It was an absolute jam-packed day down on the farm with plenty of action to dive into. From Briggs McKenzie’s outing, to Starlyn De La Cruz having a strong day at the plate in the DSL, there was a ton of solid performances. Let’s dive into it all.
(31-30) Gwinnett Stripers 7, (24-37) Norfolk Tide 2
Gwinnett rode a stellar start on the mound from JR Ritchie and a trio of excellent performances at the plate to a win on Friday, getting to one game over .500 on the season.
Across six frames, Ritchie allowed two runs on four hits, but didn’t walk a single batter while striking out six in the process. It was a nice bounce back performance from Ritchie after a disastrous start his last time out in which he gave up five runs in just one-third of an inning.
The Stripers jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning.
With one out in the frame, Brett Wisely took an 0-1 fastball and promptly deposited it over the right field wall for a solo homer to put Gwinnett on the board. Two batters later, following a Rowdy Tellez double, Brewer Hicklen hit his ninth homer of the year to extend the lead to 3-0 over Norfolk.
While the Tide attempted to claw back by scoring one run in each of the second and fifth innings, the Gwinnett offense continued to pour it on.
Wisely came through yet again in the bottom of the seventh as he doubled into left field to plate both Ben Gamel and Cal Conley to extend the Gwinnett lead to 5-2 on the night.
In the home half of the eighth, Hicklen came around to score on an error off the bat of Jose Azocar to make it a 6-2 game. Later, Jair Camargo laced his second double of the night into the right center field gap to plate Azocar and give Gwinnett the 7-2 lead.
While Ritchie was solid in his own right, the Stripers’ bullpen came through in a huge way. Rolddy Munoz tossed a pair of scoreless inning while striking out four and Ian Hamilton threw one scoreless frame and struck out one in the process.
(26-27) Columbus Clingstones 2, (27-27) Rocket City Trash Pandas 1
Continuing with what could be considered the biggest enigma in the Atlanta farm system, Garrett Baumann put up a very, very strong performance on the mound after what could best be described as a poor performance his last time out.
Simply put, Baumann was excellent on Friday as he struck out seven across 7.2 scoreless innings for Columbus. Compared to his last performance on May 29 in which he gave up five earned runs in 4.1 innings, Friday’s outing was a stark contrast in a positive way.
While Baumann was dominant in his own right, so was the pitching for Rocket City as both offenses were kept off the board through the first nine innings, sending this one to extras.
In the top of the tenth, with David McCabe starting on second base, Jordan Groshans doubled on the first pitch he saw to plate McCabe and give Columbus their first lead — and score the games first run. Two batters later, Logan Braunschweig plated Groshans with an RBI-single to extend the lead to 2-0.
That second run was super important as Rocket City scored a run off of Blane Abeyta in the home half of the tenth inning to cut the Columbus lead to 2-1. However, Abeyta locked in and limited the damage as the Clingstones held onto their narrow lead for the win.
(30-25) Rome Emperors 1, (21-32) Greenville Drive 0
Making his fifth start of the season on Friday, Luke Sinnard had what was easily his best outing on the mound.
The 6’7 righty tossed five scoreless innings, striking out five and walking three in the process. While he has been solid thus far — as he has given up two runs in each of his first two starts for Rome — Friday’s start was his best outing by far.
Offensively, things were much different for the Emperors as they were also held scoreless for a majority of the game. Eric Hartman — to no ones surprise — had an excellent night as he went 3-4 with another stolen base, his 22nd of the season. The only other hits tallied by Rome were two singles, one each from Colin Burgess and Dixon Williams.
Prior to the bottom of the ninth, which would prove to to be very fruitful for Rome, the Emperors got some excellent defense to keep them in the game in the top half of the ninth.
With runners on second and third, John Gil fielded a ball up the middle and managed to fire the ball home to gun down the runner at the plate to keep the game scoreless.
In the home half, Cody Miller played the role of hero as he plated Hartman on a sacrifice fly to give Rome the 1-0 win in what was an absolute pitching and defensive duel.
On another pitching note, Blake Burkhalter continued to dominate on his rehab assignment as he struck out six in two innings of work while allowing just one hit.
(30-25) Augusta GreenJackets 0, (20-35) Delmarva Shorebirds 6
On the one hand, Briggs McKenzie was downright dominant in his low-A debut. On the other hand, he didn’t get any run support in the start either.
The 2025 fourth-rounder was absolutely stunning as he tossed five scoreless innings while allowing just one hit and one walk while striking out eight in the process. What is more impressive is he got 11 whiffs and threw a staggering 45 strikes on 66 pitches.
McKenzie’s fastball averaged in the mid-90s while his changeup and curveball were both excellent as well as he showed the ability to work both pitches all throughout the bottom half of the zone.
While it’s only three starts — two of which were in the FCL — McKenzie is carrying an ERA of 0.79 across 11.1 innings to start his professional career.
While McKenzie was dominating, his offense struggled mightily in this one.
The GreenJackets were held scoreless and tallied just six total hits on the night — only one of which was for extra bases as Tanner Smith doubled.
Regardless of how the offense performed, the McKenzie debut was enough to wipe away the lackluster performances at the dish despite the loss.
(7-18) FCL Braves 1, (17-8) FCL Rays 3
The FCL Braves came up short in this one as the FCL Rays took it by a 3-1 final.
Wuilinyer Tovar started on the mound for the Braves and put the squad in a bit of a hole from the jump as the Rays plated three runs off him on three hits. He did, however, strike out four batters in the process.
Meanwhile at the plate, Yamvier Carrero carried the offense with three singles and a walk to his credit in this one. John Estevez, who got the start in left field, tallied the Braves’ only RBI on the day with a sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth inning.
Top international signee Diego Tornes had a rough day as he went o-4 with a strikeout to lower his batting average to a dismal .180 thus far.
(0-4) DSL Braves 6, (2-2) DSL Padres Gold 11
The DSL Braves are still in search of their first win of the year as they fell to the DSL Padres Gold squad by an 11-6 margin on Friday.
On a positive note, Starlyn De La Cruz had a banner day at the dish as he went 1-2 with his first professional homer and three runs scored after he worked a pair of walks in the process. He also drove in two of the team’s six runs in this one while raising his OPS to a team-leading 1.472.
Catcher Jorwin Pukido also had a solid day offensively as he doubled and scored two runs and scored a run in the process as well.
Derek Torres got the start on the mound and it was a bit of a rough outing for him as he failed to get out of the first inning and gave up two runs and five walks across those frames.
