Diamondbacks Minor League Recap 8/27/2019

The Diamondbacks minor league affiliates combined for a 2-3 record. Low-scoring and tight ball games were the theme as 4 of the 5 games were 1-run outings (2-2 record) and the 5th game being a 2-run loss.

(AAA) Reno Aces 5, Sacramento River Cats 4: Bradin Hagens would allow just 2 runs in 7 innings, striking out 7 and walking 4. Both teams would exchange a 2-spot in the 2nd, but Reno would take a 5-2 lead on the strength of 3 solo homers. Josh Prince and Domingo Leyba went back-to-back in the 5th and Carlos Asauje homered in the 6th. Things got bumpy after Hagens exited the game, Damien Magnifico had trouble controlling his pitches in the 8th before getting lifted for Robby Scott with 2 outs, allowing 1 run. Scott would get the next 3 outs, but allowed a solo homer with 2 outs. That prompted Joey Krehbiel’s entry into the game, where he’d record the final out via strikeout to close things out.

(AA) Jackson Generals 2, Pensacola Blue Wahoos 3: Josh Green would allow 3 runs in the first and took the loss when his offense didn’t show up. Green would post 5 more zeros to finish the day with 6 innings, 7 hits, 3 runs, 2 walks, and 6 strikeouts. Jackson would score runs in the 7th and 8th innings to make it 3-2 going into the 9th. A 1-out double by Ramon Hernandez and a 2-out walk by L.T. Tolbert would be wasted as Galli Cribbs Jr. would strike out for the final out of the game.

(A+) Visalia Rawhide 1, San Jose Giants 2: Despite strong pitching from Ryan Weiss and Luis Castillo, the Rawhide were unable to win this game. Weiss allowed 2 runs on 7 hits with 1 walk and 8 strikeouts, although he struggled with RISP as San Jose went 2 for 3 in that department. The Rawhide would draw 8 walks, but were unable to score them due to sloppy baserunning (2 TOOTBLANs for Alek Thomas) and only getting 2 hits total for the game.

(A) Kane County Cougars 3, Quad Cities River Bandits 2: This Kane County team has a habit of 9th inning comebacks. Matt Tabor would allow 2 runs (1 earned) over 4 innings on 3 hits, 1 walk, and 4 strikeouts. Kenny Hernandez would pitch 4 ²⁄₃ scoreless afterwards, allowings 4 hits and a walk while striking out 4. The Kane County offense was down, but not out as they were unable to score in the first 7 innings, but did enough in the final 2. Dominic Fletcher would get the Cougars on the board with an RBI double in the 8th. Blaze Alexander would single to lead off the 9th and scored on the very next batter when Kristian Robinson doubled. After a pair of unproductive outs, Steven Layton would punch one to RF to score Robinson from 2nd to give Kane County the lead. With 2 on and 2 out in the 9th, Kane County would turn to Kai-Wei Lin to record the final out. Lin would strike out the one and only hitter he faced to close the game.

(Rk+) Missoula Osprey 1, Billings Mustangs 3: In a back-and-forth pitching duel, Missoula got solid pitching but were unable to take advantage of their opportunities at the plate. Missoula hitters went 1 for 9 with RISP and struck out 10 times vs. no walks for the game. Despite putting on traffic for the first 5 innings, they were unable to solve the Mustangs bullpen with their only baserunners in the final 4 innings reaching on fielding errors. Bobby Ay would pitch the first inning as per usual in his appearances followed by 3 innings from Austin Pope. Nick Marchese would pitch a scoreless 5th before Chris Williams would allow a run in 1 ²⁄₃ innings. Jared Liebelt would finish the game although a pair of errors would result in Billings scoring their 3rd run.