score without a throw, tying the game with the middle of the order yet to come. Guanipa worked an incredible at bat with a chance to give Augusta the lead, and he did just that by lining a single into right field to score pinch-runner Joe Olsavsky on the fourth straight GreenJackets hit. Juan Mateo kept it going and broke the lead open by ripping a fly ball to right field that sunk down past the right fielder for a double to score Lodise and Guanipa and make it 5-2.
Carter Holton made his return to the GreenJackets, and it was a successful first start for him. Holton held the Pelicans to no runs and struck out six batters over his five innings of work, and looked solid for a guy who hasn’t pitched at this level for such a long time. Holton did a great job of elevating his fastball even if his overall control wasn’t great, and flashed some feel for both his changeup and his slider from the outset of this game. Holton’s mechanics were inconsistent and his velocity (if the broadcast radar is accurate) a bit down, but neither of those issues are out of the norm for a player who is still in the process of building back up. His velocity dipped late in the game — again something to be expect — and his slider was the pitch that seemed to suffer the most command-wise. This was overall a much better game than the last time he pitched with the GreenJackets, especially with his ability to command his fastball, and though he didn’t really answer any questions with this outing he fortunately didn’t create any more concerns. Aiven Cabral came out of the bullpen behind Holton, and thanks to him allowing a couple of runs and then being the pitcher of record following the late comeback he got yet another win on his total.
Swing and Misses
Carter Holton – 8
Aiven Cabral – 3
(8-20) FCL Braves 2, (13-15) FCL Red Sox 13
- Diego Tornes, CF: 1-5, .192/.272/.260
- Caden Merritt, RF: 1-4, .238/.389/.429
Another loss for the FCL Braves as they continue to be the worst team and offense in the league, though at least there are some smidges of hope offensively. This is probably not the best example of that for Diego Tornes, given that he struck out twice and only had an infield single to his name, but he has been better this month. So far he has four walks to only four strikeouts after struggling in both categories in May. Caden Merritt, an unsigned free agent from last draft, has been solid for the FCL Braves since being demoted from Augusta, adding another hit to his resume.
(1-6) DSL Braves 0, (3-4) DSL Pirates Gold 13
- Starlyn De La Cruz, CF: 0-2, BB, .313/.542/.563
- Edelson Cabral, 2B: 0-2, BB, .167/.348/.278
The DSL Braves have allowed 73 runs in seven games which is not exactly a recipe for success. This game didn’t start out terribly for them. Martires Polanco, an older signee from this winter, had a great run of success in the first three innings, allowing no hits while striking out seven batters. He has had two good outings for the DSL Braves, which is basically the sum total of all of the good outings the team has had this season, and the reason he had a run on his final line was because he got pulled after facing and walking one batter in the third inning. Once you get past Polanco it gets spooky. All 13 runs came in the final four innings of this game.
