The Braves’ farm affiliates had a pretty decent night on Wednesday as they went a combined 2-2. Tucker Davidson had a needed dominant start, Drew Waters and Braden Shewmake homered for Gwinnett, Vaughn Grissom stayed hot with another homer, and Augusta rallied for a win. Lets get into the games.
Gwinnett Stripers 7, Nashville Sounds 2
- Drew Waters, CF: 3-4, HR, 2 RBI, BB, 2 R, .740 OPS
- Braden Shewmake, SS: 2-5, HR, 2 RBI, .723 OPS
- Tucker Davidson, SP: 6.2 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, 3.76 ERA
Tucker Davidson completely shut down Nashville and the offense backed him up in a big way as Gwinnett waltzed to a 7-2 victory. Tucker picked a good time to have his best start of the season as he had been pretty uneven over his last couple of starts. No walks is a big number to circle on his line as when he is throwing strikes AND getting whiffs, he can be quite good. Touki Toussaint did not have the best relief outing (although a Shewmake throwing error did not help things), but Drew Waters helped him out with a nifty outfield assist at third base to help keep the inning from getting too rough. Hat tip to the recently demoted Jesus Cruz who had three strikeouts in the ninth to secure the win.
It was a good night on offense for the Stripers as five different Gwinnett hitters had multi-hit games. Two big names showed out and that started with Drew Waters, who has eight hits in his last five games, when he connected for an opposite field two-run homer on his way to a three hit night. The other big name was one that hadn’t played since June 12 as Braden Shewmake announced his return with a two-run shot of his own late in the game. Chadwick Tromp, Joe Dunand, and Delino DeShields also helped the cause with multi-hit games.
Mississippi Braves 2, Montgomery Biscuits 7
- CJ Alexander, 3B: 1-4, HR, RBI, .749 OPS
- Cody Milligan, CF: 1-3, BB, .661 OPS
- Jared Shuster, SP: 4.1 IP, 8 H, 3 R (1 ER), 0 BB, 7 K, 3.53 ERA
No need to linger here too long as a couple of errors put Mississippi behind early (this will be a theme tonight) and both the bullpen and offense struggled as Mississippi fell by the score of 7-2. Jared Shuster got the start and honestly...he deserved better than his line. He had to face a bunch more batters than he should have in the second inning thanks to a fielding error at second base to lead off the inning and another error on a throw to second trying to catch a guy stealing. Still a good night for Shuster overall as he punched out seven in a little over four innings, but a brutal result in practice. The bullpen would then give up four runs and well, with the lack of offense, there was little that could be done.
Mississippi’s offense only had five hits on the evening, but one of them was CJ Alexander’s 12th homer of the season. He still is far from a consistent force at the plate, but CJ’s power output has been quite good this season and he has brought down his strikeouts a bit as well. Unfortunately, that was pretty much the extent of the good news as Mississippi went 0-10 with runners in scoring position which...is quite bad.
Rome Braves 3, Hickory Crawdads 9
- Vaughn Grissom, SS: 1-4, HR, RBI, BB, .854 OPS
- Bryson Horne, 1B: 1-4, HR, RBI, .698 OPS
- Dylan Dodd, SP: 6.1 IP, 6 H, 5 R (2 ER), 0 BB, 7 K, 3.95 ERA
Some defensive miscues cost Rome early and despite some solo homers, Hickory ended up pulling away as the Braves lost by the final score of 9-3. Dylan Dodd got the start and unfortunately he got bit by some shoddy defending in the fourth inning. A fielder’s choice resulted in zero outs and the bases being loaded and then a single followed which scored two runs thanks to an error out in left field. Was just one of those nights, but Dodd largely pitched quite well. It wasn’t Davis Schwab’s finest relief outing as he couldn’t find the strike zone, balked in a run, and gave up a pair of two-run singles in less than an inning of work.
Rome’s offense was quite as formidable as they were last week, but they did manage to connect for three solo home runs including another home run from Vaughn Grissom. He has now pushed his OPS for the month of June to 1.045 thanks in large part to six multi-hit games in his last eight games. Bryson Horne homered in the sixth inning and Jacob Pearson (who had one of the costly errors earlier in the game) added a solo shot in the ninth when the game was out of reach.
Augusta GreenJackets 4, Fayetteville Woodpeckers 2
- Kadon Morton, CF: 2-4, HR, RBI, 2 R, .643 OPS
- Geraldo Quintero, 2B: 1-5, 2 RBI, .734 OPS
- Rainiery Rodriguez, SP: 5 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 3.60 ERA
Despite falling behind by a couple of runs early, Augusta scratched and clawed their way back into the game and completed the rally with two runs in the ninth to win by the score of 4-2. Rainiery Rodriguez got the start for Augusta and he was largely good as he threw a lot of strikes and was missing bats throughout his start. The fourth inning very nearly got away from him, but he managed to get out of it with only a couple of runs scoring thanks to a big strikeout with a runner in scoring position. Those two runs would be the only two that the Augusta pitching staff would give up as Miguel Pena, Jose Montilla, and Rob Griswold combined for four scoreless innings of relief.
Augusta didn’t have a ton of scoring opportunities, but made the most of the ones they had. Kadon Morton helped get Augusta back in the game with a solo homer in the fifth inning. After a pretty dreadful first two months of the season for Morton aside from his ability to draw walks, he is slashing .333/.467/.542 for the month of June. Cal Conley had a triple to lead off the eighth inning and with two outs, the GreenJackets got a gift with a balk that brought him home. The big knock of the game, though, came from top 10 prospect /s Geraldo Quintero as he hit a two-run single that proved to be the game-winner.
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