Thursday night wasn’t a great day to be a pitcher in the Atlanta Braves system. The best team outing was Rome allowing five runs in seven innings, and the worst was a large, large step below that. However, most of the games remained close thanks to big time home runs, including many of the top prospects in the system. Dixon Williams has been on fire for Rome and continued that with a long home run for his fifth of the season, helping lift the Emperors to the only win on the farm. In Augusta Alex
Lodise and Luis Guanipa went back-to-back on solo home runs, and the team as a whole had four of them.
(22-13) Gwinnett Stripers, (13-22) Norfolk Tides PPD
(15-15) Columbus Clingstones 6, (13-17) Biloxi Shuckers 7
- Lizandro Espinoza, DH: 1-4, HR, .275/.376/.549
- Drew Compton, 1B: 2-4, RBI, .154/.239/.231
- Ambioris Tavarez, 2B: 2-4, 2B, HR, 4 RBI, .211/.338/.421
- Shay Schanaman, SP: 2.1 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 5.74 ERA
- Jhancarlos Lara, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 11.42 ERA
The Columbus Clingstones charged back in the ninth inning of this game, giving Biloxi a late run for their money in a bid to steal a game, but a breakout performance from Ambioris Tavarez fell tantalizingly short of lifting Columbus to victory. Pitching was a pretty massive problem for Columbus in this game and they weren’t sending out the A-squad to try to shut down the Shuckers, and Shay Schanaman took some lumps that put Columbus in a hole in the early stages of the game. Schanaman lived dangerously for two innings before it all fell to pieces, starting in the third inning with his third hit batter of the day. Schanaman let up three hits and three runs before being pulled with one out, and Samuel Strickland struggled to stanch the bleeding. Strickland let up a back-breaking two-run bomb that capped a chaotic frame, and Biloxi’s 5-0 lead looked to be the stuff of nightmares for a Columbus squad who had yet to find their way the first time through the order. Strickland would continue to let runs bleed in on solo shots in each of the next two innings, though he avoided traffic on the basepaths and that helped to limit the damage to just a couple of extra runs. Meanwhile the offensive attack ramped up with a second look at Manuel Rodriguez.
As the runaway league leader in team home runs it was expected that the Clingstones would make some noise of their own with the long ball, and despite missing the thump of David McCabe they were able to churn out some middle inning runs. Lizandro Espinoza got the first Clingstones hit and run with a line shot out to left field, and with that Espinoza has already reached the five home run mark after just 25 games this season. Espinoza has had a ton of success in the Southern League with seven home runs and a 137 wRC+ in 37 games, and that’s come with a new approach that has filled a big hole in his game. Espinoza is drawing walks at a rate north of 13% in Double-A, and though swing-and-miss remains a question for him a combination of increased on base production and even average power would be a significant shift in the profile of a player who can play up the middle defensively. It’s still too early to judge how much of these changes are sample size fluctuations, but the switch to a pull-heavy, higher effort swing has at least turned Espinoza into a hitter with a respectable power profile. Ambioris Tavarez hit a long home run the next inning to bring home two runs, smoking one into the power alley the opposite way and lifting it where the wind could carry it well into paydirt for him and the Clingstones.
Going into the ninth inning the Clingstones still trailed 7-3, however, and though two runners would get on via a hit batter and a walk they found themselves down to their final out. Drew Compton came through with an RBI single to edge Columbus closer, and then suddenly Tavarez made the game a load more interesting. He ripped a liner that just carried past the right fielder and into the gap for a double, bringing home two more runs and moving himself, the tying run, into scoring position. Ethan Workinger battled a 3-2 count out over a 10-pitch at bat, fighting to keep the game alive for Columbus, but his liner floated right to the second baseman ending the rally for Columbus.
Swing and Misses
Samuel Strickland – 6
Shay Schanaman – 5
Jhancarlos Lara – 3
(15-14) Rome Emperors 7, (7-22) Asheville Tourists 5
- Isaiah Drake, DH: 1-4, .252/.317/.383
- John Gil, SS: 1-3, .282/.381/.456
- Dixon Williams, 2B: 2-3, HR, BB, 4 RBI, .283/.411/.630
- Cade Kuehler, SP: 3 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 7.66 ERA
Swing and Misses
Cade Kuehler – 4
Connor Thomas – 4
(15-15) Rome Emperors 5, (8-22) Asheville Tourists 6
- Isaiah Drake, CF: 1-3, 2 BB, .252/.317/.383
- John Gil, SS: 1-2, 2B, 2 BB, .282/.381/.456
- Cody Miller, 3B: 3-4, 3 RBI, .202/.303/.308
- Colin Daniel, SP: 1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 5.47 ERA
The Rome Emperors offense has been taking full advantage of the hitter-friendly confines in Asheville, but so too have the Tourists put a lick on the Rome staff early in this series. Cade Kuehler had an other day on the mound where home runs were problematic, as he allowed three of them accounting for all three runs in the first game of this double-header. Kuehler was fortunate that all of those came early in innings and he was able to avoid having a real dent thrown on the start, though it was yet another underwhelming outing for him in a rough start to 2025. Fortunately he never threw a pitch with the team trailing after Dixon Williams gave him a huge lift to start the game. We can often attribute a home run explosion to the conditions in HomeTrust Park, but Williams earned his fifth home run of the season outright with a mammoth shot to center field. His blast to clear the bases put Rome up 3-0 in the first inning.
Rome kept hitting and put up four runs in the first inning, then turned around and put up two more in the second inning to open up a 6-1 lead. Williams again contributed with a sharp single the opposite way to score a run, and since that early season injured list stint Williams has become a wrecking ball for the offense. He has hit safely in six straight games with three home runs in that stretch, and his advanced feel as a hitter has translated well to High-A so far. Williams is above average in every relevant category as a hitter this season, and with the Braves aggression with prospects it wouldn’t be a surprise if his success is rewarded with a relatively quick call to Double-A. Williams’s power numbers are certain to come down to earth somewhat over the next few weeks, but otherwise he has shown the approach, contact, and swing characteristics necessary to sustain most of his success at this level.
While home runs weren’t the culprit of the game two loss for Rome, they still could not get enough outs in the early going and a sustained effort from the offense fell a bit short. Colin Daniel gave up a slew of hard contact in the first inning which turned into four extra base hits and three runs, and the 34 pitches he threw chased him from the game early and left it in the hands of Rome’s bullpen to cover bulk. That’s never something you want to see in a double header, and Jacob Shafer could not reverse the early game trend. While he was able to spread out his hard contact a bit more he still allowed three runs on six hits over three innings, and each time it seemed Rome was inching closer to tying the game up the Tourists got a run to keep some distance between the two sides. Rome did have an early lead after Isaiah Drake and John Gil drew walks to open the game, eventually scoring on a swinging bunt single from Cody Miller. In the third inning the duo sparked another rally with a walk from Drake and a fly ball from Gil that bounced off of the top of the wall for a double. Eric Hartman had a chance to do major damage but struck out, and the only run Rome got was on an infield single by Cody Miller. Miller’s third RBI hit of the game came in the sixth inning when he pushed a liner into shallow center field to bring home Gil, making it a 6-5 ballgame. Miller stole second base cleanly to sit in scoring position, but Rome wasn’t stringing together a ton of loud contact in this game and it came back to bite them. Gil and Drake were on base six times in this game and Miller added another three, but outside of that group there wasn’t much impact to be had and the team went 4-15 with runners in scoring position.
Swing and Misses
Colin Daniel – 5
Trent Buchanan – 4
Jacob Shafer – 4
(15-15) Augusta GreenJackets 7, (19-11) Charleston RiverDogs 13
- Tate Southisene, DH: 0-4, BB, .275/.433/.486
- Alex Lodise, SS: 1-5, HR, .254/.326/.397
- Luis Guanipa, CF: 1-4, HR, .291/.325/.482
- Landon Beidelschies, SP: 1.2 IP, 7 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 12.86 ERA
- Luis Arestigueta, RP: 2 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 7.53 ERA
The season is steadily getting worse for Landon Beidelschies, who had another blowup outing and now has allowed 10 earned runs in his past 2 1/3 innings. Beidelschies is facing a torrent of bad batted ball luck with a BABIP this season of .591, though it’s still fair to contribute much of the struggles he has faced to his own execution. Beidelschies isn’t making good pitches on a regular basis and he doesn’t have the raw stuff to get away with the mistakes he is making over the plate, and hitters have been able to take advantage with lots of contact. Beidelschies had flashes of better execution in his early could of starts this season and should come back down to earth soon, but his inability to keep his breaking balls low is an issue that he cannot afford to keep having. Beidelschies was not the only one to have trouble on the mound, however. Lewis Sifontes managed to avoid the control problems that have plagued him this season, but still wasn’t effective in his time in relief. Sifontes got hit around and allowed runs in the third and fourth innings, though his two runs allowed in 2 1/3 inning actually served to lower his ERA on this season. Luis Arestigueta continued his struggles as well, though he had stretches of play where he flashed some promising pitching. Arestigueta’s command is all over the place and he got knocked around while making a host of bad pitches in the sixth inning, but also had a couple of stretches both in the fifth and sixth where he locked in and seemed to find a groove. When Arestigueta keeps his fastball in the strike zone and his slider off of the middle of the plate he has shown electric movement and a capacity to generate whiffs at a high rate, and these little slices of success keep confidence high in the 20 year old. His issues are primarily with his mechanics, as when he has struggled these past few starts his arm slot has dropped and significantly and his arm has dragged behind. Following that home run home Arestigueta did a much better job of keeping his arm path more compact (though he naturally has a wide arm swing) and releasing a little closer to three-quarters and he was able to avoid having his pitches sail up and arm side. While this particular change came a bit too late in the outing to salvage much good it is still notable that he was able to make that adjustment on the fly, and hopefully that bodes well for him in the future.
Augusta’s offensive attack came in bunches early and fizzled down the stretch after their push to even up the game fell short. The GreenJackets strung together five singles in the second inning to get themselves on the board, and that flipped the lineup over to a waiting Tate Southisene with one out and a huge bases-loaded opportunity. Southisene went after the first pitch but rolled over an inside sinker, and the rally fizzled out as the shortstop turned a clean double play to retire the side. Augusta brought more thump in the third inning, and Alex Lodise brought the hammer with a leadoff bomb. On the following pitch Luis Guanipa got a slider that stayed on the top edge of the zone and he absolutely obliterated it, breaking a span of seven games without an extra base hit.
While the first week of May has been a bit less impactful from Guanipa he is still on a tear at the plate, and now officially has a career high in home runs and two more this season than in the 87 games he played between 2024 and 2025. Dalton McIntyre made it a third home run in the third inning with an opposite field two-run shot, and the GreenJackets found themselves trailing by just two runs. It seemed like Augusta was poised to make a run at tying the game, but the offense evaporated immediately after that home run. The next 18 GreenJackets in a row were retired until a Yamvier Carrero solo shot in the ninth inning, and it was far too little too late for a comeback by that point. In that ninth inning Tate Southisene was able to work a walk, and though that wouldn’t extend his five game hitting streak it did extend a 17 game on base streak that dates back to April 17th.
Swing and Misses
Landon Biedelschies – 8
Luis Arestigueta – 7
