Congrats to the most recent graduate from the farm, Logan Webb!

Logan Webb has brought the to his #MLB debut.



Check out the first 7⃣ strikeouts of his first start for the @SFGiants. pic.twitter.com/aOFnpKnLTm — MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) August 18, 2019

Hell of a game, Logan. Hell of a way to bounce back from a rocky first inning, and for that matter, bouncing back from a rocky first half of the season. Impressive resilience, on top of the performance.

Highlights: Jaylin Davis hit two home runs; Caleb Baragar had a seven inning shutout start

Jaylin Davis is more unstoppable by the day.

Okay, granted, we’re talking about a series in Reno, a mountain-high launching pad, but Jaylin Davis hit two more home runs today, giving him six over the last three games, and eight total in 13 games with Sacramento. Davis is white hot, with a batting line of .350/.430/.772 in 13 games with Sacramento. He’s knocking on the door of the Majors, as everyone is noticing what he’s doing in Triple-A.

It wasn’t all Davis in this game, however. Mike Gerber got four hits, including his 36th double and 25th home run. The 27-year old has continued to be one of the top forces in Sacramento offensively, batting .316/.377/.593 on the season in Triple-A. Aramis Garcia had back-to-back 4-hit games, collecting a pair of doubles to give him 18 on the season in Triple-A. Mauricio Dubon picked up his third multi-hit game in his last six. Dubon is batting .263/.354/.368 as a River Cat.

Connor Menez picked up the start in the launching pad in his return to Triple-A, and got hit around a bit. The six runs are a season-high for him in the minors, after he threw six shutout innings in Reno back in early July. But he still was in position for the win, until the bullpen happened.

Melvin Adon faced four batters and gave up three singles to start the eighth inning. Steven Okert followed, and have up five hits, including a double and a triple, and runs scored all over the place. For Adon, it’s the third time he’s had three runs against his record in six games at Sacramento. His Triple-A ERA has skyrocketed to 17.36. The four run Okert allowed pushed his ERA above five for the first time since the end of May.

Playoff Status: 1st Place, 7 games up. Magic Number is 11 with 16 games left.

What was originally scheduled to be one game on Saturday was turned into a Doubleheader after a rainout on Friday, but on Saturday afternoon, it changed again.

Just announced that tonight will not be a DH. One 9 inning game starting at 6:05pm as originally scheduled! — Richmond Flying Squirrels (@GoSquirrels) August 17, 2019

So, no doubleheader, but even that tweet was wrong…this game did not go just nine innings!

Obviously, it was a day for the pitchers, and Caleb Baragar had a heck of a start. For the second time in a row, Baragar went seven innings without an earned run, but this time he matched a season-high with eight strikeouts. The 25-year old righty has quietly had a solid season in Richmond, with his ERA back to 3.45 after it was scraping the 4.00 level before these two starts. Overall this season, Baragar has 120 strikeouts to 48 walks in 125.1 innings, with a .201 batting average allowed. He’s second in the EA in BAA and third in WHIP.

Dominance from @CalebBaragar tonight:



7.0 IP

3 H

0 R/ER

2 BB

8 SO



No score as we hit the 8th inning pic.twitter.com/73BZMJ7OHk — Richmond Flying Squirrels (@GoSquirrels) August 17, 2019

Meanwhile, former starter Garrett Williams got his first win in relief as he pitched the tenth inning. Williams’ one inning of work was his shortest relief appearance of the year, as he’d gone over two innings in his previous three relief appearances. Williams had a 3.72 ERA as a starter, and now has a 3.00 ERA as a reliever. It’ll be interesting to see if this move is permanent, or just the Giants’ limiting Williams’ innings going forward. This season, Williams does not have significant platoon splits the way you’d expect most left-handed pitchers to, with a slightly lower ERA against left-handed batters, but a slightly higher average allowed. He might profile more as a long reliever rather than a lefty specialist in the bullpen.

BIG. TIME. PITCH.



Garrett Williams strands a pair in the top of the 10th.



Bottom of the 10th we go. Still scoreless. pic.twitter.com/1KEggL1Tbh — Richmond Flying Squirrels (@GoSquirrels) August 18, 2019

The flip side of the pitching meant there was not much offense to go around. Heliot Ramos was for-4 with a strikeout, while Joey Bart was 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeouts. That dips both of the Giants’ top prospects to averages under the Mendoza line in Double-A. The only run scoring came off the bat of Ryan Howard, who had a one-out single in the 10th with a runner on third to walk off the game. Howard, though, is still batting just .215/.272/.281 in 78 games at Richmond, a big disappointment.

Send us home, Ryan Howard pic.twitter.com/4Knv6m9CR0 — Richmond Flying Squirrels (@GoSquirrels) August 18, 2019

Playoff Status: Eliminated. 6th place (last), 18 games back.

Oof, just an ugly game for San Jose as their playoff hopes hang in the balance.

Tristan Beck had another game with a lot of strikeouts but also a lot of runs allowed. This time, it was eight hits and a walk leading to three runs, while he struck out seven. It hasn’t been a good debut for the trade acquisition, although his 4.32 ERA with San Jose is lower than the 5.65 ERA he had in the equivalent Florida State League before the trade. He has 20 strikeouts and four walks in 16.2 innings, which is good, but he’s giving up too many hits, with a .292 average allowed. It’s still a small sample size, but it hasn’t been great.

It wasn’t good in the bullpen, either. Jesus Tona continues to struggle in San Jose, giving up another run in 2.1 innings. He’s given up seven earned runs in 12.2 innings (4.97 ERA) since coming up to San Jose, which matches the total he allowed in 42 innings in Augusta (1.50 ERA). Frank Rubio gave up three earned runs in 0.2 innings. Rubio has only allowed runs in six different appearances. The problem is he gives up runs in bunches, as he gave up eight in one appearance, five in another and three in this one.

The top hitter of the night was Manuel Geraldo, with two hits, including his seventh triple of the season. Geraldo was the eighth hitter, but none of the top three hitters in the order tonight were able to get on base, and that led to some of the offensive woes.

Playoff Status: 2.5 Games back of the Wild Card spot, 15 games back.

It was just a messy game on all sides for Augusta as they fell two games back in the playoff push.

Trenton Toplikar had a solid enough start for Augusta, giving up two runs, just one earned, in six innings, but in a theme of the day, the defense let him down. Toplikar was not dominant, though, striking out just two in six innings, as he scattered six hits and two walks. With Augusta this year, Toplikar has just 23 strikeouts in 37.1 innings, with 13 walks.

But it was Keith Weisenberg who was off and put Augusta too far behind, issuing four walks and a hit, getting just two outs. He has 49 walks in 59 innings, with 58 strikeouts in Augusta since signing with the Giants.

Three of the seven runs the GreenJackets allowed were unearned. That was thanks to errors by call-ups from Salem Keizer. Third baseman Sean Roby and right fielder Franklin Labour each made their first errors at the level, while shortstop Simon Whiteman had his seventh at the level already in 21 games at Augusta. He had three errors in 30 games at Augusta.

The offense was pretty feckless once again, although Ricardo Genoves continues to be one of the few recent callups that has responded well to their new level. He was 1-for-2 and was hit by a pitch, and has a .324/.378/.618 batting line in Augusta, good for a .996 OPS after ten games. But this is the fourth time Augusta has been shut out in August (ninth time all season), so the offense is slumping at the wrong time.

Playoff Status: 2nd place, 2.0 games back. Elimination number is 14 with 15 games left.

It was a good day for the Volcanoes offense, led by catcher Brandon Martorano. The 21-year old Martorano has been only playing part time for Salem-Keizer, but had the best game of his young career getting on base four times out of five plate appearances, with a sacrifice fly being the last one. Martorano is batting .284/.380/448 in 20 games in Oregon this season.

Alexander Canario added a pair of hits and was hit by a pitch. Canario is getting hits, but his strikeout rate is a little concerning. He’s struck out at least once in each of his past 11 games, and has 53 strikeouts in 136 at-bats at Salem-Keizer. He has 16 walks in addition, in those 36 games. Marco Luciano got a hit, and is now 3-for-22 in Salem-Keizer with one double in six games at the level.

Travis Perry had the start, and kept Everett off the board without getting a lot of strikeouts. With just two strikeouts in five innings today, Perry now has 38 strikeouts in 54.1 innings with 19 walks.

Playoff Status: In. Salem-Keizer won the first half title.

It was a day for the 18-year olds with the Noir Squad.

In his second start, Trevor McDonald continued to impress. He went two innings, doubling how long he went in his first appearance, and was just as good. No hits, no walks, and four strikeouts, averaging two per inning so far.

Grant McCray has begun to wake up in the AZL. With today’s 3-hit game, McCray is now 9-for-15 over his last four games, having lifted his batting average from .220 to .256. McCray also added his fourth double, and his 12th stolen base (in his 23rd attempt).

Garrett Frechette got his first multi-hit game since August 1st, which included a period of ten days off due to injury. The 18-year old Frechette is batting .314/.381/.407 in 32 games this season.

Meanwhile, Freddery Paulino took the lion’s share of the innings, going six shutout innings technically in relief. It was a nice bounce back from giving up seven earned runs in one inning in his last appearance.

Playoff Status: Almost Eliminated. 4th place, 7.0 Games back, Elimination Number is 1 with seven games to go.

The AZL Orange team won a big game against the team they’re fighting for the division title, the Cubs 2.

The big hit belonged to one of the current team leaders Luis Toribio, who hit his third triple of the season and knocked in a pair of runs in the ninth to seal the game. For Toribio, the 18-year old continues to look strong in his first stateside season. He’s batting .327/.464/.509 on the year.

Javeyan Williams extended his hitting streak to six games, picking up a single and his 17th stolen base on the season in his 19th attempt. Abdiel Layer also picked up a single, but notably stole three bases, a career high for him.

Jesus Gomez was the starter, putting together a solid game. He had his first start without a walk since July 22nd. He has 61 strikeouts and 21 walks in 50 innings of work this season.

Playoff Status: First Place. Magic Number is 5 with seven games to go.

What more can you say about the stars of the DSL Giants this summer? More hits, more walks.

Luis Matos picked up two more hits (extanding a now 13-game hit streak), a walk, and his 20th stolen base of the season. That puts Matos’ OPS at 1.000 on the season, which is pretty fantastic. For the entire league, he’s 6th in batting average (.362), 23rd in OBP (.430), 6th in slugging (.570), 1st in doubles (24), tied for 14th in home runs (7), tied for 26th in steals (20), and that 1.000 OPS is 7th in the league. I mean, stats don’t matter in the DSL, but damn, it’s still nice to see.

Meanwhile, Victor Bericoto got on base three of four times to boost his OBP to .480, which moves him into second place in the league in the stat. He has a .351/.480/.495 batting line, and is just behind Matos with a .976 OPS.

Jason Bonilla was on the mound and had a nice bounce back from giving up four earned runs in his last start. The 20-year old Bonilla still has a 1.43 WHIP with 46 strikeouts and 22 walks in 51.2 innings over 13 starts.

Playoff Status: Eliminated. 4th place in the division, 22 games back.

Today’s Scheduled Starters

Sacramento (Justin Haley) at Reno (Braden Shipley), 1:05 pm PDT

Richmond (Alfred Gutierrez) vs. Harrisburg (Kevin McGowan), 1:05 pm EDT

San Jose (TBA) vs. Inland Empire (TBA), 5:00 pm PDT

Augusta (Keaton Winn) at Greensboro (Alex Manasa), 4:00 pm EDT

Salem-Keizer (TBA) vs. Everett, 5:05 pm PDT

The playoff hunt continues on Sunday, with Augusta’s Keaton Winn coming in on a particularly important game in the playoff hunt.

But, we’ll wrap this up with a release.

Giants released OF Logan Baldwin (23.4Y). He was a 2017 21R pick out of Georgia Southern. He had a strong debut, appearing in 50 games for Salem-Keizer. In 2018, he appeared in 121 games for Augusta. In 2019, he appeared in 58 games for SJ. — GPT (@giantsprospects) August 17, 2019

Baldwin impressed me a lot with his hustle in Augusta last season, but he struggled this year. It’s a quick release for the 2017 draft pick from the 21st round. Good luck to him in his future.