Atlanta’s minor league affiliates went .500 on Friday as Augusta and Rome came away victorious in their respective matchups.
(29-26) Gwinnett Stripers 3, (33-22) Nashville Sounds 4
Gwinnett came up short on Friday despite jumping out to an early lead against Nashville.
The Stripers plated two runs in their first trip to the plate as Jim Jarvis led things off with a double — in what was his first of two extra-base hits on the night. Three batters later, Brett Wisely laced a hit to the opposite field, singling Jarvis home to give Gwinnett the 1-0 lead. In the next at-bat, Aaron Schunk singled on a ground ball into right field to plate Wisely and extend the lead to 2-0.
Anthony Molina was originally scheduled to start for Gwinnett, but after his call-up to Atlanta, Victor Mederos got the nod. Across four innings of work, the righty gave up two runs on three hits while striking out a pair of runners.
Tied at 2-2, Gwinnett took the lead once again in the top of the sixth. Once again, Jim Jarvis led things off with an extra-base hit; this time a triple. He later came around to score on an RBI-single off the bat of Wisely, giving him a pair of RBI on the night and the Stripers a brief one-run lead.
However, Nashville bounced back and plated two more runs in the home half of the frame to retake the lead at 4-3.
From the sixth inning onward, the Stripers tallied just one hit — a single from Jarvis in the top of the eighth — as Gwinnett failed to mount any real type of offensive showing from that point forward.
(23-24) Columbus Clingstones 3, (23-23) Biloxi Shuckers 8
While Columbus came up short on Friday, it was an even more disappointing outing from Garrett Baumann as it appears as though he has taken another step back in his development.
Over his first seven starts of the season, Baumann gave up 23 runs in seven starts to carry an ERA of 7.26. He did, however, show signs of life with a shutout performance in which he tossed seven innings and struck out 11 in May 16. While there was a slimmer of hope it was the performance he needed to get on track, it doesn’t appear as that is the case.
On Friday, Baumann gave up six runs (five earned) across 4.1 innings of work while walking three and striking out four on the night.
Admittedly, Baumann has been on the wrong end of some batted ball luck this season, but that doesn’t excuse the precipitous drop-off he has had this season.
It might seriously be time for the powers that be to consider sending Baumann down to Rome in order to get things right before he gets too far gone.
Getting back to Friday’s action, Columbus’ offense didn’t fare much better as the Clingstones were held to three runs despite outhitting Biloxi by a 6-5 margin.
The biggest offensive outing on the night came courtest of Patrick Clohisy. While he may have gone 1-5, Clohisy singled home a pair of runners in the bottom of the fifth to cut the deficit in half. Aside from a David McCabe RBI-single in the botto of the first to get the scoring started for both sides, Clohisy’s single was really the final significant offensive showing of the night.
(27-22) Rome Emperors 3, (28-21) Winston-Salem Dash 2
Rome came away with a narrow win over Winston-Salem behind yet another solid outing from Cade Kuehler on the mound, giving the 24-year-old his fourth straight scoreless start.
In his six innings of work, Kuehler scattered just four hits and issued one walk while striking out three on the night.
After giving up three runs in three innings in his start on May 7, Kuehler has bounced back to toss 23.1 consecutive scoreless inning. During that stretch, he has struck out 19 and only walked five in the process en route to lowering a season ERA to 3.74.
While Kuehler was dealing, his offense struggled through the first six innings of the night.
The Emperors finally turned things around in the top of the sixth. Dixon Williams led off the inning with a walk before Cody Miller was hit by a pitch. Will Verdung drew a walk of his own to load the bases prior to Mason Guerra brought Williams home on a sacrifice fly to give Rome a 1-0 lead.
Rome extended their lead in the top of the seventh, Williams played the hero as he doubled home to score Isaiah Drake and John Gil to make it a 3-0 lead.
Winston-Salem got two of those runs back in the bottom of the eighth, but the Rome relief core stopped the bleeding as Trent Buchanan was called upon to get the save and did so by striking out two despite giving up one hit in the process.
(28-21) Augusta GreenJackets 8, (25-24) Kannapolis Cannon Ballers 1
When the term all-around performance comes up, you can look to Friday night’s Augusta game for the perfect example.
The GreenJackets rode a solid outing from the pitching staff led by Herick Hernandez and an eight-run, 12-hit performance from the offense en route to their 27th win on the season.
Hernandez made his first rehab on Friday by tossing 3.2 innings and holding Kannapolis scoreless while on the mound. Prior to his injury, Hernandez was absolutely cruising with Columbus as he posted an ERA of 1.83 across five starts with 29 strikeouts in 19.2 innings pitched.
Augusta jumped on the board first in the top of the second, plating three runs in the process.
Dallas Macias led off the inning with a walk before Hayden Friese singled him into scoring position. Tanner Smith then dealt the biggest blow of the game — a three-run homer placed over the left field wall to give the GreenJackets the 3-0 lead.
Smith then led off another big inning for Augusta with a walk in the top of the fourth inning. While he was doubled up, Alex Lodise and Conor Essenburg drew back-to-back two-out walks before Luis Guanipa doubled into the right field corner to plate both Lodise and Essenburg to extend the lead to 5-0. Guanipa then came around to score himself as Juan Mateo singled back up the middle to make it a 6-0 game.
In the top of the fifth, Smith once again came through, scoring on an error to extend the lead to 7-0. Essenburg later proceeded to come through with an RBI-single to score Joe Olsavsky to give Augusta’s lead an extra boost at 8-0.
Meanwhile, the Augusta bullpen came through in a huge way with 5.1 innings to cover. Cristobal Abreu only tossed one-third of an inning but struck out the only batter he faced. However, Landon Beidelschies came through in a massive way by tossing five innings of one-run ball. He also struck out four while walking two and earning the win in the process.
