The Atlanta Braves affiliates had two interesting arms making starts on Saturday, with Ian Anderson taking the bump for Columbus and JR Ritchie getting the nod in Gwinnett. Neither team came away with a win, but both pitchers had solid outings and put the team in a position to win though the offenses fell short.
(62-81) Gwinnett Stripers 1, (80-61) Nashville Sounds 3
- Jesus Bastides, SS: 1-4, .250/.336/.397
- Luke Waddell, 2B: 1-4, .277/.372/.348
- JR Ritchie, SP: 6 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 2.98 ERA
- Blake Burkhalter, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 3.18 ERA
JR Ritchie cruised through the first five innings of his start and seemed to be on his way to a dominant final line, but the third time through the order bug bit him hard
and he gave up two runs and five hard hit balls in the sixth inning. Ritchie’s command of his curveball and slider weren’t terrific in this game and he often left them over the plate or a bit too far off to get batters to chase, and as a result he wasn’t able to get many swing-and-misses throughout the game. He fell behind a bit too often in counts, but was fortunately getting the Sounds to swing over his sinkers and hit them for ground balls, and the Sounds laid off plenty of well-placed fastballs on the edge of the strike zone that went for called strikes. Four of Ritchie’s seven strikeouts in this game were called strike threes, two of those on painted fastballs, but Nashville’s third time through the order they stayed more aggressive on pitches in the strike zone. The result was an inning where none of the contact made was hit any softer than 99.6 mph, and they strung together singles though throughout the game Ritchie was able to prevent hard contact in the air. He mixed his pitches well the first couple of times through the order, but had too many left in the middle of the plate and by the end of the game Nashville was able to recognize and pounce on those mistakes.
It was a standard fare game for this Stripers team lacking in thump, as the offense had five hits that were all singles and didn’t hit the ball very hard as a group. After his first lively stretch at the plate in a couple of weeks David McCabe had Saturday off, and Gwinnett otherwise didn’t have a whole lot of promise to offer. Jonathan Ornelas was by far the team’s best performer with three of the five hardest hit balls in the game, but only one turned into a hit. Gwinnett did have the early lead in this game and it started from Jesus Bastidas who had a pretty terrible day at the plate all things considered. He struck out three times and had a 69 mph bloop in his other at bat, but that bloop found grass for a leadoff hit in the fourth inning and Bastidas would end up scoring the lone Stripers run. Connor Capel hit a grounder up the middle that had just enough steam to make it a tough play over at shortstop, and the defender’s sliding attempt came up empty and allowed Bastidas to score from second for a Gwinnett lead. That lead wouldn’t last long, though, as Nashville scored a run in the bottom of the inning on a soft hit ball of their own, and Gwinnett wouldn’t be much threat in the latter stages of the game. Blake Burkhalter had a brief appearance and had good final results, but the inputs for him this outing were disappointing. He had a terrible time with his release point and was scattering pitches at the zone, failing to elevate his fastball consistently or land any particularly effective curveball. The couple of cutters he threw landed in good places, but overall this was the worst he has looked in awhile but it wouldn’t come back to hurt him. A curveball left in the upper third of the zone and over the plate was rolled for a weak ground out to lead off the inning, and he escaped the inning on a similar pitch although this one was hit harder on the ground.
Swing and Misses
JR Ritchie – 5
(58-76) Columbus Clingstones 3, (68-69) Pensacola Blue Wahoos 4
- John Gil, SS: 1-3, BB, .211/.286/.211
- Patrick Clohisy, CF: 1-4, RBI, .271/.329/.387
- Ian Anderson, SP: 5.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 3.09 ERA
A comeback effort for the Clingstones fell short and the offense struggled, though they had their hits in the key spots they needed to put up runs. Ian Anderson had a second good start in a row where he was able to throw strikes and get outs, though his issues with his reduced fastball velocity are still a damper on his performances. Anderson was sitting in the 92-93 mph range on the broadcast, and it’s difficult for him to have success when he doesn’t have velocity to fall back on, due to his pretty consistent issues with command. While Anderson did go to his changeup at times in this game and it had the level of success one would expect from his changeup against Double-A hitters, there seemed to be a particular emphasis on him trying to locate fastballs, sliders, and curveballs in two-strike counts. Anderson was very often going to those offerings back-to-back-to-back late in plate appearances, focusing on trying to execute them perfectly, and in particular the fastball was the one to get heavy use. Hitters in those counts looked off balance like they were dialed in to try to get at his changeup, and he was often able to get bad swings on fastballs where the hitter was behind it and would ground it out weakly. He got some solid swings on his curveball for strike threes as well, though it wasn’t as consistently landed in good spots.
John Gil started his day off with a single, giving him four straight games with a hit, but it was more of a bloop shot into right field. A hit is a hit by all means, but when Gil attacks on first pitch fastballs the approach should be to try to drive those pitches in the air on the pull side and he didn’t maintain a good balance at the plate. Blue Wahoos starter Jacob Miller took advantage of Gil’s perceived aggression in the next at bat, hitting him with two straight sliders that he swung and missed badly at before freezing him on a 1-2 fastball in the strike zone for a called strike three. Gil stayed aggressive on sliders in the next at bat and got a couple of them up in the zone that he could hit, but he was really flying out with his front side and pulling off of the pitch and wasn’t able to reach them and make contact. He had two more swing-and-misses on sliders in that at bat, and while his approach in the final at bat wasn’t terrible he was not making quality swings. He seemed to see the ball much better in his final plate appearance against left-handed pitcher Jack Sellinger, who earlier in the week dominated Gil for an easy strikeout. Sellinger was utilizing the back foot slider to try to get chases from Gil, but unlike Tuesday he was able to force Sellinger to make pitches and he couldn’t execute, walking Gil on five pitches. This walk was a key part of moving the inning forward. Adam Zebrowski was hit by a pitch to load the bases, forcing Sellinger from the game with the tying run on first base. EJ Exposito was able to drop a soft liner into left field in front of the outfielder, moving everyone station to station to put Zebrowski as the tying run in scoring position. A dropped pop up in foul territory by the catcher helped Columbus as well, but they could not come away with a big hit in the inning. Geraldo Quintero got Gil home on a grounder to the pitcher, but Cody Milligan struck out with the tying run 90 feet away.
Swing and Misses
Ian Anderson – 10
LJ McDonough – 4
