Overall, it was a pretty abysmal day down on the farm as not a single Atlanta minor league affiliate was able to scratch out a win on Wednesday. With that being said, there were a few individual performances that stood out, so let’s get into it.
(30-29) Gwinnett Stripers 4, (23-36) Norfolk Tide 6
- Jair Camargo, C: 2-3, HR, 2B, 2 RBI, R
- Jim Jarvis, SS: 2-4, RBI
- Aaron Schunk, 1B: 1-4, 2B, RBI, R
- Elieser Hernandez, SP: 6 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 6 K
Gwinnett came up short on Wednesday night, losing to Norfolk as the bullpen blew a tie game in the top half of the ninth inning as the Tide came away with the win.
Elieser Hernandez got the start for the Stripers and despite giving up a pair of runs
in the top of the first to give Norfolk a 2-0 lead, he settled in quite nicely and put up a solid outing. Across six innings of work, Hernandez gave up three runs and struck out six in the process.
Trailing by two runs, Gwinnett tied things up in the bottom of the second thanks to a pair of RBI doubles off the bats of Aaron Schunk and Jair Camargo — more on him later.
Norfolk retook the lead by scoring one run in each of the fifth and seventh innings, but the Stripers managed to tie things up yet again, this time with a solo homer from Camargo and an RBI-single from Jim Jarvis to make it a 4-4 game.
However, the Stripers bullpen failed to keep the Tide at bay as Hayden Harris and James Karinchak each gave up one run in the ninth inning to give Norfolk the 6-4 lead, which held as the final in this one.
(24-267) Columbus Clingstones 1, (27-25) Rocket City Trash Pandas 3
- David McCabe, 1B: 2-3, HR, RBI, R, BB
- Logan Braunschweig, RF: 2-4
- Brett Sears, SP: 4 IP, 2 H, 8 K
Despite getting an excellent start on the mound from Brett Sears, the Columbus offense failed to match his performance as the Clingstones were held to just the one run on Wednesday.
Simply put, Sears was downright dominant. While he only went four innings, he made the most of them as he only surrendered two hits but managed to strike out a whopping eight batters in the process. Wednesday’s outing marked the fourth straight scoreless start for Sears as he’s watched his season ERA across double-A and triple-A drop to 2.18. While he is 26 at the double-A level, it’s nice to see Sears miss more bats and limit the damage when he does give up a hit or two.
As we mentioned, there wasn’t much to write home about in terms of the Clingstones’ offense in this one. However, they did get off to a hot start as David McCabe launched the first pitch he saw on the day over the left field wall for a solo homer to give Columbus the early 1-0 lead with two outs in the top of the first inning.
The Clingstones did manage to outhit Rocket City by a 7-4 margin, but failed to string together any type of meaningful at-bats as Adam Zebrowski had the only other extra base hit — a double to lead off the top of the second inning.
(28-25) Rome Emperors 3, (21-30) Greenville Drive 9
- Mac Guscette 1-4, HR, RBI, R
- Isaiah Drake, LF: 1-5, 2B, R
- Will Verdung, 3B: 3-3, 2B
- Cedric De Grandpre, SP: 5 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 7 K
Keeping with an unfortunate trend across the Atlanta farm system on Wednesday, Rome lost against Greenville by a 9-3 margin.
Cedric De Grandpre — who has been able to put up solid strikeout numbers, but has also had some trouble keeping the ball in the yard this season — didn’t have his best stuff in this one. In his five frames of work, the 24-year-old gave up four runs on five hits, but did manage to strikeout seven batters in the process. To date, De Grandpre has only had two outings in which he has not yielded a run — his season debut on April 2 and a seven strikeout, 10-inning performance on May 16.
Getting back to Wednesday’s action, the Emperors only managed five hits on the day with three of those coming off the bat of Will Verdung who added a double to his tally.
The biggest offensive blow courtesy of the Rome offense came in the bottom of the fifth as Mac Guscette launched his second homer of the year over the left field wall to cut the deficit to 4-1 at the time.
While the offense had a hard time matching the nine runs scored by Greenville, one impressive highlight came in the eighth inning as Cody Miller — who was playing second base — ranged to his right into shortstop territory to slide and make an excellent stop before popping up and making the throw to get the runner at first in what was easily the best defensive play of the day for the Emperors.
(30-23) Augusta GreenJackets 5, (18-35) Delmarva Shorebirds 10
- Cooper McMurray, 1B: 2-3, HR, 2 RBI, R, BB
- Tate Southisene, SS: 1-5, RBI, R, SB
- Conor Essenburg, CF: 1-5
- Junior Garcia, RF: 2-4, R
- Ethan Bagwell, SP: 4.2 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 6 K
This was a really disappointing loss for Augusta against what isn’t exactly a strong Delmarva team than won just it’s 18th game of the season by beating the GreenJackets.
Things went downhill pretty quick from the jump in this one, as Ethan Bagwell didn’t exactly have his best stuff. The Shorebirds managed to tag Bagwell for one run in the first inning and three runs in the third inning to take a 4-0 lead. Bagwell would eventually give up two more runs, bringing his total to six runs allowed on the day in what was easily his worst outing of the year to this point.
The Augusta offense did its best to try and stay in the game. In fact, the GreenJackets actually tied the game at 4-4 in the bottom of the fourth inning thanks to a two-run bomb from Cooper McMurray and a pair of run-scoring singles from both Tate Southisene and Conor Essenburg.
However, with Bagwell giving up three more runs and the bullpen also giving up three more runs, it was simply too much to overcome.
One bright spot in terms of pitching was lefty Adiel Melendez who, in 2.1 innings of work, held Delmarva scoreless while striking out three batters. After a couple of rougher outings in late April and early May, the undrafted free agent has come into his own to lower his ERA to 3.68 while striking out 18 in 14.2 innings pitched.
(0-2) DSL Braves 2, (1-1) DSL Astros Blue 6
- Starlyn De La Cruz, CF: 2-3, 2B, R, BB
- Jose Manon, SS: 2-4, 2B
- Sherrintley Da Costa Gomez, LF: 1-2, 2B, R, BB
- Martires Polanco, SP: 4 IP, H, R, 3 BB, 7 K
The DSL Braves played their second game of the season on Wednesday, and a handful of players stood out above the rest.
Top international signees Starlyn De La Cruz and Jose Manon had significant days at the plate, as they both tallied a pair of hits, including one double each, on the day. De La Cruz also scored one of the Braves’ two runs on the day as well.
Sherrintley Da Costa Gomez also had a solid day at the plate, going 1-2 with a double and a run scored to his credit to go along with a walk.
On the pitching side of things, Martires Polanco made his debut on the mound for the Braves. Across just four innings of work, Polanco was excellent as the 19-year-old allowed just one hit and one unearned run while striking out seven in the process. He did walk three batters, so his control needs a little refining, which isn’t out of the ordinary for a younger arm.
