All in all, it was a fine day on Sunday for Braves minor league baseball as the Braves’ affiliates went a combined 2-2. Vaughn Grissom had another big hit for Rome, Bryce Elder struggled again with the long ball, and Augusta put together another big offensive night. Lets get into the games.
Gwinnett Stripers 8, Nashville Sounds 9 - F/11
- Eddie Rosario, LF: 2-6, 2 RBI
- Greyson Jenista, 1B: 2-5, HR, RBI, .747 OPS
- Bryce Elder, SP: 5 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 5.86 ERA
Bryce Elder got the start for Gwinnett on Sunday and that start continued a pattern that we are seeing. Only giving up one walk was good, but the way Elder is living in the strike zone is opening him up to getting hit hard this year. He’s now given up eight homers in the minors this year after giving up two more on Sunday and that was after giving up three in 19 innings in the majors earlier this year. Something is going to have to change so that he can not get squared up as much. Also, if you are a Touki Toussaint believer...I do not recommend looking at his line from his 1.1 innings of work in this game.
On the offensive side of the ball, Eddie Rosario had himself a nice night with a pair of RBI singles. Greyson Jenista tried to get his season going again with his eighth home run of the season and Preston Tucker joined him with solo shot in the third. Ryan Goins didn’t homer, but he did have a nice night at the plate with three hits including a pair of doubles. However, the biggest knock came off the bat of Alex Dickerson with a two-run shot to tie the game in the ninth inning. Unfortunately, it was not to be as the offense could not push across a run in extras and Gwinnett ended up getting walked off.
Mississippi Braves 1, Montgomery Biscuits 4
- Justin Dean, CF: 2-4, .766 OPS
- Andrew Moritz, LF: 2-4, .681 OPS
- Tanner Gordon, SP: 4 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 7.21 ERA
Tanner Gordon struggled early in his start and the Mississippi offense, well, didn’t do all that much as the Braves fell by the final score of 4-1. It has been a rough transition for Gordon to Double-A ever since his promotion after the first month of the season. He has not been able to miss bats anywhere near at the rate that he was at Rome and while he did find his stride somewhat in May, he has seemingly taken a step back over his last three starts. It didn’t help matters that he was up against Curtis Mead on Sunday who has been one of the better hitters in the Southern League in 2022. Hat tip to the Mississippi bullpen group of Coleman Huntley, Indigo Diaz, and Tyler Ferguson gave up just one hit and zero earned runs in four innings of work.
As for the Mississippi offense, all they really did was scatter singles throughout the course of the game. Dean has quietly had a really good month of June as he has slashed .301/.407/.397. Still wish he would find some more power to play in games, though. Andrew Moritz joined Dean with a multi-hit game and Tyler Krieger got the sole Mississippi extra-base hit with a double, but beyond that....not much to see here.
Rome Braves 7, Hickory Crawdads 1
- Vaughn Grissom, SS: 1-5, 2B, 2 RBI, .842 OPS
- Willie Carter, DH: 2-4, HR, 3 RBI, .552 OPS
- Roddery Munoz, SP: 5 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 5.24 ERA
Rome ended a tough series against Hickory on a high note as they beat down the Crawdads by the score of 7-1. Roddery Munoz got the start for Rome and was coming off three less than great (or worse) starts and fortunately, he put everything together on Sunday. There were no late-in-start meltdowns or big innings against him, just a crisp 75 pitches over five scoreless innings. After another rough relief outing from Davis Schwab (whose stuff is much better than his results have been lately), Ben Dum closed the game out with 1.2 scoreless innings of relief.
For the Rome offense, there were a few highlights and one was yet again Vaughn Grissom. He had to settle for “just” a two-run double on Sunday, but it capped a series where he hit safely in every single game...so we’ll allow it. It has been feast or (a lot) of famine for Willie Carter this year in high-A, but Sunday was a good day for him at the plate including a two-run homer.
Augusta GreenJackets 10, Fayetteville Woodpeckers 3
- Mahki Backstrom, 1B: 1-4, HR, 2 RBI, BB, .753 OPS
- Stephen Paolini, DH: 2-5, 2 2B, 3 RBI, R, .607 OPS
- Cal Conley, SS: 3-4, 2B, RBI, BB, 2 R, .710 OPS
- Sam Strickland, SP: 5 IP, 8 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 0.95 ERA
It isn’t always pretty with the Augusta GreenJackets, but they got contributions from basically everyone on Sunday in route to a 10-3 win, securing another series win. At the beginning of May, Strickland was put on the IL and he would not be activated until the middle of June. Three appearances and 10.2 innings later, he has only given up a single earned run. An arm worth keeping an eye on especially with his ability to throw strikes. Darling Florentino did not do his finest work out of the pen, but it didn’t matter that much with Augusta’s big lead and Miguel Pena and Jose Montilla doing decent work the rest of the way.
As for the offense, every single lineup regular for Augusta reached base and all but Braulio Vasquez had at least one hit (and Braulio still stole two bases which is pretty much peak him). Mahki Backstrom homered for the second time in as many games to bring his June OPS north of .900. He still strikes out too much, but progress is progress. Brian Klein and Connor Blair also homered for Augusta...both solo shots. Cal Conley and Stephen Paolini had multi-hit games for the GreenJackets. Conley, in particular, had a strong week and has been good in the month of June overall with an .808 OPS.
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