The Atlanta Braves affiliates played four close games, all defined by impressive starting pitching and late runs deciding the outcome. Cade Kuehler had a particularly impressive day with eight strikeouts and 23 whiffs generated, but he was far from the only headlining pitcher. Herick Hernandez made his return to Columbus with a four inning masterpiece, and down in Augusta Derek Vartanian continued to be one of the fringe prospects who has impressed early this season.
(30-30) Gwinnett Stripers 3, (24-36) Norfolk Tides 4
- Jim Jarvis, 2B: 0-5, .304/.402/.439
- Rowdy Tellez, 1B: 0-3, BB, .262/.366/.488
- Anthony Molina, SP: 5 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 4.37 ERA
The Stripers
did a great job of opening up a lead against the Tides on Thursday, but failed to add on in the latter half of the game, leaving the bullpen with the tall task of protecting a slim lead. Gwinnett had a comfortable going early at the plate and opened up a lead on a double from DaShawn Keirsey Jr. in the second inning, a lead they would hold for most of the game. They added a couple of more runs on a single from Maverick Handley in the fourth inning, giving the pitching staff a solid lead to work with over the five innings, though that would dwindle quickly across the coming frames. Following the Handley single the offense completely disappeared for the last half of the game. Jim Jarvis had an 0-5 performance at the plate with three strikeouts, putting an end to a strong stretch of play for him over his past five games. Jarvis hadn’t had a multi-strikeout game in two weeks prior to this performance and hadn’t had three strikeouts in a game since May, but this was probably the worst he has looked at the plate in any individual game this season.
Anthony Molina started this game on a heater, because despite giving up some solid contact the Tides struggled to actually get the barrel to the ball consistently. Molina threw a ton of strikes and his secondaries were all effective at getting whiffs in this game, and he was particularly sharp in a stretch between the second and third innings where he recorded five strikeouts and a pop out across a six batter span. However Molina had some moments where he struggled to keep breaking balls down in the strike zone, and that bit him in a huge way in the fifth inning. Molina hung a curveball right over the heart of the plate to Tommy Pham, who hit an absolute tank for a three-run home run that spoiled an otherwise stellar start. Molina left after that fifth inning, and that was the start of the real trouble for the Stripers. Victor Mederos had all kinds of trouble with his command in this one, both missing badly out of the strike zone and right over the heart of the plate with concerning frequency. The Tides took advantage and notched three hits and the tying run in the game off of him in the sixth inning, though he managed to escape a jam thanks to a big strikeout of Sam Huff and he got a second opportunity to pitch in the seventh. Mederos kept it together for a few batters but made some mistakes with two outs and gave up another run that stuck him and the Stripers with the loss.
Swing and Misses
Anthony Molina – 17
Victor Mederos – 4
Connor Thomas – 3
(25-27) Columbus Clingstones 5, (27-26) Rocket City Trash Pandas 3
- Patrick Clohisy, CF: 2-4, .253/.320/.420
- David McCabe, 1B: 2-5, RBI, .266/.370/.539
- Adam Zebrowski, C: 1-4, HR, .267/.343/.544
- Herick Hernandez, SP: 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 1.52ERA
- Luis Vargas, RP: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB. 2 K, 6.11 ERA
Herick Hernandez is finally back and healthy with the Clingstones, and once again he looked strong on the mound for them with four impressive innings. Hernandez’s command was shaky-though that may not necessarily be a sign of rust for him-yet he managed to continue his pattern of great pitching this year as Rocket City had no real answer to finding solid contact against him. Hernandez wasn’t sharp enough with his fastball to get the level of swing-and-miss we have seen out of him in past outings, but the carry on that four seam fastball led to a lot of lazy fly outs mixed with enough whiffs to keep the lineup moving and avoid too many balls in play. Hernandez’s command will continue to be the big red flag for his profile, but his stuff is so nasty it sort of hasn’t mattered yet. He’s managed to make this jump to Double-A and improve his strike-throwing and walk rate slightly while actually getting more whiffs than before, and there is a lot more consistency with his command on the field even if it’s not at the level it needs to be yet. The bullpen nearly got themselves into real trouble in the innings after Hernandez left, allowing three runs in the sixth and seventh innings, but the fifth inning explosion by the offense was enough for them to hold on. Luis Vargas got back on track with one of his better relief appearances this spring, and even though the overall numbers are ugly he is missing bats and control is a bit better than last season, so progress is being made despite the glacial pace it seems to come at for him.
The Clingstones could not figure out Angels 2025 third-rounder Nate Snead the first time through the lineup, as he blanked them across the first four innings of this game to keep pace with Hernandez. Then the hits started to tumble out in the fifth inning and they did not stop until Snead was chased from the game with only one out recorded. Patrick Clohisy looked good at the plate and broke the scoreless tie with a base hit, and the Clingstones put up a four spot with five hits off of Snead. After he left they went right back to their quiet ways with the bats, though Adam Zebrowski did make a loud addition in the seventh inning. He showed off his strength with a long solo home run into the right-center field gap to add a bit of insurance on, and so far he has had a huge week at the plate since coming back down from Gwinnett. All four of his hits in the past three games have been extra base hits.
Swing and Misses
Herick Hernandez – 8
Luis Vargas – 5
(29-25) Rome Emperors 5, (21-31) Greenville Drive
- Isaiah Drake, RF: 1-5, 2B, .262/.339/.425
- John Gil, SS: 1-3, BB, RBI, .262/.373/.419
- Eric Hartman, LF: 1-4, RBI, .291/.363/.558
- Cade Kuehler, SP: 5.1 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 8 K, 3.71 ERA
Cade Kuehler has made an impressive turnaround to his season over the past month, and delivered his most dominant start of the year despite having a rough command day relative to recent standards. Over his past five games Kuehler has turned it up, both getting a high swing-and-miss rate (33.5%) while not sacrificing strike-throwing or allowing the home runs that plagued him early in the season. Two of those did not carry over well into this game. Kuehler missed the plate more often than he has across his strong stretch of play, which did cause some trouble for him, but these hitters struggled to make any contact against him so it didn’t matter. The only exception to that was a rather huge one, when they tried to run him out for the sixth inning and he struggled. He walked the first hitter then left a breaking ball right over the heart of the plate which got crushed for a two-run home run, ending his no-hitter and shutout in one swing. Otherwise, Kuehler got 23 whiffs on 43 swings, was forcing a ton of infield pop ups, and mostly cruised even through the occasional walks.
No Emperor had a big breakout day at the plate, though with steady production throughout and one big swing from Cody Miller they put up enough runs to take the game in extra innings. Miller put the Emperors on the board in the fourth inning following a leadoff walk to Dixon Williams, taking a fat slider and pulling it for his sixth home run of the season. Miller is still struggling to find consistent impact at the plate but officially seems over the whiff issues that defined his early struggles this season, with a stretch now of nine games in which he only has six strikeouts. His current season numbers are the high water mark for him since May 12th, and given that he is hitting the ball harder and making consistent contact I expect to watch them continually drift up. Isaiah Drake led off in the fifth inning with a hot swing, hitting a hard line drive down the right field line that stayed fair and bounded over the wall for a ground-rule double. Drake would take advantage of a wild pitch to advance to third base, and John Gil lifted a fly ball that was deep enough to allow Drake to score and extend the lead to 3-0. The issue that faced the Emperors was a lack of ability to string hits together. That was the case throughout the game, but in the 9th inning Miller reached on a wild pitch on a strikeout, creating a sliver of hope in a game that had swung in Greenville’s favor and had them leading 4-3. It got down to two outs after a couple of ground outs, but with the last gasp of breath Colby Jones hit a pop up into shallow right field, which pittered off of the glove of the sliding right fielder and fell harmlessly for a lucky RBI double. In extra innings John Gil got himself on the board with a one out base hit, bringing up Eric Hartman who only needed to get one into the outfield to score Dalton McIntyre from third base. He did just that, walking the game off with a sacrifice fly.
Swing and Misses
Cade Kuehler – 23
Riley Frey – 5
(30-24) Augusta GreenJackets 2, (19-35) Delmarva Shorebirds
- Tate Southisene, SS: 2-3, BB, RBI, .302/.432/.508
- Luis Guanipa, CF: 0-4, .306/.353/.510
- Derek Vartanian, SP: 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 3.94 ERA
The GreenJackets put up a disappointing offensive performance, save for Tate Southisene who had a couple of hits in the game to extend his hitting streak to nine games. Southisene has been unquestionably fantastic for the GreenJackets at the top of the order, and really put them in a great position to win this game late. In the eighth inning Augusta only trailed 2-0, and Southisene came to the plate with a couple of men on and drove a sharp single through the right side. With still no outs in the inning and two runners on there was a huge opportunity for Augusta to at least tie the game. but it wasn’t meant to be. Luis Guanipa popped out into shallow center field keeping all of the runners at bay, and in a critical spot Juan Mateo popped out to the infield for the second out. Michael Martinez then grounded out and the Shorebirds put one out for two runs in the top of the ninth to seal the game. Nick Montgomery did add on with a home run in the ninth inning, but the bottom of the order didn’t have the firepower to drag Augusta back into the game.
It’s rather a shame, too, that Augusta’s bats had a down evening because Derek Vartanian 100% pitched well enough to deserve a win in this game. Coming off of his worst outing of the season Vartanian bounced back and commanded the ball much better, and the Shorebirds hit ground ball after ground ball to help him advance through the lineup with ease. He’s been consistently around the 25% whiff rate range, which is where he was today, and has produced loads of weak ground balls to keep offenses from being able to put up runs. In the first inning an errors by Luis Guanipa allowed a runner to get to third base and score a quick one against Vartanian, but other than that one unearned run he was in full control of this game for the first four innings. A bunt single in the fifth inning and an inside out double that rolled down the left field line accounted for the only other run he allowed.
Swing and Misses
Derek Vartanian – 10
Lewis Sifontes – 8
