Atlanta Braves Minor League Recap 7/11: Cristian Pache and Greyson Jenista Show Off Some Power

Mississippi Braves 9, Birmingham Barons 2

Box Score

Travis Demeritte, LF: 2-5, 2B, RBI, R, 2K

Tyler Marlette, DH: 1-5, HR, 2RBI, R, 3K

Alex Jackson, C: 0-4, BB, 2K

Enderson Franco, SP: 5.2IN, 6H, 2ER, 1BB, 7K

Kelvin Vasquez, RP: 1.1IN, 0H, 0ER, 0BB, 3K

Adam McCreery, RP: 2IN, 2H, 0ER, 0BB, 2K

Enderson Franco pitched a solid game that included seven strikeouts while only giving up two runs. The bullpen came in and shut everything else down. There would be no would be comeback attempts tonight. I can see why the Braves want to keep McCreery around by protecting him from the Rule 5 draft. While he walks a ton of guys, he gives up nothing but weak contact. For his career, McCreery has only allowed two home runs in over 170 innings. If he could just cut the walk rate a bit, he could be an important piece in this rebuild. A big if though.

A walk with one out would eventually come around to score, and then an inning later Tyler Marlette hit a 2-run home run. Those three runs would be all Mississippi would need, but the Braves decided to tack on six more in the 8th. Travis Demeritte has been slumping again, so it was good to see him with multiple hits tongith. That was Demeritte’s first multi hit performance in 13 games. The strikeouts are starting to pile up as well. It’s frustrating seeing a guy with this level of talent struggle to make consistently good contact. He’s streaky, so hopefully this jump starts him to go off on a tear.

Florida Fire Frogs 2, Daytona Tortugas 6

Box Score

Cristian Pache, CF: 2-4, R, BB, RBI, HR

Lucas Herbert, C: 2-4, 2B, RBI, K

Jared James, DH: 1-3, BB, SB

Jeremy Walker, SP: 5IP, 9H, 6ER, 2BB, 5K

Troy Bacon, RP: 2IP, 3H, 0ER, 0BB, 1K

Chase Johnson-Mullins, RP: 1IP, 0H, 0ER, 0BB, 2K

The story here was Cristian Pache hitting his 8th home run and in back to back games. There wasn’t much offense outside of that.

It feels like Jeremy Walker gives up 3+ runs every game, but still manages to pitch 5+ innings. It’s not true, but certainly feels true. Walker gives up more hits than innings pitched and that trend continued tonight. The bullpen did a great job, and look at this, we have a Mullins sighting! This is only Chase’s 2nd game of the season and first in more than a month. Hopefully he can stay healthy moving forward because who couldn’t use a 6’8” lefty reliever.

Also, if you are keeping score at home Braxton Davidson is up to an absurd 137 strikeouts. The countdown to 200 strikeouts is on.

Rome Braves 4, Greenville Drive 6

Box Score

Drew Waters, CF: 0-4, 2 K, E

Greyson Jenista, RF: 2-4, 2B, HR, 2R, RBI, K

Jefry Ramos, LF: 2-4, 2B, RBI, K

Daysbel Hernandez, RP: 2IP, 0H, 0ER, 1BB, 4K

Rome jumped out to an early lead thanks to Greyson Jenista’s 1st home run in A ball and a double from Jefry Ramos that scored William Contreras. The offense wouldn’t score again until the 8th inning and by then it was too late.

Odalvi Javier got the start and wasn’t sharp at all. He had a quick first inning, but then allowed runs in four straight innings. That likely put a lot of pressure on the offense and they just couldn’t come through. Daysbel Hernandez did a fantastic job in relief getting four strikeouts across two innings of work. Cutter Dyals had a bad inning where he allowed a run, but overall on the year he’s been solid.

Danville Braves 6, Burlington Royals 2

Box Score

Justin Dean, CF: 0-2, 3BB, 2R, K, 2SB

Andrew Moritz, RF: 2-5, RBI, R, K

CJ Alexander, 3B: 2-4, 2B, R, 2RBI

Brett Langhorne, 1B: 2-4, 2B, R, 2SB

Rusber Estrada, DH: 2-4, 2RBI, 2K

Ryan Shetter, SP: 2IP, 2H, 0ER, 0BB, 1K

Zach Guth, RP: 2IP, 0H, 0ER, 0BB, 3K

It all started with a leadoff walk for Justin Dean in the 3rd inning. A single by CJ Alexander scores Dean and then a double from Langhorne scores Alexander. Before you knew it the Braves put four runs on the board and never looked back.

While Ryan Shetter got the start he only pitched two innings and no pitcher threw more than three innings. Nolan Kingham and Zach Guth pitched multiple innings without giving up a run, and Kingham ended up with the win tonight.

GCL Braves 1, GCL Yankees West 3

Box Score

Austin Riley, 3B: 1-3, 2B

Braulio Vasquez, 2B: 1-3, 3B, K

Michael Mateja, LF: 2-4, 2B, R, K

William Woods, SP: 3IP, 2H, 0ER, 0BB, 2K

Victor Cavalieri, RP: 1.1IN, 0H, 0ER, 1BB, 3K

This was a heartbreaker of a game. A strong pitching performance from both sides, but the Braves ultimately scored first on a fielding error. Then in the top of the 8th, the GCL squad gave up three runs which decided the game. Michael Mateja has hit the ball really well since being moved from Danville to the GCL.

Christian Zamora had another hit-less day and has seen his average fall to .146. No reason to get discouraged though since he’s only played in 10 games, so it’s a very small sample size.