Braves Minor League Recap: Rain causes havoc down in the minor leagues

Well, it was supposed to be a busy slate of games on Saturday night thanks to a couple of rainouts on Friday, but the weather was any better as we had three more games scratched due to rain. Sadly, in the remaining three games, the Braves’ affiliates went a combined 0-3. Bryce Elder struggled to keep the ball in the yard, Caleb Durbin had a nice night at the plate, and Augusta’s rally fell short. Lets get into the games.

Gwinnett Stripers 4, Memphis Redbirds 5

Box Score

• Greyson Jenista, RF: 1-4, HR, RBI, .675 OPS
• Hernan Perez, 2B: 2-3, HR, RBI, BB, .678 OPS
• Bryce Elder, SP: 5 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 4.78 ERA

Bryce Elder gave up a pair of homers early which proved to be the difference in the game as Gwinnett fell to Memphis by the score of 5-4. It has been a weird season for Elder as we have seen his strikeout rate regress and the rate of homers off of him tick up in a big way. Overall, he has been much better over the last couple of months down in the minor leagues, though, so we aren’t going to kill him too much especially since he wasn’t altogether bad especially while striking out seven batters. Darren O’Day did make a rehab appearances and gave up a run in his inning of work.

A pair of solo home runs off the bats of Greyson Jenista and Hernan Perez were the offensive highlights for the Stripers. It was nice to see Jenista get ahold of one as he has had a rough season overall after starting the year off well. The month of August has been particularly brutal as he is hitting just .175. Perez was also the only Striper to have multiple hits in the game.

Mississippi Braves, Pensacola Blue Wahoos - Game One - Postponed

Mississippi Braves, Pensacola Blue Wahoos - Game Two - Postponed

Rain double sucks.

Rome Braves 3, Greensboro Grasshoppers 4

Box Score

• Caleb Durbin, 2B: 3-4, RBI, R, .554 OPS
• Cal Conley, SS: 1-3, 2B, 2 BB, .833 OPS
• JJ Niekro, SP: 6 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 5.40 ERA

Rome kept this one close, but Trey Riley gave up the go ahead run in the top of the 9th as Rome fell to Greensboro by the score of 4-3. JJ Niekro got the start for Rome and, at the very least, gave Rome six decent innings and kept them in the game. His lack of pure stuff is starting to get exposed in high-A, though, as his strikeout rate has dipped way down. Alex Segal pitched two scoreless innings of relief before Trey Riley’s ill-fated appearance in the top of the ninth.

On offense, Caleb Durbin had himself a night with three hits out of the bottom of the order. High-A has not been kind to him so far, but he has shown some occasional flashes to give us some hope and he had a nice run during his time in Augusta. Cal Conley reached base three times to continue his strong play since being promoted and Beau Philip continues to do some WORK in the month of Augusta as he had a double and a pair of walks as well.

Augusta GreenJackets 6, Charleston RiverDogs 9

Box Score

• Braulio Vasquez, 1B: 3-4, 2 2B, 2 R, .743 OPS
• Kadon Morton, LF: 1-4, HR, 2 RBI, BB, 2 R, .698 OPS
• Rainiery Rodriguez, SP: 6 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 5.96 ERA

Augusta nearly roared all the way back in the bottom of the eighth inning, but did not quite get there and then the bullpen imploded in the final frame as Augusta lost by the score of 9-6. Rainiery Rodriguez was largely very good on Saturday evening aside from getting torched by one player, Shane Sasaki, who did the bulk of the damage off of him thanks to a pair of homers. Sometimes a guy just has your number. The Augusta bullpen really faltered in this one as James Acuna and Peyton Williams each gave up a pair of earned runs which proved to be the difference in the game.

Offensively, Braulio Vasquez had a nice game with a trio of hits including a pair of doubles. Adam Zebrowski also had three hits out of the middle of the order to help keep the line moving. Kadon Morton, who’s season has been extremely up and down with real questions about his hit tool overall, had the biggest knock of the evening with a two-run homer in the eighth inning that got Augusta back into the game after the pitching staff had started melting down late in the game. It was a tough night at the plate for 2022 fourth rounder David McCabe as he went 0-5 with a pair of strikeouts.