If you’re going to get called up, might as well make your presence known.

Congrats to Jason Vosler on his first major league home run!  And thanks for giving the Giants a little better momentum going into a big series against the Dodgers.

Olympic Roster Spots!

We’d hear earlier in the week that a couple of Giants prospects would be headed to the upcoming Olympic qualifier tournament, with James Sherfy going to represent the US and Diego Rincones to represent Venezuela.

Well, the rest of the for Olympic teams were announced, and a few more Giants are now known to be heading to play for their home countries.  Outfielder Ismael Munguia (currently with High-A Eugene) will be playing for Nicaragua, to be coached by former SF Giant Marvin Benard.  The Giants will have two players on the Colombian team, with catcher Andres Angulo (AA Richmond) and reliever Jasier Herrera (AAA Sacramento) getting spots there.

Good luck to all the Giants who will be playing in the 8-team tournament, though I have my own rooting interest (Go U.S.A.!).  The first rounds will be played from May 31st through June 2nd.  The tournament will end on June 5th.  The first place team gets into the Olympics (assuming they get played), while the 2nd and 3rd place teams will get one final chance in a 5-team tournament that will take place on June 16-20 in Mexico.

AAA: Scheduled Day Off

The River Cats got the day to take a flight down to Las Vegas, to take on the A’s affiliate, the Aviators, in their shiny new-ish ballpark.  No word on if recently converted Vegas Golden Knights fan Dave Kaval will be there…

AA: Richmond and Reading Postponed

Richmond’s chance to beat up on the 3-16 Reading Phillies was blown by the weather.  The game will be made up on Thursday night with a pair of 7-inning games.  Hopefully they can get that in, because the weather in Reading, well, it doesn’t look great over the weekend…

WEATHER IMAGE

High-A: Spokane 7, Eugene 1

Top Lines

DH Rob Emery: 2-2, 1 R, 2 2B (2), 1 BB
2B Will Wilson: 1-4, 1 2B (7), 1 SO
C Patrick Bailey: 1-4, 1 SO

SP Aaron Phillips: 3.2 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO
RP Bryce Tucker: 2.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO, 1 WP, 1 E
RP Solomon Bates: 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 4 SO
RP John Timmins: 1.1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 1 SO

The Emeralds struggled offensively and defensively in this one.  Spokane scored a run in five of the first six innings.  Aaron Phillips made his first start of the season, and immediately gave up a triple to the first batter he faced, followed by a single to knock in a run.  He got through the second, but then a walk and a pair of singles in the third scored two more runs against him.

Eugene’s only run came in the bottom of the third, as Rob Emery led off the inning with a double.  Two groundouts followed that, eventually scoring him.

Other Notes:

  • Aaron Phillips made his delayed entry to the 2021 season.  He spent 2019 mostly at High-A San Jose, with a 4.46 ERA working mostly as a starter, with 108 strikeouts to 44 walks in 121.0 innings.
  • Rob Emery made his High-A debut, and made a strong impact at the back of the lineup.  His two doubles and his perfect day at the plate come after he hit .294 with a double and two home runs in five games at San Jose.
  • This was Solomon Bates’ first appearance that went longer than one inning this season.  Bates hasn’t allowed a hit since May 13th, and is holding batters to a .125 batting average.  But his three walks give him eight this season in eight innings of work.
  • Patrick Bailey had a quiet day at the plate, but had six attempts at stealing while he was behind the plate. Five of them were caught. Bailey leads the Northwest High-A West League with 11 caught base stealers.
  • It’s been a long wait for John Timmins to return to minor league baseball. He last played a game on September 2, 2018 while with Low-A Augusta. He had Tommy John surgery after that season, missing all of 2019, and then everyone missed 2020, of course.
  • Ismael Munguia was in the lineup despite being officially named to the Nicaraguan’s Olympic Qualifier roster, but he’ll likely be put on the temporarily inactive list soon so he can play for coach Marvin Benard.

Low-A: Lake Elsinore 9, San Jose 3

Top Lines

SS Marco Luciano: 2-4, 1 R, 1 2B (5), 1 SO
LF Edison Mora: 3-4, 1 RBI, 1 SO
RF Alexander Canario: 1-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 2B (3), 1 SO

SP Kyle Harrison: 4.2 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 SO
RP Luis Moreno: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO, 3 HBP
RP Wilkelma Castillo: 1.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO, 1 Balk

Kyle Harrison has been walking the edge of being effectively wild over his first few starts, and he was closer to hittable in this start.  But the game also featured what ineffectively (and perhaps dangerously) wild looks like.

Harrison’s most ineffective inning started, unsurprisingly, with a walk.  A single put runners on the corners, and then a fielding error by Abdiel Layer at first base let a run come in.  Two more runs would come in, on a ground out and a single, so two of the three runs Harrison allowed were unearned.

The game was tied 3-3 going into the 7th, but new pitcher Luis Moreno came in and hit the first two batters he faced over his first six pitches.  That would lead to the tiebreaking run coming in after a sacrifice bunt and a sac fly.  That would continue into the 8th, with Moreno still pitching, he gave up a single, a walk, and hit a third batter before getting an out.  Wilkelma Castillo came in at that point, but five runs would come in after that bad start to the inning, and putting the game far out of reach.

Other Notes:

  • Kyle Harrison walked three in the 4.2 innings.  That gives him 34 strikeouts against 15 walks in 18.1 innings this season across his four starts.
  • Luis Moreno’s three hit batters gives him four on the season.  That matches the total he had in all of 2019, over 55.0 innings across two levels of short-season ball.
  • Marco Luciano collected his fifth double, his first extra-base hit since his 2-home run day a week ago.  Since then, he’s hit just 4-for-21 with two walks and five strikeouts.
  • Alex Canario’s third double comes as he’s been in a bit of a rut.  His last extra-base hit was a home run on May 13th.  Since then, he’s been 4-for-36 (.111) with six walks and 13 strikeouts.  He’s batting .188 with 25 strikeouts and 11 walks in 75 plate appearances over 18 games this season.
  • Edison Mora was 2-for-19 (.105) before this game, but jumped to .217 after his day.  Mora should get more playing time after Tyler Flores was promoted to Eugene.