Minors report 817: M-Braves Poised For Pennant Push; Sims Peaking
Courtesy MiLB
The Mississippi Braves move within one game of their division lead and would have gone for a five-game road sweep at Pensacola but for rain Saturday night after one of the year's most impressive wins on Friday.
A 5-1 score doesn't sound that spectacular, but the victory came against the Cincinnati Reds' top pitching prospect and bona fide phenom Robert Stephenson in his Double-A debut. Michael Lee outdueled Stephenson, and the M-Braves (31-23; 69-55) scored three in a wild top of the seventh inning to take the lead. Making his double-A debut, Stephenson held Mississippi to just three baserunners in the first six innings, but he walked Tommy La Stella and Edward Salcedo to start the 7th, ending his night and leaving with a 1-0 lead.
The Braves jumped on the board against the reliever Michael Lorenzen, also making his double-A debut after being drafted in the first round this year. Jose Martinez laid down a sacrifice bunt to put runners on second and third, and Jaime Pedroza drove in La Stella to tie the game 1-1.
Two batters later, Barrett Kleinknecht singled to drive in Pedroza, and a throwing error from left field allowed Dan Brewer to score from first to make it 3-1.
Meanwhile, Lee cruised through seven innings. He allowed just a run on six hits, picking up his third straight win and eighth of the season. He also picked up two hits and a walk at the plate to complete a great day.
Mississippi plated two insurance runs in the ninth, including another RBI single by Kleinknecht.
Tom Keeling, Shae Simmons and Ryne Harper combined in relief to shutout the Blue Wahoos over the final two frames. Christian Bethancourt has his team record streak of consecutive games reaching base come to an end at 41.
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Mississippi second baseman Tommy La Stella now officially knows that his glove is keeping him out of the big leagues -- even as his bat reaches new levels of clutch productivity.
Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez told the assembled media Friday that Gwinnet second baseman, a .277 hitting singles hitter, was getting the call to replace Tyler Pasotornickiy over the .343 hitting La Stella because they felt they coulde be comfortable with Gosselin's defense in the late innings.
“He’s sound defensively,” Gonzalez said of Gosselin. “He can run, swing the bat a little bit.” There was more said, according to the Braves' TV pregame show, about being able to pinch-hit Gosselin late, or some such. The timing is a little awkward because La Stella had just provided back-to-back game winning hits.
For two straight nights, a La Stella opposite field home run got the Mississippi Braves back in the ballgame. Trailing the Pensacola Blue Wahoos 3-2 in the seventh inning with pitcher Mitch Atkins standing at second, La Stella smacked a pitch over the left field wall to give the Braves a 4-3 lead for good on Thursday night at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium.
For La Stella, it was his fourth home run of the season, and it came on the heels of his ninth-inning game tying shot on Wednesday night to force extra innings. The Braves went on to win 3-2 in 14 frames.
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Lucas Sims update: The Braves' top Draft choice in 2012 -- 21st overall -- made possibly his best start yet as a professional Thursday, holding Class A Savannah to just one hit and two walks while striking out nine over seven innings in Rome's 4-3 victory.
Sims (9-4) has hit a stride as the season draws to a close, posting back-to-back starts of seven innings -- his longest outings of the year.
"Going seven innings has been one of my goals all year, and I finally got to that the last start. There was a couple of runs that scored [in that start], so my next goal for this outing was to go seven with no runs and I got that," he noted. "A lot of it's just been throwing strikes, getting quicker outs and not getting as deep into counts, that's a big thing too. I've gone and kept my pitch count low."
The 19-year-old Georgia native, continuing the Braves tradition of cultivating local talent, has won his last five starts. After he stumbled a bit in the early part of the year, posting a 6.35 ERA in April across six starts that mostly consisted of one and two-inning efforts, he's been mostly unhittable since.
Sims had a 1.37 ERA in May and a 2.39 ERA in June. He has posted a 1.40 mark in three starts in August.
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SATURDAY SCORES
CLASS AAA
Gwinnett (55-73) 4, Toledo 2
SP: Hale 6 IP, 4 H, 0 ER(2R), 2 BB, 6 K.
WP: Lamm (3-2) 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K.
Buchter (Save, 5) 1 IP, 0 H, 2 K.
Cunningham 2-4, 2 RBI; Greene (debut) 1-3, 2 R, RBI; Carrithers 2-5, SB; Mejia 2-5, 2B, R.
Leonard 0-3, 2 E (7 in last 3 games, 8 total).
CLASS AA
Mississippi (68-55) @ Pensacola, ppd.
ADVANCED CLASS A
Game One
Lynchburg (60-60) 2, Myrtle Beach 0 (7)
WP: Hinson (3-2) 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 1 K.
Cornely (Save, 7) 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K.
Lipka 2-3, 2 R, 2 SB (30); Kubitza 1-2, RBI; Elander 1-3, RBI; Moses 2-3.
Game Two
Myrtle Beach 5, Lynchburg (60-61) 4 (7)
LP: Holland (4-5) 2 IP, 3 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 1 K.
Weber 4 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K.
Landoni 2-3, 2 HR (1st, 2nd), 3 RBI; Rohm 2-3, RBI.
CLASS A
Rome (63-61) 6, Charleston 2
WP: Maholm (1-0) 5.2 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, HBP.
Wren 2-4, 2B, R, 2 SB (25), 2 PO, CS; Peraza 2-4, 2B, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2 SB (56); Sanchez 2-3, 2 R, 2 RBI; Franco 3-4, 2 SB (15); Kalenkosky 1-2, RBI, SB, 2 HBP.
SHORT-SEASON
Danville (24-29) @ Burlington, ppd
GCL Blue Jays 6, GCL Braves (21-29) 5
SP: Caicedo 6 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K.
LP: Schils (BS, 1-1) 0.2 IP, 1 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 1 K.
H. Garcia 2-4, R, RBI, 3 SB; Murphy 2-3, R, RBI, 2 SB; Chin (debut) 2-4, R; Reed Harper 2-3, RBI.
DSL Pirates 12, DSL Braves (26-36) 5
SP: Manzanares (0-5) 3 IP, 6 H, 7 ER, 3 BB, 1 K.
Jesus Jones 3 IP, 3 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 0 K. (2.25)
Cortes 2-4, 2 2B, 2 R; Tejada 2-4, R, RBI; Azuaje 2-4, RBI (.311).
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