There isn’t much action to speak of at the minor league level due to the all-star break, but there is some important rehab action going on down in Northport with the FCL Braves. The biggest is, of course, Ronald Acuna Jr. making his second appearance during his recovery from his hamstring strain. Ha-Seong Kim and Ray Kerr both made appearances as well.
(15-36) FCL Braves 3, (29-24) FCL Twins 11
- Ronald Acuna Jr., DH: 0-3, .000/.000/.000
- Ha-Seong Kim, SS: 0-1, BB, .500/.600/1.250
- Caden Merritt, CF: 1-3, BB, HR, 3 RBI, .215/.364/.355
- Ray Kerr, SP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 0.00 ERA
The FCL isn’t typically the center stage of the recaps, but with no full season teams in action and a somewhat important player leading off
for them, it was their chance to show all of Braves country just how bad they’ve been this season. It’s been a pretty nasty FCL campaign but Ronald Acuna Jr. is working back towards health and that is all that matters. Unfortunately this isn’t a game we have any Statcast data on, so all I have to report is what the box score has to show. Acuna flew out in the first inning and struck out in the third, then was able to reach on an error in the top of the 5th inning. Acuna was immediately lifted for a pinch runner at that point to end his day in basically a perfect repeat of yesterday’s action when he reached on error in the 5th and got pinch-run for. Ha-Seong kim got his second taste of action, though unlike yesterday’s game he was pulled early. Kim had a walk and scored on a home run in this game, but during a long defensive fourth inning Kim was lifted with one out and had his day cut short. Ray Kerr would have been the most interesting of the trio to have any data on as he made his first appearance in a long time, though he struggled with control in the first inning. He got two quick fly outs but then walked a batter, hit the next, then walked a third before getting out of the inning.
(9-21) DSL Braves 1, (19-13) DSL Giants Orange 0
- Jose Manon, DH: 2-2, .293/.398/.394
- Edelson Cabral, 3B: 0-2, BB, .270/.411/.416
- Sherrintley De Costa Gomez, RF: 0-2, BB, .288/.438/.488
- Cesar Navarro, SP: 7 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 2.00 ERA
This is one of the craziest DSL Braves games I’ve ever seen, simply for how completely normal it was. Well-pitched and defended DSL games are so rare that there have only been four complete game shutouts in the last three years of DSL baseball. Cesar Navarro’s today was the first of the season for the entire league, only the second complete game, and there is a good chance it will be the only shutout thrown in the league this year. Navarro has been pretty good overall this season, with a relatively low walk rate of 16 in 27 innings and no games in which he hasn’t pitched into the fourth inning at least. Still, this came out of nowhere. The DSL Braves have not had a complete game shutout since Felix Falcon, and I’ll forgive you if you don’t know that name, because this happened in a 6-inning rain-shortened contest on July 2nd, 2013. Jose Manon was the only player for either side to score a run, and it didn’t come as a result of either of his two hits. He was hit by a pitch to lead off the third inning, stole second base, advanced on a fly out, then scored on a wild pitch. Manon has done a great job getting on base this month despite an increase in strikeouts, and he has made life hard for catchers with 10 stolen bases in eight games. The power and walks have dove off of a cliff, however, so despite maintaining good numbers his performance has been overall a bit lackluster compared to how incredible he was in June.
