While the Braves game against the Marlins did not end well, the Braves’ minor league affiliates did their best to pick up the slack as they pulled off a clean sweep of their four games on Saturday. Hendrik Clementina is on the heater of his life, Jared Shuster was dominant on the mound yet again, and Royber Salinas bounced back with a 13 strikeout performance for Rome. Lets get into the games.
Gwinnett Stripers 7, Norfolk Tides 4
- Hernan Perez, 3B: 3-5, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R, .769 OPS
- Greyson Jenista, RF: 1-4, HR, 3 RBI, .807 OPS
- Connor Johnstone, SP: 2.1 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 4.56 ERA
Gwinnett used a big fourth inning to propel them to the win as they took down Norfolk by the final score of 7-4. While being a bit shorthanded on their pitching staff, Gwinnett went with a bullpen game on Saturday with Connor Johnstone starting things off with a little over two scoreless innings of relief. Brandyn Sittinger with a far less effective appearance as he was lucky to only give up two runs given that he walked five batters in 1.1 innings of work. The rest of the Gwinnett bullpen was reasonable enough in giving up just two more runs the rest of the way. Keep an eye on Victor Vodnik who made the jump to Gwinnett a couple weeks ago. He gave up a run last night which marked the first earned run he has given up all season and he now has 20 strikeouts in 12.1 innings of work (11 appearances).
On offense, Hernan Perez had himself a game as he connected for his third home run of the season while collecting three hits total while driving in a pair of runs. Greyson Jenista broke the game open in the fourth inning with a three run homer, his sixth home run of the season. Alex Dickerson drove in a pair of runs to help out the cause as well while Braden Shewmake continued his recent struggles going 0-5 at the plate. Drew Waters got the day off.
Mississippi Braves 9, Pensacola Blue Wahoos 1
- Hendrik Clementina, C: 4-4, HR, 3 RBI, BB, 3 R, .826 OPS
- CJ Alexander, 3B: 2-5, HR, 2 RBI, .768 OPS
- Trey Harris, RF: 3-4, R, HBP, .655 OPS
- Jared Shuster, SP: 6 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, 2.06 ERA
Thanks to a stellar effort from Jared Shuster on the mound and an unbelievable heater from an unlikely source, Mississippi easily took down Pensacola by the score of 9-1. We were a little skeptical about Shuster coming into the season as it seemed like for him to find success, he was going to have to get at least a half a grade more effectiveness out of his fastball to allow his secondaries (in particular his devastating changeup) to play up. Well, he has done that and then some as he has been dominant all season long save for a hiccup of a start on 5/17 where he failed to escape the first inning (these things happen to everyone). He has given up two earned runs or less in eight of his nine starts this season. Justin Yeager, Indigo Diaz, and Justin Maese combined for three scoreless innings of relief to close this game out without incident.
Hendrik Clementina
— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) May 29, 2022
The @Braves catching prospect went 4-for-4 with a 444-foot dinger for the @mbraves, and has reached base in 13 straight plate appearances across three games pic.twitter.com/2e1rP6t3RQ
On offense, this is Hendrik Clementina’s time to shine as, after his 4-4 night where he reached base all five times including a monster homer, he has now reached base in 13 straight plate appearances. CJ Alexander connected for his seventh home run of the season while driving in a pair of runs and Trey Harris, who has shown signs of life of late with eight hits in his last four games, had himself a nice three hit night. Oh yeah, and some guy named Michael Harris got promoted straight to the big leagues from Double-A. You may have heard of him.
Rome Braves 6, Hudson Valley Renegades 2 - F/10
- Vaughn Grissom, 3B: 1-5, SB, 2 R, .769 OPS
- Beau Philip, SS: 2-5, HR, 3 RBI, .647 OPS
- Royber Salinas, SP: 6 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 13 K, 6.27 ERA
Royber Salinas got back to his bat missing ways with an overpowering start as Rome emerged victorious over the Renegades by the score of 6-2. Since his promotion to Rome, Salinas has been decidedly more uneven in his performance with his command being particularly iffy. However, we got the good version of him on Saturday as he struck out 13 Renegade hitters, although the four walks stick out as something to keep an eye on. Davis Schwab and Jake McSteen combined for four innings where the only blemish was an unearned run off of McSteen in extras where the game was pretty much in hand.
This one did go to extras, but thanks to a three run homer from Beau Philip in the top of the 10th inning, a tight game got blown open in a hurry. Vaughn Grissom has seen his numbers come down in a big way over the last couple of weeks as he has lost 40 points off his batting average since the middle of May. Tyler Tolve, who is quietly having a very nice season down in Rome, drove in a pair of runs to help the cause.
Augusta GreenJackets 5, Myrtle Beach Pelicans 3
- Geraldo Quintero, 2B: 2-4, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R, .755 OPS
- Cal Conley, SS: 2-4, 2B, R, .640 OPS
- JJ Niekro, SP: 5.2 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 2.39 ERA
Despite Brandol Mezquita getting a much deserved day off, Augusta was still able to take down the Pelicans by the score of 5-3. JJ Niekro, nephew of Phil and son of Joe, got the start on Saturday and he was excellent with six strikeouts and no walks while pitching into the sixth inning. Tyler Owens had an unfortunate long relief appearances where he gave up a couple of runs which made the game interesting late, but Juan Mateo was able to slam the door in the ninth to secure the W.
Augusta made the most of the scoring opportunities they got as they scored five runs on seven hits and, surprisingly, only two walks (both to Mahki Backstrom). Cal Conley and Geraldo Quintero each had multi-hit games with Quintero connected for his fourth home run of the season and driving in a pair of runs in the game.
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