Atlanta Braves Minor League Recap: Kolby Allard and Drew Harrington shine on the mound

Gwinnett Braves vs. Pawtucket

Rained Out...rain sucks

Next Game: 4/25 at 6:35 PM @ Rochester. Probable Starter - Sean Newcomb

Mississippi Braves 1, Montgomery Biscuits 2

Box Score

• Connor Lien, CF: 1-3, HR, RBI, .213/.273/.426
• Travis Demeritte, 2B: 0-4, .241/.339/.407
• Kolby Allard, SP: 5 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 1.29 ERA

Kolby Allard threw a gem for Mississippi, but the Mississippi bullpen faltered again and that combined with a lack of offense led to the Braves falling 2-1. The Mississippi rotation seems to be playing a game where they are trying to one-up each other and Kolby did just that in his start. 5 innings of shutout ball put him in the top ten in the league in ERA and he now owns the best ERA in the rotation. For what it’s worth, Mississippi has three pitchers in the top 12 in terms of ERA (Allard, Soroka, and Withrow). Once Allard hit his pitch count, Wes Parsons came in to relieve him and he gave up two runs in three innings of work which proved to be enough to steal the game for Montgomery.

There isn’t much to talk about on offense as the only run of the game came from a solo home run from Connor Lien in the 8th inning. Luis Valenzuela added a double and Dylan Moore a single, but those three hits were the only ones that Mississippi could muster against Mike Franco (who is having himself quite the start to the year as well). Adam Walker played in his second straight game for Mississippi and he went 0-3 while Travis Demeritte went 0-4 with a pair of strikeouts.

Next Game: 4/24 at 8:05 PM @ Montgomery. Probable Starter - Matt Withrow

Florida Fire Frogs 0, Clearwater Threshers 5

Box Score

• Ray-Patrick Didder, RF: 2-4, SB(4), .180/.307/.262
• Ronald Acuna, CF: 1-4, SB(8), .230/.266/.361
• Drew Harrington, SP: 7 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 2.42 ERA

Drew Harrington was outstanding, but again the bullpen faltered and the offense failed to show up for the most part as Florida lost 5-0. Drew Harrington got groundouts seemingly at will in his start and he now has posted starts where he gave up zero earned runs in three of his four starts to begin the year (the other being a game where he gave up 6 which is one we are sure he wishes he could have back). There is a lot to like about Harrington, in particular the fact that while he does seem to pitch to contact, he does not walk batters. Opposing batters hitting .282 against him is something to keep an eye on (small sample size warning), but beyond that Harrington has been outstanding in 2017 so far. Bradley Roney came in to relieve him and promptly gave up 5 runs (3 earned) as he struggled to throw strikes.

On offense, Ray-Patrick Didder did good work at the top of the order with a pair of hits and a stolen base. Ronald Acuna added a hit and his 8th stolen base (he is 3rd in the league in stolen bases despite missing a little bit of time), but beyond that not much was happening on the offensive side of the ball. Alex Jackson was somehow quieted in this game, but based on his performance thus far this game seems to be the exception to the rule. Braxton Davidson went 0-3 and now has 4 hits in his last 10 games while striking out 18 times over that same span.

Next Game: 4/25 at 7:05 PM vs. Palm Beach. Probable Starter - Ricardo Sanchez

Rome Braves

Rained out....rain sucks

Next Game: 4/24 at 6:00 @ Hickory. Probable Starter - Jeremy Walker