It was disappointing for Atlanta Braves fans to see one of the top prospects from the 2025 draft class go down almost immediately this season. Finally, though, Conor Essenburg brings his power bat back into an exciting Augusta lineup and he started his next stint with an early hit.
(28-24) Gwinnett Stripers 4, (31-21) Nashville Sounds 5
- Jim Jarvis, SS: 1-4, .298/.404/.431
- DaShawn Keirsey Jr., CF: 2-4, .281/.318/.419
- Austin Gomber, SP: 4 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 4 BB, 3 K, 9.00 ERA
- Hayden Harris, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 4.58 ERA
The Stripers opened their week with an ugly loss, though despite not playing particularly well on either side of the ball they only narrowly lost. Walks were a significant issue for the pitching staff as
they allowed eight free passes in this game, and none of the guys really made up for it by getting whiffs. Austin Gomber was awful in the first inning and allowed two runs on three walks and a hit, though all in all it could have been much worse for him. He settled in to throw strikes for the remainder of his outing, and he and the Stripers staff were helped by Nashville not hitting the ball hard for much of the game. A few soft hit singles put runs up later in Gomber’s outing, but he was holding his own at least and gave Gwinnett a chance to get back in the game.
Unfortunately, Gwinnett had the same issues with not hitting the ball hard, and they didn’t always have the fortune of walks to bail them out of their woes. They were carved up in order the first time around the lineup, but a couple of fourth inning walks broke up the streak of good pitching and gave the Stripers a much-needed scoring opportunity trailing by three. Hicklen then came through with one of the hardest hit balls of the day, turning in a timely single to get Gwinnett on the board with a run. DaShawn Keirsey looped a single into right field to cap off a three-run inning, tying the game up for the time being. That lasted little time as Gomber allowed a run in the bottom of the inning, and an error in the fifth inning lead directly to the final run of the day for Nashville. The bullpen managed to hold on and not allow any earned runs, but it wasn’t an impressive sight far anyone in the group. They combined to walk four batters and strike out none over the final four innings, and in that time only managed one whiff on 28 swings. Gwinnett added a run in the seventh inning on a double by Adam Zebrowski, but the hits for the offense were too few. They struggled to string together any sort of solid contact and threaten to make a comeback in the game.
Swing and Misses
Austin Gomber – 7
(21-23) Columbus Clingstones, (22-21) Biloxi Shuckers POSTPONED
(25-21) Rome Emperors 1, (27-19) Winston-Salem Dash 5
- Isaiah Drake, LF: 0-4, .274/.353/.441
- John Gil, SS: 0-4, .258/.367/.423
- Eric Hartman, CF: 1-4, .301/.381/.614
- Jeremy Reyes, SP: 7 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 5 K
This is two outings in a row that have taken a similar path for Jeremy Reyes, and athough the numbers in both have been unimpressive there is still a lot to take out of him showing stretches of great pitching. It took Reyes only 33 pitches to get through the first four innings of the game and 23 of those were strikes, but his control turned on its head in the fifth and he had to grind out the final three innings during which he allowed all of his walks and runs. He wasn’t exactly Greg Maddux out there, but he was able to pitch loosely and in rhythm and he was filling up the strike zone with his fastball. He had a few decent changeups as well in the mix, though some of the makings of his later struggles were already pushing into his performance. He was not landing his slider at all in this game, and without his best pitch it was going to be tough for him to work through the batting order a second and third time successfully. A slider that hung up around belt high was the pitch that got tagged for a three-run home run in the fifth inning, though it was more a case of his fastball going missing that got him into the jam following two walks. To his credit, despite not having his best stuff and having a nightmare sequence in that fifth inning, Reyes never stopped attacking with his pitches. There were some times when his mechanical issues caused some misses, but unlike last time where it seemed he got a bit hesitant on the mound this time he didn’t really stray from his attack pattern even after facing that rough inning. He managed to also make the best out of not having his slider. This outing was the best his changeup has looked in a couple of years. That seems to be the pitch he has struggled to find a good feel for with all of the injury issues and inconsistent innings, but for once the pitch seemed to be falling and with the way he was keeping his sinker down in the zone it worked well against left-handed batters. It goes without saying that Reyes has to be more consistent mechanically to ever improve his control to a reasonable level, but his last two outing have at least given some indication that he is capable of finding success even if he hasn’t put together a complete outing yet.
The offense did not do well in this game. There’s not much of another way to put it. Hard contact was rare in this game and the top three in the lineup were held to just a bloop single from Eric Hartman, who would himself get to aggressive on the bases and get thrown out at home in a 0-0 game trying to score from second on an infield hit. If I had to pick out one of the position players who looked really good it would be John Gil, who wasn’t far off from a solid day at the plate. He had a couple of deep fly balls out to right center field, in particular a whallop to the deepest part of the ballpark in the sixth inning that took a tremendous running catch from the center fielder to not be a likely triple given Gil’s speed. Gil also looked great at shortstop in this game, especially going to his right. He made a few good picks and throws in the hole, and it’s been remarkable to see how much his footwork and composure throwing the ball has improved over the past two seasons. He has had a bit of an error bug this season, but it’s not something that should be a significant concern long term as long as he cleans it up the rest of the year. He has gone hitless in his last three games and is only 6-for-his-last-47, but if he hits the ball like he did in this one he’s going to be fine.
Swing and Misses
Jeremy Reyes – 11
Colin Daniel – 3
(25-21) Augusta GreenJackets 1, (25-21) Kannapolis Cannon Ballers 3
- Tate Southisene, 2B: 1-4, HR, .285/.423/.467
- Conor Essenburg, RF: 1-3, .212/.381/.394
- Luis Guanipa, CF: 1-4, .306/.349/.520
- Aiven Cabral, SP: 5.1 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 2.45 ERA
Connor Essenburg made his return to Augusta following a month-and-a-half long stint on the injured list, and he got right to it in the first inning. He smoked a line drive into left field for a single, one of only four Augusta hit on the day. The rest of his evening didn’t go quite so well as he struck out in his next three plate appearances, though he looked to have his timing and pitch recognition despite making mistakes in those at-bats. He wasn’t getting dominated and finishing the at-bats with no hope, but stayed on curveballs, laid off some tough pitches, and worked a couple of deeper at bats. Contact is obviously going to be the big thing to watch throughout Essenburg’s career, and he has yet to have a strikeout-free game this season, but he isn’t struggling as badly with zone or breaking ball recognition as some players his age who do have those swing-and-miss issues. Luis Guanipa had a hit in this game, adding up to four games in a row with a hit and 11 of his last 12, and he made solid contact in three of his plate appearances. Despite the hits still rolling in and him not striking out much, it’s fair to call Tate Southisene’s recent stretch of play the closest he’s faced to a slump this season. He hasn’t had an extra base hit in two weeks, and he’s gotten back into the habit of rolling over balls more often like he did through his first couple of games of the season. It’s nothing more than the ebbs and flows that any player, especially one as inexperienced as Southisene, will see throughout a season, and he’s still finding ways to be impactful by making contact and drawing walks.
The six game winning streak for Aiven Cabral came to a close in his first start since the beginning of the streak, as he had his worst game in a month in combination with the offense going silent behind him. Cabral was as efficient as always, feeding strikes at the hitters and mixing pitches well to get weak contact, but he ran into a bit more wildness than we’ve come to be used to with Cabral. Cabral didn’t have any innings where he completely bottomed out, but rather a steady diet of baserunners bled through runs in the second and third inning, and a mistake in the fourth from him led to a long solo home run. Cabral finished out the game with a flurry by striking out three of the last five batters he faced, though the offense made little threat of a comeback in the later innings of the game. Cabral doesn’t have a pitch that really stands out in his arsenal, but he has done a good job of throwing all of them for strikes and keeping his sinker at the bottom of the zone where it can lead to ground ball outs.
Swing and Misses
Aiven Cabral – 10
Logan Forsythe – 1
