AAA: Las Vegas 6, Sacramento 3

Top Lines:

CF Bryce Johnson: 3-5, 1 R, 2 2B (3), 1 SO
C Joey Bart: 2-4, 2 RBI, 1 2B (1), 1 SO
LF Jason Krizan: 0-1, 1 R, 2 BB, 1 E (1)
SS Thairo Estrada: 1-4, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 SO

SP Scott Kazmir: 3.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO
RP Shun Yamaguchi: 5.0 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO, 1 HR

Sacramento’s day was the story of two MLB pitchers making their season debuts.  Scott Kazmir made his first rehab appearance, pitching three solid innings giving up just two hits.  On the other hand, Shun Yamaguchi made his Triple-A debut and suffered through some struggles, both his own and his defense’s. The big inning was led off by a triple, followed by a sacrifice fly.  With two out, he gave up two singles and a walk, and with two on, a fielding error in left by Jason Krizan let two more runs come in.

The River Cats runs all came thanks to one 2-out rally.  With two down, Bryce Johnson doubled.  That was followed by walks to Thairo Estrada and Jason Krizan to load the bases.  Joey Bart followed with a 2-run single, and Joe McCarthy singled to add one more.

Other Notes:

  • Bryce Johnson is having a fantastic start to his season.  He’s 8-for-14 with three doubles and two home runs.  He’s batting .571/.647/1.214 over his first four games.  In 60 games at Double-A in 2019, he hit .243/.322/.362 with three home runs.
  • Scott Kazmir got into his first game since 2017, when he was pitching in High-A at Rancho Cucamonga.
  • Joey Bart had his first multi-hit game of the season.  In 14 plate appearances, he’s struck out four times and walked once.
  • Thairo Estrada had his first single-hit game of the season.  In 21 plate appearances, he’s got four strikeouts against two walks.

AA: Richmond 4, Hartford 2

Top Lines:

1B Frankie Tostado: 2-3, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 3B (1), 1 BB, 1 SO
C Andres Angulo: 2-4, 1 R, 1 2B (1), 1 SO, 1 SB (1)
3B David Villar: 1-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 HR (2), 1 SO
CF Heliot Ramos: 1-3, 1 2B (3), 1 BB, 1 SO, 1 SB (2)

SP Tristan Beck: 5.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO
RP Raffi Vizcaino: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 SO
RP Trenton Toplikar: 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 SO, 1 HBP
RP Norwith Gudino: 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 SO

Okay, the difference in this game is something that has to be seen to be believed, so here’s the video:

If that’s not enough, here’s the setup.  Richmond had fallen behind 2-1 in the top of the 4th.  With one out in the bottom half, Vince Fernandez walked, and that was followed with a single by Andres Angulo.  So there were two on, and with two out, Frankie Tostado came to the plate and…well, you saw it.  He lined the ball just past the outstretched the glove of the right fielder, and it went to the wall.  As Tostado slid into third, the second baseman threw the ball awry trying to get an out, and the ball went into the dugout, giving Tostado one more base: home plate.  Three runs were in, and even though it was only the 4th inning, those were the last runs in the game.

Other Notes:

  • Tristan Beck is off to a slightly shaky start.  He’d given up three runs, two earned, in four innings his first time out, and now gave up two more in five innings.  He has five strikeouts against three walks in 9.0 innings.  Over 2019, he struck out 90 to 31 walks over 81.1 innings.
  • David Villar picked up his second home run.  He’s hitting just 5-for-22, but has two doubles and two home runs.  That has led to a .227/.320/.591 batting line for him over his first six games.
  • Another double for Heliot Ramos, as he has three with two home runs to start the season.  But more importantly, he’s continuing to show off his plate discipline.  He has four walks against six strikeouts in 25 plate appearances.

High-A: Eugene 15, Spokane 1

Top Lines:

SS Will Wilson: 4-6, 2 R, 1 RBI, 1 2B (2), 1 3B (1), 1 SO
RF Franklin Labour: 1-4, 2 R, 3 RBI, 1 HR (2), 2 BB, 1 SO
LF Diego Rincones: 2-5, 2 R, 1 RBI, 1 HR (3), 1 BB, 1 SO
2B Simon Whiteman: 2-3, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 3B (1), 1 SB (3), 1 HBP

SP Caleb Kilian: 5.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 SO
RP John Russell: 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 SO

I think Eugene was a bit upset at losing on Saturday, because their offense absolutely destroyed Spokane (not that Spokane helped Eugene a lot).  It started off softly enough, with Eugene taking a 2-1 lead after three innings.  Then, two 2-out errors let one run come in, and Simon Whiteman tripled to score another, and things all started to come together.  Two errors in the fifth helped put three more runs, also powered by a Will Wilson double and a Simon Whiteman RBI single.  Will Wilson then led off the 6th with a triple, and Spokane’s reliever Raymells Rosa got wild.  After a RBI groundout, Rosa walked three.  He was replaced, and his replacement, Riley Pint, immediately hit the next batter, Ismael Munguia.  He then walked two, throwing a wild pitch during each walk.  Four runs came in.  So, yeah.  Big night for Eugene, and a rough one for Spokane. 

Other Notes:

  • Will Wilson had his first career 4-hit night.  He has a five game hitting streak to start the 2021 season.
  • Caleb Kilian gave up the first earned run of his career tonight.  But he’s still having a fantastic start to the season, with 14 strikeouts and no walks in his first nine innings of 2021.
  • Is 2019 going to repeat itself with Franklin Labour?  When he started in the Northwest League then, he had 14 home runs in 41 games.  Labour now has two straight games with a home run, and has two in four games.
  • Diego Rincones had seven home runs in each of the 2018 and 2019 seasons.  He already has three in five games this season.
  • Now leading the team with three steals, Simon Whiteman is batting .500/.571/.667 in the three games he’s gotten into, and he picked up his first extra-base hit with the triple.
  • Reliever John Russell had a fantastic day, with four strikeouts in two innings, for the second time.  Russell did the same thing on Thursday, striking out four in two innings, though he gave up a hit in that one.
  • The Eugene Emeralds have a team OPS of .962, easily leading the Northwest High-A West League.  The next-best OPS is the .710 of the Everett AquaSox.

Low-A: San Jose 5, Fresno 3

Top Lines:

LF Armani Smith: 2-2, 3 R, 2 RBI, 1 HR (1), 1 BB
3B Casey Schmitt: 1-3, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 HR (1), 1 E (1)
1B Rob Emery: 2-4, 1 2B (1), 1 SO, 1 CS (1)

SP Prelander Berroa: 3.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO, 1 BK
RP Austin Reich: 2.1 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 SO
RP Justin Crump: 2.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO

Something happened on Sunday that hadn’t happened at Municipal Stadium Excite Ballpark all year: a home run.  And two of them by the end of the night.  The player to break the home run drought was Armani Smith, who blasted a 403 foot deep home run to left as part of perfect on-base day for him.  In the 7th, it was Casey Schmitt hitting a 2-run home run that broke a 3-all tie, and would lead to San Jose’s second win of the season.

Other Notes:

  • Both Marco Luciano and Alex Canario had 0-for-4 days with two strikeouts each.
  • Prelander Berroa continues to work up his innings, after going 2 innings in his first start of the season.  Berroa has never worked more than five innings in a game.
  • There were no hits off of Austin Reich, but a lead-off walk would lead to the run, which scored on a single by Randy Rodriguez, who replaced Reich with two outs.
  • And for no good reason, here’s a sign that San Jose’s twitter feed keeps its priorities in order.

Monday is usually going to be an offday for everyone going forward except the Pacific Coast Triple-A West League, so on Tuesday…get ready for the first Prospect Round-Up of the season! That said, Eugene has a doubleheader scheduled for tonight as well, then will be off on Tuesday and Wednesday.